‘Living on the edge’ with Mrs. ‘Mattress Mack’

Mattress Mack has lost $12.8 million in bets since last year’s Super Bowl and has $9.5 million riding on the Bengals in Sunday’s game.

“He is definitely living on the edge,” said Linda McIngvale, Mack’s wife of 41 years. “Kind of is making me have to as well.”

The wagers on Cincinnati (+170) to upset the Los Angeles Rams — which would net $16.2 million — are the latest in a long line of multimillion-dollar hedge bets by Houston furniture store owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale to reduce risk on furniture promotions.

In this case, customers are offered their money back on purchases of $3,000 or more if the Bengals win.

But the massive wagers still make Linda nervous. In fact, she might not even watch the Super Bowl.

“I don’t know. I do watch sometimes. But it gives me so much anxiety,” she said. “Mack likes to live on the edge. I don’t live on the edge quite as well.”

Linda, who owns and operates the Club Westside family fitness club in Houston, said her husband might have a gambling problem. But Mack was quick to dismiss that notion.

“She tells me all the time that I have a gambling problem. But I don’t,” he said. “I have a promotional problem. I’m like P.T. Barnum. I’m just a promoter.”

‘You’ve got a deal’

When Mack asked his then-girlfriend Linda to move from Dallas to Houston with him in 1981 to open a furniture store, she said she would go only if they got married.

“So I thought to myself, ‘This woman has put me in a difficult position,’” he said. “But then I came up with an entrepreneurial brainstorm. ‘Where else can I come up with an employee this cheap?’ So I said, ‘You’ve got a deal.’”

After heading to Houston with $5,000 and a pickup truck, the couple — who will celebrate their 41st wedding anniversary Feb. 21 — quickly grew their Gallery Furniture business during an oil boom. But then the boom went bust, and they were down to their last $10,000.

Mack went all-in on TV advertising, and it worked. He became known as “Mattress Mack” for wearing mattresses during wacky commercials that aired during Saturday night wrestling broadcasts.

“That’s one of those things that a lot of people watch but don’t admit it. And it was very successful,” Linda said. “We had to sell furniture from the ads to buy the next furniture. It was literally weekend to weekend.

“That was living on the edge back then. That kind of brings it into perspective. He likes that.”

No safety net

Mack learned a painful lesson about sports promotions in the 2014 Super Bowl. He didn’t make any hedge bets and was crushed when the Denver Broncos were whipped 43-8 by the Seattle Seahawks.

On the hook for millions in refunds if Seattle won, Mack couldn’t bear to watch and instead sweated on the treadmill at his store.

“I was too nervous to sweat the game,” he said. “Finally, my wife called, and I said, ‘Who won?’ She said, ‘Seattle won, dummy. We’re out $8 million dollars.’ That was the worst one.”

Linda said they actually refunded $13 million and that she probably called her husband a different name.

“That Seahawks game was horrible. Horrible,” she said. “We didn’t really understand hedging, and all it took was one play to go ‘Oh, (shoot).’ They got a safety, and it went downhill from there.”

Mack refunded $12 million on a promotion in 2017 when the Houston Astros won the World Series. But he has lost the vast majority of hedge bets.

“I feel like none of them ever go the way we need them to,” Linda said. “But it’s fun for the customers, and he feels good when and if the teams do win and the customers get their money back.

“Is it a good business model, in my mind? Probably not. But it drives business to the store and makes shopping fun.”

Come Sunday, she will be rooting for the Bengals. But she wouldn’t mind if it was her husband’s last big bet.

“If we never did them, it wouldn’t bother me,” she said.

Mack said that’s a long shot.

“That’s about the same odds of me making a go of this furniture store,” he said. “A million to one.”

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.