Grand Prix ’23 Causes Vegas Room Rate Rise, Fertitta Purchases 6% Stake In Wynn Resorts & More

This week’s casino news starts off with Mattress Mack, who cashed the biggest bet in sports history this past week. We’ll start there as we recap this week’s notable headlines in the gaming space.

Mattress Mack Scores $75 Million From Sports Betting

Houston furniture store owner Jim McIngvale, also known as Mattress Mack, just cashed out a massive payday thanks to the Houston Astros World Series win. Mattress Mack dropped a $10 million wager on the Houston Astros to win the World Series when they were still considered longer shots. He placed these millions down at multiple online sportsbooks with the largest portion coming at Caesars Entertainment. $3 million, in particular, was wagered at Caesars, a bet that resulted in him earning $30 million in return.

The rest of the money that he used to gamble saw him cash out approximately $75 million in total. It’s currently the largest sports betting cash out that has ever been publicly recorded as well.

Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, of Houston, holds some of the tickets in Atlantic City N.J., Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022, showing bets he has made on the Houston Astros to win the baseball World Series. \ (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

Mattress Mack released a statement following his massive win, sharing support for the Astros for helping him win big. He said, “This last week has been especially… beyond words. An incident that was just me trying to defend my city, and our team galvanized the city.”

Later in the week, he was filmed using a wheel barrel to pick up his money and shuttling it from a car to his private jet. Of course, while the winnings were huge, it’s important to not that Mack is actually hedging a furniture store promo that he runs. Those who buy furniture get it for free if the Astros wins, so Mack did get some winnings but also covered his potential losses.

Grand Prix 2023 Causes Hotel Rates To Rise In Las Vegas

We’re still a way away from the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which is coming in March of 2023, but hotel rates are steadily starting to climb. It is set to be just one out of three total races that are going to go off in the United States and the Sin City race seems to be the most anticipated one. Many tourists have already booked their spots and hotel rates are going through the roof. It was reported that year-over-year room rates have jumped a whopping 305 percent. That’s not even the highest individual jump as the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino jumped up 466 percent.

When it comes to the Rio in particular, a night at their hotel used to set customers back $100. With the recent price increase, a single night is going to cost visitors $566. Other properties such as The Venetian are costing $1,499 a night while Caesars Palace is charging $1,519.

Residents have already started to catch glimpses of what the race could look like on the Las Vegas Strip.  A few F1 cars have been spotted around the area in preparation for the big event. There will be a whole week of festivities leading up to the race and a number of celebrities are expected to visit.

Tilman Fertitta Purchases 6% Stake In Wynn Resorts

Tilman Fertitta has always had a big hand in Las Vegas and he’s recently just bought himself a bigger piece. Fertitta, a casino owner, just recently purchased a six percent stake in Wynn Resorts, which makes him the second largest individual shareholder of the company already. Ferttita is already a very successful businessman as he owns the NBAs Houston Rockets, multiple restaurant chains such as Del Frisco’s and the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino.

A few months ago, it was reported that his net worth is currently estimated to be approximately $7.6 billion. He’s on the Forbes Billionaires list and is slotted in at number 260.

The second that it was announced that Fertitta had purchased a stake, shares for Wynn Resorts immediately jumped. The move is expected to be a pretty major one in the gambling world.