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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Favorites, the podcast part of the Volume

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Speaker 1: Podcast Network. I'm Chad Millman of the Action Network Today

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Speaker 1: a little bit of a different show. Simon, as everybody

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Speaker 1: knows from the last episode, is visiting with his family

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Speaker 1: in jolly old England. So I am joined because I

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Speaker 1: can't do this solo. I'm no Colin cowhard, I'm no

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Speaker 1: boss of the Volume Podcast Network. I can't go for

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Speaker 1: three hours mapping out my shows. Like it's a tree

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Speaker 1: with a lot of different branches, there's only one Colin Cowherd.

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Speaker 1: I need help. So joined by producer Matt Mitchell for

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Speaker 1: the fourth installment in our series of Great Stories from

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Speaker 1: Gambling's Wild History. As you guys know, I've mentioned this

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Speaker 1: a few times. I'm working on this book, so I've

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Speaker 1: been traveling NonStop. I've been digging into archives. I got

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Speaker 1: a couple of great stories that I'm going to share

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Speaker 1: of things that I've learned, really really cool stories, and

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Speaker 1: Matt is going to share some stories as well. Matt

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Speaker 1: doesn't even know what I'm going to talk about. So Matt, hi, buddy,

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Speaker 1: are you excited?

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Speaker 2: I couldn't be more excited. Chad.

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Speaker 1: All right, So this is direct from my book I'm

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Speaker 1: I'm giving a little bit away.

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Speaker 2: Chad Milman wrote a book.

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Speaker 1: It's such a good story every time I tell it,

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Speaker 1: and Matt, I haven't even told you this. People like

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Speaker 1: freak out. One of the guys who was known as

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Speaker 1: the bookmaker for the mafia, This guy named Ed Kurd

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Speaker 1: lived in Lexington, Kentucky. He was a guy who grew

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Speaker 1: up in Lexington, was enamored with the ponies, started going

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Speaker 1: to the tracks in Lexington, working in the stables, and

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Speaker 1: very quickly got connected to a lot of different people

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Speaker 1: who were within organized crime and were also just regular

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Speaker 1: horse betters, and very quickly learned that he had a

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Speaker 1: talent for betting on horses. He ultimately became known as

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Speaker 1: one of the best horse betters in the country, but

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Speaker 1: also started to help organize betting on sportes as it

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Speaker 1: was becoming more and more popular in the thirties and forties. Ultimately,

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Speaker 1: because members of organized crime and the leaders of organized crime,

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Speaker 1: they often came through Lexington to go to the tracks

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Speaker 1: and to vacation there. Like if you came through Lexington,

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Speaker 1: oftentimes you were also going to Arkansas where they had

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Speaker 1: the Springs Hot Springs Arkansas was famous for being a

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Speaker 1: casino town, a mini Vegas before Vegas, and a lot

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Speaker 1: of people would vacation there and get relief in the

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Speaker 1: hot springs and all this kind of stuff, right, All

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Speaker 1: this great just sort of really fun color about old

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Speaker 1: time betting history and betting stories. Anyways, Ed famously was

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Speaker 1: a bookmaker for the mafia and had this state in

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Speaker 1: Lexington where it had a secret room, and the secret

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Speaker 1: room you had to get to it by pressing a

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Speaker 1: button in his den, a wall opened up, and then

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Speaker 1: you could go down a spiral set of stairs into

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Speaker 1: the basement where he had literally dozens of phone wires

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Speaker 1: coming into the basement where he was working his operation,

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Speaker 1: running numbers and taking bets and moving money all across

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Speaker 1: the country like he was at the center of the

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Speaker 1: country doing this. It was insane. So I went to Lexington,

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Speaker 1: and I was lucky enough that I called the I

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Speaker 1: found the guy who owns his house randomly like through

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Speaker 1: various connections and phone calls reporting Matt shoe, leather, gumshoe,

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Speaker 1: That's what I do, right, So got in touch with

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Speaker 1: the guy. I land, I'm talking to guy for ten minutes.

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Speaker 1: I'm in Florida. I'm going to Lexington in two days.

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Speaker 1: I'm telling him what I'm looking for. He goes, why

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Speaker 1: don't you just come by the house. So I showed

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Speaker 1: up at the guy's house at nine point thirty in

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Speaker 1: the morning. Walks me in, never met the guy in

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Speaker 1: my life. Walks me in, total stranger. He goes, You're

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Speaker 1: not gonna believe this, walks me into the den, presses

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Speaker 1: the button, the wall opens up, takes me down the

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Speaker 1: spirdal staircase into the basement. It looks exactly the same.

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Speaker 1: They have not touched it. It is amazing. So that's

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Speaker 1: number one. I got to go and see a very

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Speaker 1: cool piece of sports betting history. What do you think

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Speaker 1: of that?

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Speaker 2: Stranger? Let's you right into your right into the house. Incredible,

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Speaker 2: you're an America's guest and.

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Speaker 1: Honest to god, I was shocked. And you know what's funny.

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Speaker 1: When I was down there, his wife comes down and

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Speaker 1: she's looking at me, and she looks at her husband.

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Speaker 1: He goes, now, honey, I did not check him out,

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Speaker 1: did not do one Google search. I just sort of

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Speaker 1: felt like I'm going with it and any here he is.

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Speaker 2: Just this guy with his big gold full of whatever

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Speaker 2: exotic olive oils, eating macadamia outside of a little satchel,

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Speaker 2: He's no threat.

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Speaker 1: He just sounded like such a sad sack, like if

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Speaker 1: he wasn't going to get into this basement, he might

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Speaker 1: not be able to write this book. So I'm just

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Speaker 1: gonna let him in. And he couldn't have been more lovely.

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Speaker 1: I'm not naming any names. I'm going to save it

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Speaker 1: all for the book. That's part number one. The other thing,

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Speaker 1: you know what, you tell your story and I'm going

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Speaker 1: to go back to something else I've learned incredible.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's a testament to how unintimidating you are and

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Speaker 2: such a mensch that someone would meet you and go,

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Speaker 2: you know what, let me just take you over my house,

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Speaker 2: show you my secret rooms I'm burying you were, let

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Speaker 2: me take you to the fucking catacombs of my house.

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Speaker 2: It's no problem. You're trustworthy. You're wearing your little fedor

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Speaker 2: with your press little bit exact part in it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, honestly, God, it was great. I was

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Speaker 1: more than more than grateful.

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Speaker 2: Well, Chad, I've got a treat for you today. I'm

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Speaker 2: going to tell you two stories featuring two absolute gambling

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Speaker 2: maniacs from the nineteenth century. I think they will resonate

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Speaker 2: greatly with our audience, who's also full of degenerates this

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Speaker 2: kind of aspirational behavior. So first person we're going to

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Speaker 2: talk about is brother Elijah Skaggs, the preaching Pharaoh Dealer. So,

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Speaker 2: as we've discussed in previous episodes, Chad, in the early

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Speaker 2: eighteen hundreds, they were like three gambling hotbeds. You had England,

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Speaker 2: specifically London. You had high end European resorts like the

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Speaker 2: German spa towns, and you had America. And in each

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Speaker 2: of these hot beds you had like one game that

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Speaker 2: was by far the most popular. In England, that national

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Speaker 2: game was has a dice game that would become basically craps.

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Speaker 2: In the European resort towns, they had my personal favorite

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Speaker 2: Roulette because I'm obviously very very classy. And in America

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Speaker 2: the national game was Pharaoh f a r o called

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Speaker 2: the Game that Won the West, and again not the

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Speaker 2: Ancient Grain, but a game a gamble game.

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Speaker 1: Called which the Ancient Grain, which I just got to say,

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Speaker 1: it's making a comeback and it's so good for you

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Speaker 1: and it packs in so much nutrients I've been eaten

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Speaker 1: a lot of Pharaoh, and you can mix it. It's

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Speaker 1: great with olive oil. I just want to make that PSA.

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Speaker 1: I knew that get into the Pharaoh game. I knew

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Speaker 1: it would get you all hot and bothered. We talked

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Speaker 1: to ancient grains, even though so I you say ancient grains,

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Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, I'm in a different zone,

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Speaker 1: trying to.

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Speaker 2: Try to control your emotions as we go through this.

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Speaker 1: Uh.

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Speaker 2: Now, the game rambling game Pharaoh, it seems like an

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Speaker 2: absolute blast chad. So like poker, you don't need a

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Speaker 2: lot of stuff, and unlike Roulette, you could play it

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Speaker 2: virtually anytime, anywhere. But like Roulette, it involves virtually no

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Speaker 2: skill whatsoever. And when you play Pharaoh, you play against

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Speaker 2: a dealer, and that dealer can be located in a

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Speaker 2: casino the way you'd like picture it when I say dealer,

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Speaker 2: but a Pharaoh dealer could also just be an independent person,

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Speaker 2: like an independent contractor, traveling from town to town. Because

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Speaker 2: everything you need to play Pharaoh fits in a single kit.

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Speaker 2: In America, these were typically small mahogany boxes, and on

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Speaker 2: the boxes would have a picture of a Bengal tiger

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Speaker 2: that was the symbol of Pharaoh. Inside these little boxes

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Speaker 2: was a layout. It was everything you needed. It was

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Speaker 2: a tray of chips and a deck of cards, and

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Speaker 2: like a little felt fold out that you just place

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Speaker 2: on a table and it would have pictures of the

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Speaker 2: thirteen different cards on it from two to ace. And

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Speaker 2: this is an audio medium, Chad primarily, So in the

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Speaker 2: spirit of painting a picture, I'm going to use you

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Speaker 2: as our model for the roving Pharaoh dealer. So you

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Speaker 2: Chad Norman. First, you learn how to deal Pharaoh. Next,

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Speaker 2: you get a little bankroll of cash or a partner

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Speaker 2: who has cash.

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Speaker 1: Scet question, Yeah, go ahead in this in this play,

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Speaker 1: do I get a speaking role?

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Speaker 2: Oh for sure? For sure. Yeah you'll be paid. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: you get paid. You'll get a union scale because you

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Speaker 2: have a speaking role.

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Speaker 1: Just let me know when it's time for my line.

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Speaker 1: Because I got a I think I got one.

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Speaker 2: Well, suddenly it's very easy for you to now start

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Speaker 2: going town to town as like a mobile casino. You

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Speaker 2: have your little cat. You get everything you need. Maybe

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Speaker 2: you make a deal with a local bar. Maybe you're

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Speaker 2: setting up shop in a hotel. Maybe you have a

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Speaker 2: little well maintained mustache. Maybe you're wearing a snappy little

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Speaker 2: vest with a little pocket watch. Maybe you look incredible.

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Speaker 2: Maybe you have a little phrase you say like, go ahead.

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Speaker 1: Pharaoh, Pharaoh, get you Pharaoh.

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Speaker 2: Perfect. Yes, you've nailed it. The way you avoided talking

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Speaker 2: about ancient grains and you're selling in your cell job

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Speaker 2: is perfect.

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Speaker 1: Well, this is what I feel like. The reason I

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Speaker 1: said it is because it could be a little bit

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Speaker 1: of a bait and switch where I could get people

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Speaker 1: who are interested in gambling, and like I'm speaking to

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Speaker 1: the insiders and they're coming in and they're like, oh

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Speaker 1: my god, I get to play Pharaoh. How incredible is that.

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Speaker 1: But if they don't know, they could just be a

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Speaker 1: little peckish and be coming by for a bowl of

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Speaker 1: Pharaoh and they're hungry. I'll be like, oh no, I

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Speaker 1: mean the game. Let me show you. And then they're

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Speaker 1: so entranced by my sales job. All of a sudden

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Speaker 1: they're playing the game and I'm making bank.

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Speaker 2: A natural salesman. So yeah, getting that out so quickly incredible.

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Speaker 2: We're truly painting a picture I could.

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Speaker 1: Have survived by my in the late eighteen hundreds.

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Speaker 2: So you and your wiles, you can head out west,

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Speaker 2: you can go down south, very easy for you to

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Speaker 2: find a place to set up shop because there's lots

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Speaker 2: of money in it, so people are happy to see

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Speaker 2: Pharaoh dealers. And I won't dive into the rules, but

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Speaker 2: like as a game, I'll just note that it's quiet,

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Speaker 2: it's fast, it takes up very little space, and it's

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Speaker 2: still very exciting. And best of all, you could be

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Speaker 2: saved and illiterate Old West Minor with like lead poisoning,

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Speaker 2: and you could still learn the rules and remember them

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Speaker 2: pretty easily. So it's it's really like a perfect game

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Speaker 2: for the era. So that's the backdrop. The stage is set.

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Speaker 2: Let's talk about our boy, Elijah Skaggs. So Elijah's born

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Speaker 2: and raised in backwoods Kentucky. It's part of a huge

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Speaker 2: extended family. Everybody's gambling, the whole family, the whole area.

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Speaker 2: So he learns how every game works. He loves it.

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Speaker 2: Who wouldn't. He eventually learns all the tricks of the trade.

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Speaker 2: He learns how to cheat as a dealer, stacking the deck,

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Speaker 2: bottom dealing all that stuff. By the time he's twenty one,

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Speaker 2: he's won a pile of cash off everybody he knows,

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Speaker 2: in town and he's like, you know what, I'm taking

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Speaker 2: my show on the road, and he understands strong personal branding,

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Speaker 2: Chad like you. He dresses in a plain black frock coat,

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Speaker 2: plain suit, white shirt, yeah yep, white shirt, high collar.

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Speaker 2: He looks a lot like a preacher, so he gets

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Speaker 2: the nickname the Preaching Pharaoh Dealer, which he loves because

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Speaker 2: he feels an almost religious zeal for this game because

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Speaker 2: the thing he loved most about it was it's a

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Speaker 2: game that's entirely in control of the dealer. If you

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Speaker 2: master the deal, you could control the entire game. So

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Speaker 2: Skekes packs up. First, he hits up Nashville that he

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Speaker 2: spreads out to all up and down the Eastern seaboard,

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Speaker 2: and if he ever catches a fellow dealer, toll in

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Speaker 2: the fast one that he's never seen, he bribes these

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Speaker 2: guys very handsomely to teach him because he's a lifetime

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Speaker 2: learner chat just like us, love of learning. He's traveling around,

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Speaker 2: he's cheating his way into a ton of money, but

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Speaker 2: he realizes he could only make so much as one guy,

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Speaker 2: and that gives him an incredible idea. Ched he goes

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Speaker 2: down to New Orleans. He sets up an operation, and

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Speaker 2: he's going to run America's first gambling syndicate.

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Speaker 1: He's going to scale.

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Speaker 2: That's right, that's exactly right. So Elijah goes into all

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Speaker 2: the casinos. He's looking for young gambling recruits. He gathers

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Speaker 2: them up, He teaches him. He trains them relentlessly on

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Speaker 2: how to cheat as pharaoh dealers, because he's very good.

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Speaker 2: So he's good, he's a good professor. Once these guys

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Speaker 2: are all trained up, he sets them up in teams

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Speaker 2: of two. But he then assigns every one of these

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Speaker 2: duos with one of his dozens and dozens of cousins

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Speaker 2: who serve as essentially the roving pit boss, and he

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Speaker 2: dispatches them all across the country. He pays all the expenses,

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Speaker 2: and the dealers can keep twenty five percent of what

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Speaker 2: they rake in after expenses. And it works, Chad Norman,

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Speaker 2: it works perfectly. At their peak, he had one hundred

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Speaker 2: dealers running this remarkable nationwide racket, and the money is

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Speaker 2: just pouring in. And what did you just say, what's

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Speaker 2: the first thing he does with the money?

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Speaker 1: Chad gambles it.

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Speaker 2: No, he scales, he scales the operation. He scales more.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I was wrong.

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Speaker 2: I'd be like, he's an incredible He'll we'll get to

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Speaker 2: the gambling in a second. But he's still an invest mode.

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Speaker 1: He's a businessman.

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Speaker 2: He is a businessman first. He funds his own gambling

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Speaker 2: house in New Orleans.

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Speaker 1: Hire ahead, He's hire and ahead, he's getting ahead.

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Speaker 2: He's got a brother. He wants to run a similar

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Speaker 2: racket out in California. And they're not even a state yet.

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Speaker 2: You could do whatever the fuck you want out there,

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Speaker 2: he goes. Sounds good. He bankrolls his brother to open

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Speaker 2: up an operation on the West coast. And I know

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Speaker 2: you'll like this. He's a patron of the gambling arts.

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Speaker 2: Chad Elijah funds inventors to help him cheat. He pays

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Speaker 2: inventors to fund new like gambling devices, new crooked pharaoh boxes,

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Speaker 2: and all sorts of stuff like that, and in return,

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Speaker 2: he gets exclusive usage for one year and then they

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Speaker 2: could sell to whoever they want. And that works too,

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Speaker 2: can't he can't stop making money. By the time this

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Speaker 2: guy is forty years old, his inventor pials have flooded

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Speaker 2: the market with crooked faraoh boxes. All those dealers are

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Speaker 2: known as cheaters. It doesn't matter. He's two decades into

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Speaker 2: this racket and he retires. This absolute son of a

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Speaker 2: bitch is a multimillionaire in the goddamned eighteen fifties converting

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Speaker 2: to today's dollars. Yet we're talking about a guy worth

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Speaker 2: like one hundred million dollars today just through cheating at

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Speaker 2: a huge scale. The classic corporate American success story. Herbert Asbury,

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Speaker 2: the journalist and bettic expert who wrote the original book

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Speaker 2: Gangs in New York. He said of Elijah Skaggs that

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Speaker 2: more than any other individual, he likely had the single

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Speaker 2: biggest influence on the spread of American gambling nationwide. This

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Speaker 2: guy was an incredible operator.

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Speaker 1: I've got a nickname for him.

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Speaker 2: Oh lay it on me.

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Speaker 1: Elijah Skags, the scaling syndicate selling swindler.

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Speaker 2: Incredible. See you got a literation, I mean a natural

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Speaker 2: author's brain, always working overtime.

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Speaker 1: Check literate podcast.

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Speaker 2: It's an incredibly literate podcast, and showed I'm sure you're

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Speaker 2: thinking house the story end? Does that have a happy ending?

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Speaker 2: Of course Skags enjoyed a luxurious retirement and then then

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Speaker 2: mid retirement he made his two biggest gambles. The first

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Speaker 2: was buying an enormous Louisiana cotton plantation, and the second

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Speaker 2: was investing millions and millions of dollars into that's right,

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Speaker 2: Confederate war bonds. So spoiler alert to any two hundred

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Speaker 2: year old listeners, the Confederacy would go on to lose

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Speaker 2: the Civil War, Elijah would lose his entire fortune, and

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Speaker 2: he died pretty close to penniless in Texas at eighteen ninety.

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Speaker 2: And that's the story of Elijah Skagg's America's Crooked Pharaoh King.

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Speaker 1: Elijah Skaggs, gambling pioneer, scaling syndicate, selling swindler that.

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Speaker 2: Are at war bonds not a good investment.

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Speaker 1: Here's what's interesting, and it connects directly to my story

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Speaker 1: as I'm researching this book, is how so many businesses

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Speaker 1: today were born of illicit, ill gotten gains. Right. You

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Speaker 1: could look at the whole gambling industry and say this

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Speaker 1: is built on the back of illegal activity. Right. The

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Speaker 1: predominant purveyors of gambling products through the early nineteen hundreds

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Speaker 1: until the nineteen eighties was organized crime and the mafia.

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Speaker 1: And slowly but surely, as more and more states legalized

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Speaker 1: various forms of betting, that transitioned away from being the

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Speaker 1: dominant source of revenue for organized crime into being legitimate

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Speaker 1: businesses that have created Caesars, MGM, DraftKings, fandul Action Network. Right,

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Speaker 1: all of these used to be completely illegal businesses that

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Speaker 1: were dominated by organized crime. Professional sports, Matt, What if

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Speaker 1: I told you that some of the biggest brands in

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Speaker 1: professional sports were founded by sports beetters. What if I

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Speaker 1: told you that.

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Speaker 2: Sounds like high risk tolerance zealotz ched Matt. New York Yankees,

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Speaker 2: I've heard of them.

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Speaker 1: The New York Yankees founded by a man who was

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Speaker 1: known as a degenerate gambler who prominently fixed games. Was

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Speaker 1: so known for fixing games, he built what was at

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Speaker 1: the time the largest casino in New York on thirty

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Speaker 1: third Street in Manhattan. And people had to wonder, as

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Speaker 1: he's sitting in the casino, are the players also fixing

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Speaker 1: the game so he can continue to make money at

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Speaker 1: his casino? New York Yankees founded by a gambler? How

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Speaker 1: about the New York Football Giants still owned by the

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Speaker 1: Marra family. Tim Merra, famous famous better went to Belmont,

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Speaker 1: won five hundred dollars at the track the next day,

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Speaker 1: bought the New York Football Giants, Detroit Lions founded by

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Speaker 1: a gambler, Cleveland Browns founded by a gambler. Chicago Cardinals

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Speaker 1: still owned by the Bidwell family. Bill Bidwell famously a

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Speaker 1: gambler with significant hold on Was it Bill Bedwell or

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Speaker 1: was it Charles Bidwell?

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Speaker 2: I don't want to defame any I think I think

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Speaker 2: Bill was the song.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Charlie Bidwell, former Cardinals owner, made a fortune opening racetracks.

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Speaker 1: Also he was Let me just make sure I get

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Speaker 1: this right. He was a known associate of al Capone,

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Speaker 1: non gambler, known racetrack owner Pittsburgh Steelers still owned by

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Speaker 1: the Rooney family. Art Rooney once famously won two hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars betting on the horses, owned a saloon, allegedly

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Speaker 1: bought the Steelers with gambling winnings. What's interesting about this?

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Speaker 1: By the way, Lamar Hunt who obviously the Chief's founder.

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Speaker 1: He was the son of H. L. Hunt. HL Hunt

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Speaker 1: was an oil man in Texas. It is widely known,

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Speaker 1: like there are stories about this in I've got a

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Speaker 1: Newsweek issue of Newsweek from nineteen sixty that includes the

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Speaker 1: biggest sports betters in the world. H L. Hunt is

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Speaker 1: listed as one of those sports betters in the oil field,

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Speaker 1: at the poker Tales to tables everywhere else, very well

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Speaker 1: known as a sports better list goes on, Man, it's

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Speaker 1: amazing to me. And I think that your point is, Look,

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Speaker 1: when people were buying these teams and these professional leagues

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Speaker 1: were starting in the late eighteen hundreds early part of

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Speaker 1: the nineteen hundreds, it wasn't the Titans of industry. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't the Vanderbilt, it wasn't JP Morgan, it wasn't the

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Speaker 1: Rockefellers who were going to take their industrialist riches and

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Speaker 1: invest in these nascent sport leagues that were made up

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Speaker 1: of you know, blue collar workers and people who largely

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Speaker 1: weren't educated and were known as sort of people hanging

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Speaker 1: out in barrooms in Brawlin. They weren't going to invest

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Speaker 1: in these professional sports leagues. The only people who were

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Speaker 1: going to do it were sports freaks who were probably

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Speaker 1: betting and had a high tolerance for risk. And that's

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Speaker 1: why so many of these teams were founded by professional betters.

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Speaker 2: And it could offer something that they you can't buy,

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Speaker 2: which would be a you know, bragging rights, a championship,

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Speaker 2: something that you'd have to, you'd have to earn your

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Speaker 2: way into which I think still happens to this day.

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Speaker 1: Correct, give me one more story, Matt Mitchell.

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Speaker 2: All right, this is the story of John Better Million Gates,

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Speaker 2: the most notorious big money gambler in American history. And

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Speaker 2: that's that's our buddy. Dave Schwartz so said with some authority.

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Speaker 2: So John Gates is an absolute degenerate, absolutely love to gamble.

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Speaker 2: If you look up, his face looks like it belongs

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Speaker 2: on us currency, looks like Rutherford B. Hayes. It looks incredible.

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Speaker 2: And one of my favorite things to do with this

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Speaker 2: stuff chat is learning how these old like gambling whales

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Speaker 2: how they get rich in the first place, because that's

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Speaker 2: a that's always interesting to me because he didn't come

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Speaker 2: from a wealthy family, and with John Gates, that's a

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Speaker 2: really that's a fun place to start. So just as

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Speaker 2: Eliza skags our boys buying his Confederate War bonds, our

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00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:08,800
Speaker 2: guy John Gates is being raised on an Illinois farm

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Speaker 2: just west of Chicago, and he hates it. And if

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Speaker 2: any of those two hundred year old listeners of ours

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Speaker 2: are near you, they'd happily tell you he hated it.

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Speaker 2: Because it's hard and it sucks, like there's no mystery

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Speaker 2: about why working on that farm wouldn't be appealing. One summer,

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Speaker 2: he gets paid by a neighbor to clear some timber

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Speaker 2: from the property. Then he gets to keep the timber

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Speaker 2: and he cuts it up and he sells it as

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Speaker 2: firewood down at the railroad station. It's actually pretty savvy racket.

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Speaker 2: Get yourself paid twice, right. He hates that too, because

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Speaker 2: it's really hard and it also sucks. So eventually he's

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Speaker 2: hanging down so much down the railway that the railroad

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Speaker 2: workers are like, hey, do you want to come play

401
00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:52,240
Speaker 2: in our card game? And they teach you how to

402
00:24:52,280 --> 00:24:54,760
Speaker 2: play Pharaoh, which he likes right away because it is

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Speaker 2: very fun and pretty soon John's like, man, playing cards

404
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:02,800
Speaker 2: is way better than working. I like this a lot more.

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00:25:03,119 --> 00:25:05,600
Speaker 2: He gets good at playing poker, he wins some money,

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00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:08,200
Speaker 2: and basically he's like, I'm not I'm not running this

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Speaker 2: work racket anymore. This sucks. Playing cards is way more fun,

408
00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:16,000
Speaker 2: which like, same, same dude, I feel you. Eventually, though,

409
00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:18,040
Speaker 2: he meets a nice girl, he has to get a

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00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:19,800
Speaker 2: real job because you know, he wants to marry her

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00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:21,440
Speaker 2: and all that can't just be a guy that plays

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Speaker 2: poker behind a locomotive. So after a couple fall starts,

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00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:27,560
Speaker 2: he gets up. He's trying to run a hardware story.

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Speaker 2: It goes under. But when he's doing that, a salesman

415
00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:33,600
Speaker 2: comes in and introduces him to a brand new invention

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00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:38,520
Speaker 2: called barbed wire. He sees this invention and he's like, man,

417
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Speaker 2: this shit is dope. Everyone's gonna need this. So he goes, Okay,

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Speaker 2: let's do it. I'm gonna I'm gonna quit the hardware

419
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Speaker 2: store and I'm should go do like this is this

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00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:51,760
Speaker 2: makes perfect sense. He understands immediately the value. He goes,

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna go to work for one of these guys

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00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:57,200
Speaker 2: that sells this. He goes down to Texas and all

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Speaker 2: the ranchers meet him and they're like, holy shit, John

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Speaker 2: Gates is incredible. He's just a degenerate like us that

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00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:05,800
Speaker 2: wants to gibble with us all day. So he's becoming

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Speaker 2: very popular.

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Speaker 1: And he's got bales of barbed wire.

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Speaker 2: Well, here's the thing, Chad Gates new. These ranchers have

429
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:15,520
Speaker 2: a big problem on their hands, right, and do you

430
00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:20,840
Speaker 2: remember Favorites contest winner Daniel from Bowbell's North Dakota very well.

431
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:23,320
Speaker 1: He was one of our highlights.

432
00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:25,040
Speaker 2: I hope he's listening right now because he is an

433
00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:26,400
Speaker 2: absolute gem of a guy.

434
00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:26,880
Speaker 1: Yeah.

435
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:29,520
Speaker 2: Do you remember what he spent his forty thousand dollars

436
00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:33,600
Speaker 2: prize money on tractor? I believe cattle. He bought cattle.

437
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right.

438
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:39,440
Speaker 2: So our pal Daniel would definitely have understood the problem

439
00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:43,480
Speaker 2: these ranchers are facing. They own tons of open range now,

440
00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:46,120
Speaker 2: which is kind of brand new. They need a way

441
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:50,080
Speaker 2: to close in these enormous parcels of open land. They

442
00:26:50,119 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 2: need to keep livestock out of other people's crops because

443
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,320
Speaker 2: that costs them money. They need to keep their livestock

444
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,520
Speaker 2: off the fucking railroad tracks because that screws with everybody.

445
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:02,720
Speaker 2: And that are miles apart from each other, don't get

446
00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:06,200
Speaker 2: it on. They don't produce enough cabs, so using any

447
00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:10,359
Speaker 2: normal fence material like wood would literally bankrupt ranchers. You

448
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,520
Speaker 2: can't make a fifteen mile fence out of wood out there.

449
00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:16,879
Speaker 2: So Gates is like, great, I'll just explain this to

450
00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:21,439
Speaker 2: everybody in Texas and they are like, absolutely not. We

451
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 2: don't want any of your barbed wire. And they either

452
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 2: think it's some kind of trick, or that it'll hurt

453
00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:29,200
Speaker 2: their animals and it won't work, or that generally it's

454
00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:31,600
Speaker 2: just some kind of racket that Yankees are trying to

455
00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 2: run on the South, because there's still a lot of

456
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:36,520
Speaker 2: distrust there from any of you know, Yankee big ideas,

457
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:38,840
Speaker 2: which I know you can't blame them, I get it.

458
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:42,720
Speaker 2: So Gates stops playing cards. Elitist. It's an elitist in

459
00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:47,399
Speaker 2: degit exactly. So Gates stops playing cards for like one second,

460
00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:49,560
Speaker 2: and he's like, I've got an idea. I'm gonna make

461
00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:54,320
Speaker 2: this big, insane bat. He stages a cattle stampede in

462
00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:57,240
Speaker 2: Military Plaza in downtown San Antonio, which is still there

463
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:02,040
Speaker 2: as like a public demonstration, and it proves that barbed

464
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:04,720
Speaker 2: wire is a safe and effective tool that they can use,

465
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:09,159
Speaker 2: and it works perfectly. He makes a fortune in sales,

466
00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:12,720
Speaker 2: and he goes to the owner of the company. He's like, hey,

467
00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:15,359
Speaker 2: I'm killing it. I want to go into business with you.

468
00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:18,240
Speaker 2: Let's be partners. The owner says no. He goes, all right,

469
00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:21,440
Speaker 2: I'm out. He goes to Saint Louis. He finds another

470
00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:25,560
Speaker 2: guy making barbed wire, and he says, hey, let's go

471
00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:30,320
Speaker 2: into business together. They sell even cheaper and they're killing it,

472
00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:34,600
Speaker 2: and eventually gates old boss sues them for using identical equipment,

473
00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:38,000
Speaker 2: and for the record, it was very similar, but it

474
00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:42,320
Speaker 2: was not identical anyway. Gates and his partner know that

475
00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:44,640
Speaker 2: if they get served papers, they're going to have to

476
00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:47,239
Speaker 2: shut down, and if that happens even for a little bit,

477
00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:51,080
Speaker 2: they're cooked. So they come up with another insane gamble.

478
00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:55,640
Speaker 2: While hiding for process servers, like in a bad nineties movie,

479
00:28:56,120 --> 00:29:00,120
Speaker 2: they rent a small building directly across the Mississippi. It's

480
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:02,440
Speaker 2: their new headquarters, and in the middle of the night

481
00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:05,760
Speaker 2: they hire dudes to take all their machinery down to

482
00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:09,160
Speaker 2: the river, load it down to a ferry, push it

483
00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:12,200
Speaker 2: across the river, and dock it on the opposite bank

484
00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:15,880
Speaker 2: in East Saint Louis, Illinois, outside of the court's jurisdiction.

485
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:21,000
Speaker 2: It pays off. They continue operating. They continue making barbed wire.

486
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:25,040
Speaker 2: John Gates is a genius. Blah blah blah. Company gets huge.

487
00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:28,840
Speaker 2: They eventually merge with US Steel, owned by JP Morgan.

488
00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:33,280
Speaker 2: Gates becomes a bazillionaire and becomes enemies with JP Morgan,

489
00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:36,440
Speaker 2: the richest and most powerful person probably in American history,

490
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:40,760
Speaker 2: which is another whole hilarious story. But that's how Gates

491
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 2: becomes this kind of loaded guy. Stock markets crushing he

492
00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:49,800
Speaker 2: and Vassi makes more money, and now now Chad he

493
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:53,880
Speaker 2: can get out of his mind gambling. He is gambling

494
00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:57,120
Speaker 2: amounts of money that made me think, oh, that's just

495
00:29:57,200 --> 00:29:59,600
Speaker 2: how it was back then with these robber barons, and

496
00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:02,120
Speaker 2: the other robber barons are like, no, that's not how

497
00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:04,239
Speaker 2: this works. This is not how any of us are.

498
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:09,000
Speaker 2: This is insanity, and I'm gonna show you how. First thing,

499
00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:10,760
Speaker 2: he's like, you know what, I'm gonna need a clubhouse

500
00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:14,040
Speaker 2: to gamble in. So he pays thirty thousand dollars a

501
00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:17,880
Speaker 2: year for a giant suite at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan.

502
00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:21,840
Speaker 2: He lives in Chicago, but he's like, I'm making money

503
00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:23,320
Speaker 2: in the stock market, it makes sense for me to

504
00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:27,440
Speaker 2: keep a place to Waldorf Astoria. The hotel hates his

505
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:32,280
Speaker 2: guts because he's literally using it as a private gambling clubhouse.

506
00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:36,360
Speaker 2: The suite has a private entrance, private elevator, and still

507
00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:38,640
Speaker 2: the amount of noise him when his buddies are making

508
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:42,880
Speaker 2: is like out of control. True robber baron Fat cat behavior.

509
00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:47,360
Speaker 2: This guy has a South side Chicago mansion that's still there.

510
00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:50,600
Speaker 2: It's just on the other side of the ninety Express

511
00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:53,240
Speaker 2: from raite Field where the White Sox play. Not where

512
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:56,200
Speaker 2: i'd build my mansion today, but that's fine. He'd gather

513
00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:59,920
Speaker 2: up his Chicago buddies and they'd get on the train

514
00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:03,760
Speaker 2: to New York City to party at the Waldorf. And

515
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,160
Speaker 2: there were reports that these guys would go on benders

516
00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:10,360
Speaker 2: where they'd play a cash poker game for four uninterrupted

517
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:13,800
Speaker 2: days and nights. They'd start in Chicago at the train station,

518
00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:17,840
Speaker 2: they play for the two day overnight train ride, they'd

519
00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:21,120
Speaker 2: freeze the game, they'd move into the suite at the Waldorf.

520
00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 2: They played two more full days and nights with millions

521
00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:27,400
Speaker 2: of dollars changing hands, huge amounts of money. And I'm

522
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:29,320
Speaker 2: looking to see, like, oh, I'll paint the picture. I'll

523
00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:31,680
Speaker 2: look up where it was taking place. This is as

524
00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:35,080
Speaker 2: they're still planning Union Station and Grand Central Station. That's

525
00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:38,760
Speaker 2: how long ago this was. His wife obviously knows she

526
00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:42,520
Speaker 2: married a fucking gambling demon, but she reportedly didn't like it,

527
00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:45,000
Speaker 2: like these week long gambling free for alls were like

528
00:31:45,040 --> 00:31:48,520
Speaker 2: that's a little much for her. So she tried to

529
00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:51,920
Speaker 2: break them up. But instead of just trying to limit

530
00:31:51,960 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 2: these benders to like a couple days, Gates learned a

531
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:56,880
Speaker 2: trick that I think I assume you've done several times, Jed.

532
00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:00,520
Speaker 2: Let me know if this sounds familiar. In a soon pocket,

533
00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:04,880
Speaker 2: he'd keep a few giant, loose diamonds, and if his

534
00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:06,920
Speaker 2: wife was really mad at him, he just fish went

535
00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:09,880
Speaker 2: out and say, hey, honey, I just won this, why

536
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:12,000
Speaker 2: don't you do something nice with it? And she'd just

537
00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:14,840
Speaker 2: walk over to Tiffany's and they'd have it sat and

538
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:16,680
Speaker 2: that would usually buy him like a day and a half,

539
00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:18,080
Speaker 2: just like you would say.

540
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 1: That's that's how we live, Matt.

541
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:25,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean everyone needs to buy time. Everyone's time

542
00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:26,920
Speaker 2: is valued in a different way, Chad.

543
00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:31,840
Speaker 1: Except instead of diamonds, I give her bowls full of farah.

544
00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:32,360
Speaker 2: Yeah.

545
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:36,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know that's my vote language.

546
00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:38,040
Speaker 2: You're so mad at me. It seems like you're hungry,

547
00:32:38,120 --> 00:32:40,320
Speaker 2: but you don't want the bloat. Have I got great

548
00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:45,280
Speaker 2: news for you? There are reports of him betting the

549
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:51,160
Speaker 2: equivalent of one hundred thousand dollars on coin flips multiple times.

550
00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:54,200
Speaker 2: He won it close to a million dollars out a

551
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:56,680
Speaker 2: single horse race, which is how he got the nickname

552
00:32:56,920 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 2: Bet a Million Gates. There's no indication he would actually

553
00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:03,760
Speaker 2: good at betting on the ponies, but the president of

554
00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:06,840
Speaker 2: the jockey club eventually asked him to please limit his

555
00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:10,280
Speaker 2: bets to ten thousand dollars a race because the sheer

556
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:14,080
Speaker 2: scale of his wagers was starting rumors that the races

557
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:17,560
Speaker 2: were fixed. And when our guy, Dave Schwartz calls him

558
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 2: the most notorious big money game, blurred history, like, that's

559
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:23,200
Speaker 2: the kind of behavior that earns that title. When operators

560
00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:26,840
Speaker 2: are like, bro, you are betting so much money, all

561
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:30,600
Speaker 2: reasonable people are thinking this guy must be cheating, because

562
00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:34,320
Speaker 2: what is happening is like unimaginable. But I'm gonna end

563
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:37,960
Speaker 2: the story of John Gates with my favorite anecdote, because

564
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:40,600
Speaker 2: he bets on something so insane that I never even

565
00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:45,160
Speaker 2: considered it. On at least two separate, fully witnessed occasions.

566
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:47,680
Speaker 2: Once on a train ride from Chicago to Pittsburgh and

567
00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:50,680
Speaker 2: again in a clubroom at the wald up Astoria, John

568
00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:54,600
Speaker 2: Gates and another man bet the modern equivalent of almost

569
00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:58,800
Speaker 2: one million dollars on which of two rain drops on

570
00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:02,240
Speaker 2: a window go to the bottom of the window first

571
00:34:03,280 --> 00:34:07,800
Speaker 2: both times. Gates one, and that's the story of John

572
00:34:08,239 --> 00:34:09,200
Speaker 2: bet a Million.

573
00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:17,120
Speaker 1: Gates, John bet A Million Gates, Elijah Skaggs, two Americans

574
00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:24,880
Speaker 1: infamous for their ability to wager insane, uncomfortable amounts of money.

575
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:29,480
Speaker 1: Matt Mitchell as always bringing the color, bringing the flavor,

576
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:34,719
Speaker 1: bringing the Pharaoh directly to our listeners. The Favorites will

577
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:38,719
Speaker 1: return with our next episode on Tuesday on the Action

578
00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:43,920
Speaker 1: Network YouTube page. We're talking NBA draft. Downloads from Spotify,

579
00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:46,800
Speaker 1: Apple Pods wherever you get your pods, Rate review, subscribe,

580
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:48,719
Speaker 1: we use five stars, say whatever we want. Feedback is

581
00:34:48,719 --> 00:34:49,759
Speaker 1: a gift. Until next time.

582
00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:50,640
Speaker 2: I Love you.

583
00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:02,640
Speaker 1: Action Network reminds you please gamble responsibly.

584
00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:05,880
Speaker 2: If you or someone you care about has a gambling problem,

585
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:08,759
Speaker 2: help is available twenty four to seven at one eight

586
00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:09,600
Speaker 2: hundred gambler