John W. “Bet a Million” Gates, who was born in 1855, became a fabulously wealthy man as a producer of barbed wire as the West was opening up for farmers and ranchers. He was also a big player and winner on the stock market, controlling the flows of wheat in the economy. Gates was not happy just being a businessman; he wanted more action. He found it in gambling activity. During the Gay Nineties and the few years afterwards, he became known as the biggest player anywhere. Gates would bet on anything: the flip of a coin, which piece of sugar would draw the most flies, which raindrop on a window pane would fall to the bottom first. He would bet up to a dollar a point at bridge. Although he probably never bet a million dollars on a single play, he certainly won and lost several hundreds of thousands of dollars at a single sitting. A 1902 game of faro at Richard Canfield’s Saratoga Casino cost Gates $400,000 one afternoon. The same evening he won back $150,000.
Gates dressed like the millionaire he was (until his later years), wearing several diamonds on his shirt. He played with other millionaires, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and Diamond Jim Brady, usually on cross-country train, or in exclusive hotel rooms. He also loved the horses.
Gates was very philosophical about his play. He explained why he had to wager such large amounts of money: “For me there’s no fun in betting just a few thousand. I want to bet enough to hurt the other fellow if he loses, and enough to hurt me if I lose”. A lot of people got hurt when he played. He hurt the most. Like the other “big players,” he lost more than he won, and he often was “the sucker”. He played the stock market heavily until he lost most of his fortune in the panic of 1907. Soon afterwards, he swore off all gambling, suggesting of the stock market that “sometimes the bulls win, sometimes the bears win, but the hogs never win”. In 1909, he testified to a group of Methodist ministers in Texas, pleading: “Don’t gamble, play cards, bet on horses, speculate on wheat or the stock exchange, and don’t shirk honest labor. Don’t be a gambler, once a gambler, always a gambler”. Preaching to the choir. Tom Grey, of the National Coalition against Legalized Gambling, could not have expressed it any clearer. “Bet a Million” Gates died a humble man at the age of fifty-six in 1911.
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