In 1900, Gates won $600,000 on a $70,000 bet on a horse race in England, exaggerated at over $1 million, which conferred on him the nickname "Bet-A-Million". The Waldorf's Oscar Tschirky recalled that Gates did not like the nickname, but did little to repudiate the claims as he would bet on practically everything. Oscar recalled a rainy afternoon in the Waldorf's Oak Room as Gates and two associates watched raindrops trickle down the windows. Gates remarked that the drops did not move down the window at the same speed. One of Gates' associates spotted two raindrops that were moving at the same rate and pointed them out to him. Gates selected a raindrop and bet his associate that it would reach the bottom of the window first. His associate took him up on the bet and before Gates' raindrop had won the race, the bets had changed from hundreds of dollars to thousands. Gates believed that all life was a gamble; a farmer gambled that he would have a successful harvest when planting crops, a merchant gambled that customers would buy items when ordering stock and a traveler gambled on arriving safely when setting out on a journey.