The bet paid off. In Gatsby, Carraway had been in awe of Wolfsheim. “How did he happen to do that?” he asks of the 1919 World Series plot. Gatsby answers: “He just saw the opportunity.” Thiel had seen the opportunity where no one else had. He had taken it. Legally. And he had won. He had proven that “nothing you can do about it” is just what people who don’t want to do anything about it like to say to make themselves feel better about their inaction.
