30 Mind-Blowing Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Sheldon Adelson

12 February 2019, 10:57 am EST By Ruby Karnick

Sheldon Adelson, the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, is the 15th-richest person in the world, and has made the largest single donation to any U.S. presidential inauguration. Here are some facts about the American business magnate:

According to Forbes with a fortune of $ 33.3 billion in 2018, Adelson is listed as the 15th richest person in the world. He owns more than half of the $ 13 billion gambling empire.
He was born Sheldon Gary Adelson on August 04, 1933, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S, to Sarah and Arthur Adelson, the immigrants from Wales and Lithuania. His father drove a taxi and his mother ran a knitting shop.
Adelson was raised in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, sharing a room with his three siblings and parents. Living in toughest neighborhood, he and other Jewish boys were beaten up by Irish youths.
According to him, an entrepreneur is born with the mentality to take risks. He just did that at the age of 12, when he borrowed $ 200 from his uncle to start a newspaper agency and later in his 16th year he once again borrowed $ 10,000, to start a candy vending machine business.
He attended Roxbury Memorial High School and the City College of New York. But he dropped out and also failed in an attempt to become a court reporter. He was granted honorary degrees and has been a guest speaker at various colleges and universities.
He is the major contributor to Republican Party candidates in both 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns. In the 2018 he donated approximately $ 113 million towards their midterm campaign spending.
After his stint in the army, he started number of business from selling toiletries to hotels, selling chemical spray to clear frozen windshields, ran a tour business, sold ads for financial trade publications, invested in real estate, and as a financial consultant to companies.
Adelson soon became a millionaire venturing into 50 of his own business, including ‘COMDEX,’ the world’s largest computer trade show. In 1995, he sold the ‘Interface Group Show Division,’ including COMDEX shows to ‘SoftBank Corporation’ of Japan for $862 million and in the process earned over $ 500 million.
In 1989, he bought the old ‘Sands Hotel & Casino’ in Las Vegas, for $ 128 million and established a new company, ‘Las Vegas Sands.’ A year later to make Las Vegas, business centricity, he built country’s largest exhibition center next to his hotel, the only privately owned and operated convention center in the U.S. then.
In 1991, while honeymooning in Venice with his second wife, Dr. Miriam Ochshorn, he gained the inspiration and theme for a mega-resort hotel, resulting in construction of $ 1.5 billion, ‘Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino,’ on the site of old Sands. The hotel has 4,049 suites, 18 restaurants and a shopping mall with canals, gondolas and singing gondoliers.

Adelson opened a ‘Sands Casino Resort’ in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The casino with 3,000 slot machines opened in 2009, and in 2010, 89 Table game such as blackjack, craps and roulette started its operation. The hotel was later added in 2011.
In May 2004, a Las Vegas-style casino, the ‘Sand Macao’ with an investment of $ 265 million, covering an area of one-million square foot made its entry into Chinese gambling city of Macau and in August 2007, he also opened the $2.4 billion ‘Venetian Macao Resort Hotel,’ on Cotai.
Adelson has fought hard against internet based gambling, despite its legalization. In 2015, he publicly backed a controversial bill named ‘Restore America’s Wire Act,’ to ban online gambling.
In 2010, he opened a casino ‘Marina Bay Sands’ in Singapore’s Marina Bay with 2,500 luxury hotel rooms, multiple swimming pools, night clubs, stores and convention center for Sands live concert. This is the third most expensive building in the world.
In 2007, after he failed in his bid to purchase the ‘Israeli’ newspaper ‘Maariv,’ he published a free daily newspaper named ‘Israel Hayom,’ which went on to become highest circulated Israeli newspaper. Later in 2014, he got the go-ahead to acquire the newspaper ‘Maariv’ and the ‘Makor Rishon.’
In December 2015, he orchestrated through his son-in-law, the purchase of the ‘Las Vegas Review- Journal’ newspaper and kept it surreptitiously under wrap. It was reported he paid a lavish $ 140 million to power play his business and political agendas.
On September 06, 2005, Adelson lost his son Mitchell E. Adelson, 48, due to overdose, who was addicted to heroin and cocaine from an early age. Fighting the legalization of cannabis, Adelson donated $ 4 million to the Anti-Medical Marijuana Group and also funded drug addiction clinics in Nevada and Israel.
On March 25, 2008, Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, were presented with the ‘Woodrow Wilson Award,’ for corporate citizenship. His free market principle in Nevada, earned him the ‘2007 Chairman’s Award,’ from the ‘Nevada Policy Research Institute.’
In a panel discussion at ‘Yeshiva University’ on October 22, 2013, he suggested that the United States should use nuclear weapon on Iran to impose its demands from position of strength.
In 2014, he featured in the list of 200 people to select the ‘CNBC First 25: Leaders, Icons and Rebels,’ who have had the greatest influence, sparked the biggest changes and caused the most disruption in business over the past quarter century.

In 2008, a newly completed $ 65 million campus for Nevada’s first Jewish school was inaugurated, thanks to Miriam and Sheldon G.Adelson, who donated $ 25 million for the cause. Earlier in 2006, he also contributed $ 25 million to the ‘Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ remembrance authority.
Since 2007 the ‘Adelson Family Foundation’ has contributed over $ 100 million to ‘Birthright Israel Foundation.’ The ‘Taglit-Birthright Israel’ offers the gift of a free, ten-day educational trip to Israel for young Jewish adult.
He was also a notable contributory with $ 5 million, during 2014, annual ‘Friends of the Israel Defense Forces,’ at Los Angeles gala fundraiser. The IDF is a non-profit organization which provides educational, cultural and recreational activities for soldier’s families.
Adelson is the single largest donor to ‘Yad Vashem,’ Israel’s Holocaust memorial and museum, with gift totaling $ 50 million.
He also became one of the biggest donors to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobby and joined its executive committee.
Adelson was married to Sandra, during his days in Massachusetts in 1970s and they adopted three children, Shelly, Gary and Mitchell. He divorced her in 1988 and married Miriam Ochsorn in the year 1991. Together they have two sons.
In 2004, Richard Suen, a Hong Kong businessman who arranged a business meeting with top Chinese officials to obtain Macau license, took Adelson to court in Las Vegas, for failing to pay a success fee.
Adelson successfully sued the Daily Mail, of London for libel in 2008. He was accused of despicable business practices and corruptly brought political favors. The judgment of approximately £ 4 million, which he won, was donated to London’s Royal Marsden Hospital.
Adelson own one of the world’s biggest private fleets of 14 aircrafts is based in McCarran International Airport. He uses this fleet to transport its executive officers and VIP guests to his Las Vegas, Macau and Singapore casinos.
He has also funded the private, Boston based’ Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation.’ The foundation is into Neural Repair and Rehabilitation program.