Originally published 2007, part of a series I did for a biography website. Can’t even remember who now, but it’s long gone.
Sheldon Adelson is currently the fifteenth-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $33 billion USD. This comes as no surprise when you consider that he is in the United States, and his business is casinos. He is the CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corporation and its subsidiaries. Casinos and resorts currently owned by Sand Corp. include the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, the Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino, and the Sands Expo and Convention Center, all three in Las Vegas, USA, the Sands Macao and the The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, both in Macau, China, and the Sands BethWorks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Sheldon Gary Adelson was born August 1, 1933, in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were immigrants; his mother from the Ukraine and his father from Lithuania. He came from a household of humble means, where his father was employed as a taxi cab driver.
Adelson reportedly sold newspapers as a child and going into his early adulthood, he worked variously as a mortgage broker, investment adviser financial consultant, and eventually in the chartered tour business by the 1960’s. He and his friends ended up starting their own chartered tour business which enjoyed moderate success. He made a run at college in New York, but did not complete a degree.
One other achievement of Adelson of which it is good to take note of is that he founded the COMDEX computer trade show. Founded by Adelson and his business partners in 1979, COMDEX became the world’s leading computer trade expo, throughout the 1980s and 1990s during the height of the microcomputer revolution. Many of the titans of the computer industry, including Bill Gates, have appeared to give landmark keynote speeches and presentations at COMDEX. At the height of the COMDEX show’s popularity, Las Vegas events packed motels so densely that even the far-away town of Primm, Nevada, would find its hotel rooms booked during COMDEX weekends.
COMDEX also put on conventions in other major cities throughout the United States, and served to build Sheldon Adelson’s fortunes immensely. Although COMDEX has now seen its decline and possible demise in the 2000’s at the hands of competing conventions such as CeBIT and CES, the convention business is nevertheless to be considered the cornerstone of Adelson’s corporate empire.
In 1988, Adelson had amassed reserves sufficient to purchase the Sands Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. This acquisition brought with it much prestige, as the Sands, in its day, was the legendary hangout of Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, and the “Rat Pack”, in addition to having been owned by Howard Hughes at one time. The next year, plans commenced to construct the Sands Expo and Convention Center, also in Las Vegas, Nevada; the new convention center opened in 1990 and stands today as the only privately-owned convention center in the Unites States.
Meanwhile, the original Sands Hotel was closed down and eventually torn down in 1996. Sands Atlantic City filed for bankruptcy in 1998 and was sold to investor tycoon Carl Icahn. In the place of the Sands Hotel in Nevada, the Venetian was constructed. The Venetian is a celebrated achievement, boasting an all-suite hotel, 18 restaurants, a shopping mall, and, in a nod to its namesake in Venice, Italy, a canal complete with gondolas and singing gondoliers.
Sheldon Adelson has also been actively involved in the fields of politics and charity. He is married to Dr. Miriam Adelson, whose research he funds. Together, the couple donated the maximum allowed contribution of $500,000 to the re-election of president George W. Bush, and later became prominent Trump campaign donors to the tune of $25 million as well. Adelson has founded, run, and supported “Freedom’s Watch”, a lobbyist group that advocates America’s continued involvement in the war in Iraq. As an outspoken Republican, he vehemently opposed the candidacy of Barrack Obama. As a result of these and other activities, he has drawn his share of lawsuits, controversy, and criticism.
Sheldon Adelson has overall lived the dream of any son of immigrants. Starting from the son of a taxi driver who ran a newspaper stand, he has achieved far beyond what would doubtless have been his parents’ wildest dreams.
