Sheldon Adelson: The story of escaping poverty of the owner of the largest casino empire in the world

Adelson's life made many people admire when he rose from a poor boy in the slums of Boston to become one of the richest billionaires in the world.

Sheldon Adelson, president and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, passed away on January 11 at the age of 87, the company said in a statement. Earlier this month, he was absent from Las Vegas Sands to continue treatment for lymphoma. Billionaire confirmed to have this disease in early 2019.

Adelson's life made many people admire when he rose from a poor boy in the slums of Boston to become one of the richest billionaires in the world. According to Forbes' Real Time Billionaires ranking, Mr. Adelson owns a fortune of $35 billion. In particular, the US casino magnate owns more than half of the $ 14 billion in revenue of the gambling empire in Las Vegas, Singapore, Macau and China.

In fact, Mr. Adelson entered the casino industry quite late at the age of 55. It is thanks to his merits that the gambling industry has laid a solid foundation for the centers of Las Vegas or Macau.

Born at the age of 10

Adelson's life is a typical success story. He was born in 1933 in Boston (USA). His father was an immigrant from Lithuania who worked as a taxi driver. His mother was from Wales and worked as a knitter. He and his siblings had to sleep on the floor in the family's rundown rental apartment.

At the age of 12, Adelson began selling newspapers on the streets of Boston. Four years later, he invested in a candy vending machine. After serving in the military for a while, he continued to do business, selling apartments, brokering loans, even taking on venture capital.

"Although I'm the grandson of a Welsh miner and the son of a taxi driver in Boston, I've had the unforgettable experience of working in nearly 50 different jobs over a 70-year career," he told Washington. Post.

Due to his lack of experience, many times Adelson was empty-handed, but he also learned a lot from it to build a series of successful careers.

In the late 1960s, Adelson's business career was plagued by a stock market downturn and he turned to real estate speculation in Boston. Success once again came to Adelson but also went away quickly when the real estate market cooled down.

This has been one of the most challenging times for Adelson, who has been through many professions and is still desperate to find her way back to the wealth she once achieved. A turning point came for Adelson in the late 70s, when he founded Comdex - one of the world's largest computer exhibitions. In 1995, he sold Comdex to SoftBank for nearly $900 million. Adelson then poured money into casinos, first in Las Vegas, then into Asia. He has contributed to making Macau the largest casino market in the world.

Casino tycoon

Entering the Macau market was Adelson's most successful bet. After the city was returned to China in 1999, he won the right to build Sands Macao - the first Las Vegas-style casino here. Opened in 2004, this casino recovered its construction costs in just a few months. After that, he continued to build more casinos here.

Adelson's fortune comes mainly from his large stake in Las Vegas Sands - the world's largest casino empire he founded. The company, which recorded $13.7 billion in revenue in 2019, operates a convention center and multiple casinos in Las Vegas, as well as resorts and casinos in Macau and Singapore. Adelson owns half of Las Vegas Sands stock. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the billionaire's net worth is $33.4 billion.

In the late 1980s, Adelson and his partners began hunting hotel real estate to develop travel agencies and personal planes. In 1988, they bought the legendary Sands Casino for $128 million. This place is famous as the hangout place of music legends Frank Sinatra and Rat Pack.

Since then, billionaire Sheldon Adelson has redesigned the business model in his own way. He built resorts, shopping malls, and convention centers for corporate events, including Comdex. During that time, he had to fight with authorities and organizations to build a new Sands Casino and Convention Center.

For Adelson, running a casino the usual way was trivial, especially for Sin City (the nickname for Las Vegas). So he decided to turn Las Vegas into an international business center, attracting wealthy businessmen.

In 1991, Sheldon had the idea to build a Venetian Casino hotel complex in the Venedig architecture right in Las Vegas. He blew up and razed Sands Casino earlier to build a new casino The Venetian at a total cost of $1.5 billion.

Billionaire Adelson built more than 400 meters of artificial canals running around the Venetian Casino hotel complex, which was built magnificently, all covered with marble. There are more than 4,000 Suiten hotel rooms, 12 luxury restaurants and a high-end shopping street. Casino guests can choose from any form of gambling at 122 valet tables or at 2,500 vending machines.

In a sharing with the press, the casino tycoon once said: "It took me 11 years to earn the first 1 billion USD. Meanwhile, I now pocket 1 billion USD in less than 2 months."

Billionaire Adelson is constantly creating new tricks. He is not afraid to break the basic rules of casino design in order to speed up revenue. Everyone admits, he proved to the world that coming to Las Vegas is not just for gambling.

Success after success, Sheldon Adelson rose to the position of the 3rd richest person in the world in 2006, 2007 and 2008 with a fortune of $ 26 billion and the nickname "Casino King". At this golden time, every hour he earned a profit of nearly 1 million USD thanks to a luxurious casino system stretching from Las Vegas (USA) to Macao (Asia). This speed of getting rich has not been achieved by any billionaire.

Last year, Las Vegas Sands confirmed Adelson considered selling the Las Vegas facilities if the price was right. The pandemic caused the global casino business to plunge, except for China. Even so, Adelson still committed to investing billions of dollars abroad. "We still believe Macau has the potential to be one of the world's greatest business and tourism destinations," Adelson said in October.

The billionaire is a very private person in front of the media. In 2015, his family bought one of the local Las Vegas Review-Journal newspapers. However, the deal was kept so secret that the newspaper's reporters had to do their own investigation to identify the new owner.

However, on the street, Adelson is very recognizable with red hair and electric scooter. CNN reports that he has a medical condition that makes it difficult to walk.

During cancer treatment, Adelson had to shorten the time to work at the company. Even so, Las Vegas Sands said he still performs the duties of a chairman and CEO. In a statement yesterday, the company praised Adelson's vision "to transform the industry, change the trajectory of the company and reposition the tourism industry's image" in Las Vegas, Macau and Singapore.

Adelson is also known as a longtime donor to Republican politicians. In the 2008 US presidential election, he spent 30 million dollars. Four years later, he donated up to $100 million to Republican candidates. In 2016, he was absent, but by 2020 he has returned to contribute about $ 200 million to US President Donald Trump's re-election campaign.

President Trump on January 12 commented that the casino tycoon "created a real American dream". "Intelligence, ingenuity and creativity made him a great fortune, but it was his character and philanthropy that made him great," he said, "The Lost World go a great person".

Adelson has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to medical research and Jewish support issues. Much of his philanthropy is through the Adelson Family Foundation.

Obviously, a person's background doesn't say much, but the will and desire to succeed can prove the qualities of a billionaire. For Adelson, even though he had to sell newspapers for a living from the age of 10, he eventually became a billionaire thanks to his determination to get rich.

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