Sheldon Adelson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sheldon Adelson
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Adelson in 2010
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| Born |
Sheldon Gary Adelson
August 4, 1933 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
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| Died | January 11, 2021 (aged 87) Malibu, California, U.S.
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| Resting place | Mount of Olives, Jerusalem |
| Education | City College of New York |
| Occupation | Founder, Chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands |
| Political party | Democratic (before 1996) Republican (1996–2021) |
| Spouse(s) | Sandra Adelson (1970s–1988) Miriam Adelson
(m. 1991) |
| Children | 5 |
Sheldon Gary Adelson (born August 4, 1933 – died January 11, 2021) was an American businessman. He was also an investor, someone who gave money to political campaigns, and a person who gave a lot to charity.
He started, led, and was the boss of Las Vegas Sands Corporation. This company owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. It also owned The Venetian Las Vegas and the Sands Expo and Convention Center for many years. Adelson also owned newspapers like Israel Hayom and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
In 2007, Adelson created the Adelson Foundation. This charity focused on healthcare and supporting Israel and the Jewish people. He gave a lot of money to candidates from the Republican Party. He was often called a "kingmaker" because of how much money he donated. He and his wife, Miriam Adelson, were the biggest donors to Donald Trump. They supported his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. Adelson also strongly supported Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sheldon Adelson was a very rich person. In 2017, Forbes magazine said he was worth about $35.7 billion.
Contents
Early life and first businesses
Sheldon Adelson was born on August 4, 1933, in Boston. He grew up in the Dorchester area. His parents were Sarah and Arthur Adelson. His family was Jewish. His father was a taxi driver, and his mother ran a knitting shop.
He started his first business at age 12. He borrowed $200 from his uncle to sell newspapers in Boston. At 15, he borrowed $10,000 from his uncle to start a candy vending machine business. He went to City College of New York but did not finish. He also tried to become a court reporter before joining the army.
After the army, he started a business selling toiletry kits. Then he created "De-Ice-It," a spray for car windshields. In the 1960s, he began a charter tour business. He became a millionaire, but he lost and rebuilt his money twice by his thirties. Adelson started almost 50 different businesses in his life. This made him a serial entrepreneur, someone who starts many businesses.
Building a business empire
COMDEX computer shows
In the late 1970s, Adelson and his partners created the COMDEX trade shows. These were big events for the computer industry. The first one was in 1979. COMDEX became one of the largest computer shows in the world. It was very popular through the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1995, Adelson and his partners sold the COMDEX shows. They sold them to a Japanese company called SoftBank Group for $862 million. Adelson's share from this sale was more than $500 million.
Sands Casino resorts
Las Vegas, Nevada
In 1988, Adelson bought the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. He paid $110 million for it. The next year, he and his partners built the Sands Expo and Convention Center. This was the only privately owned convention center in the U.S. at that time.
In 1991, Adelson was on his honeymoon in Venice, Italy. He got the idea to build a huge hotel resort. He tore down the old Sands hotel. Then he spent $1.5 billion to build The Venetian. This new hotel and casino was themed like Venice. It opened on May 3, 1999.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
In the late 2000s, Adelson's company built a casino resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was one of five casinos given a license in Pennsylvania in 2006. The casino opened on May 22, 2009.
During a tough economic time in 2010, Adelson said he probably would not have started the project if he knew how hard things would be.
Macau, China
Adelson also brought Las Vegas Sands casinos to Macau, China. The Sands Macao opened in May 2004. It was China's first casino built in the style of Las Vegas. Adelson got his first $265 million investment back in just one year. He owned a large part of the company. So, his wealth grew a lot when the company's stock became public in 2004.
In August 2007, Adelson opened the $2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel. He announced plans to build a huge resort area called the Cotai Strip. This area was named after the Las Vegas Strip. Adelson planned to open more hotels there. His company planned to spend $12 billion and build 20,000 hotel rooms by 2010.
His company faced some legal questions about payments made to a lawyer in Macau. In 2015, Sands agreed to pay $9 million to settle the issue. They did not admit to doing anything wrong.
Marina Bay, Singapore
In May 2006, Adelson's Las Vegas Sands won a license to build a casino resort in Marina Bay, Singapore. This new casino, Marina Bay Sands, opened in 2010. It cost about $5.5 billion.
When it opened, the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Complex was one of the most expensive buildings in the world. It cost about S$8 billion, including the land.
MBS Singapore has many features. It includes luxury stores, an indoor Venetian canal, and a theater. It also has multiple swimming pools, a rooftop infinity pool, and nightclubs. There are also 2,500 luxury hotel rooms.
Other activities and interests
Newspapers in Israel
In 2007, Adelson tried to buy the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When that didn't work, he started his own free daily newspaper, Israel Hayom. The first edition came out on July 30, 2007. Later, he was allowed to buy Maariv and another newspaper, Makor Rishon.
Israel Hayom became the most popular daily newspaper in Israel. This was because it was given out for free.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
In December 2015, Adelson bought the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper. The purchase was first kept secret. Later, reporters found out that Adelson's son-in-law had arranged the deal for him. People thought he paid a very high price for the paper. They believed he bought it to help his business or political goals.
After the purchase, some reporters and editors left the newspaper. They said they felt their freedom to write was limited. They also mentioned concerns about how the paper was being run.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal was the first major newspaper in the U.S. to support Donald Trump for president in 2016.
Views on U.S. policy
Adelson often spoke about how the United States should deal with other countries. He believed the U.S. needed to be very strong. He also strongly supported Israel. He was against online gambling. He gave money to politicians who wanted to make online gambling illegal.
Awards and recognition
Sheldon and Miriam Adelson received the Woodrow Wilson Award in 2008. This award recognized their good work as citizens.
Adelson also received an award from the Nevada Policy Research Institute. This was for his efforts to support free market ideas in Nevada. In 2014, he was named one of 200 people who had changed business over 25 years by CNBC.
Involvement in politics
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Adelson started giving a lot of money to the Republican National Committee. This happened after he had disagreements with worker unions at his Las Vegas properties.
A congresswoman named Shelley Berkley worked for him in the 1990s. She said Adelson wanted to weaken unions. He believed that meant he also had to weaken the Democratic Party. She also said that Adelson tried to control politics using his money.
Adelson said he was against very rich people influencing elections. But he also said he would do it as long as it was allowed. He felt that others, like George Soros, had been doing it for years. He was proud of his donations and did not try to hide them.
In 2005, Adelson and his wife each gave $250,000 for President George W. Bush's second inauguration. President Bush later asked the Adelsons to join him on a trip to Jerusalem. This was to celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary in 2008.
Adelson was the main financial supporter of Freedom's Watch. This group was created to counter other political groups. Adelson gave almost all of the $30 million that Freedom's Watch spent in the 2008 elections.
In 2010, Adelson donated $1 million to a group supporting Republican Newt Gingrich. He also gave money to candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
During the 2012 Republican presidential race, Adelson first supported Newt Gingrich. Then he supported Mitt Romney. He spent a lot of money supporting these candidates.
In January 2012, Adelson gave $5 million to a group supporting Gingrich. His wife, Miriam, gave another $5 million. Adelson said he was willing to give as much as $100 million to Gingrich. He also gave money to other Republican groups.
In June 2012, Adelson donated $10 million to a group supporting Mitt Romney. Adelson joined Romney for a fundraiser in Jerusalem. By July, Adelson had given Republicans more than $30 million for the 2012 election.
For the 2016 presidential election, Adelson wanted to support a mainstream candidate. He met with several possible candidates. On May 13, 2016, he officially supported Donald Trump for president. He promised to give as much as $100 million to Trump's campaign. Adelson became a strong supporter of Trump.
For the 2018 elections, Adelson donated about $113 million to the Republican Party. In 2019, he and his wife gave $500,000 to a fund helping Trump's aides.
It was thought Adelson would donate $200 million to Trump and the Republican Party for the 2020 elections. In October 2020, Adelson gave $75 million to a group supporting Trump. He and his wife gave another $35 million to other groups supporting Republicans and Trump.
Donations and charity
In September 2016, Adelson announced a $25 million donation to Trump's presidential campaign. This was part of a $65 million donation to the Republican election campaign for 2016. This made Adelson the biggest donor in either party that year. He was also the largest donor to Donald Trump's inauguration celebrations, giving $5 million.
From 2010 to 2020, Adelson and his wife gave more than $500 million to Republican campaigns and groups.
Since 2007, the Adelson Family Foundation has given $140 million to Birthright Israel. This program pays for Jewish youth trips to Israel. He also donated $5 million to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces in 2014. Adelson gave over $25 million to The Adelson Educational Campus in Las Vegas to build a high school. In 2006, Adelson contributed $25 million to Yad Vashem, a Holocaust memorial.
Adelson also funded the Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation. This foundation supports medical research.
Personal life
Marriages and family
In the 1970s, Sheldon Adelson lived in Massachusetts with his first wife, Sandra. He adopted her three children: Mitchell, Gary, and Shelley. They divorced in 1988.
Adelson met Miriam Farbstein Ochshorn, a medical doctor, in 1989. They married in 1991. Miriam was born in Mandatory Palestine in 1945. Her parents had fled Poland before the Holocaust. She became a doctor and founded a research clinic in Tel Aviv. In 2000, she and Sheldon opened the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Research Clinic in Las Vegas.
Wealth and finances
In 2007, Adelson's wealth was estimated at $26.5 billion. This made him the third-richest person in the United States.
In 2008, the stock prices of his company, Las Vegas Sands Corp., dropped sharply. Adelson lost $4 billion that year. In 2009, his net worth went down from about $30 billion to $2 billion. He said, "I lost $25 billion. I started out with zero... there is no such thing as fear, not to an entrepreneur." By 2011, his business had recovered. He was then ranked the world's 16th-richest man, with $23.3 billion.
In 2013, Adelson was named the "Biggest Winner" by Forbes. His wealth grew by an estimated $15 billion that year. This was because his casinos in Macau and Singapore were very successful. In 2013, Adelson was worth $37.2 billion.
Adelson owned many private jets through Las Vegas Sands. In 2017, his Airbus A340-500 jet made the longest nonstop flight ever from Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel. It flew to Honolulu, Hawaii.
Illness and death
In 2001, Adelson was diagnosed with a nerve condition. This made it hard for him to stand and walk.
In February 2019, Las Vegas Sands announced that Adelson was being treated for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of cancer.
Sheldon Adelson died on January 11, 2021, at his home in Malibu, California. He was 87 years old and had been sick for a long time.
On January 14, 2021, his body arrived in Israel. His coffin was covered with U.S. and Israeli flags. He was buried the next day in a private ceremony. This took place at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
See also
In Spanish: Sheldon Adelson para niños
- List of people and organizations named in the Paradise Papers
