Casino magnate and Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson dies aged 87
- He was the son of Jewish immigrants, raised with two siblings in a Boston tenement, who over the second half of his life became one of the world’s richest men
- He also became the nation’s most influential Republican donor over the final years of his life, at times setting records for individual contributions
Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire mogul and power broker who built a casino empire spanning from Las Vegas to China and became a singular force in domestic and international politics has died after a long illness, his wife said on Tuesday.
Miriam Adelson and the Las Vegas Sands Corporation both released statements confirming Adelson’s death. He was 87 years old.
He was the son of Jewish immigrants, raised with two siblings in a Boston tenement, who over the second half of his life became one of the world’s richest men.
The chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation brought singing gondoliers to the Las Vegas Strip and foresaw correctly that Asia would be an even bigger market.
In 2018, Forbes ranked him No. 15 in the US, worth an estimated US$35.5 billion.
“If you do things differently, success will follow you like a shadow,” he said during a 2014 talk to the gambling industry in Las Vegas.
Blunt yet secretive, Adelson resembled an old-fashioned political boss and stood apart from most American Jews, who for decades have supported Democrats by wide margins. Adelson was considered the nation’s most influential Republican donor over the final years of his life, at times setting records for individual contributions during a given election cycle.
“Despite his soaring influence as a party kingmaker and his mammoth financial footprint,” Politico wrote in September 2012, “Adelson is rarely seen or heard, and he has remained mysterious even to many top Republicans.”