Sheldon Adelson Biography

Sheldon Adelson was born on August 4, 1933 in the Dorchester area of Boston. His father drove a taxi, his mother worked in a knitting shop. Adelson's first job, like many American kids, was a paper route. By the time he was 12-years old, this budding entrepreneur already owned his own business selling toiletries.In the 1950s, Adelson attended the City College of New York, majoring in corporate finance, but dropped out after less than two years. After dropping out of college, he briefly attended a trade school that helped him get a job as a court reporter. He then joined the Army. When his obligations with the Army were over, Sheldon took a job as a mortgage broker and investment advisor. In the early 1960s, he took the money he made on Wall Street and moved back to Boston where he shrewdly invested in a number of businesses. By the time Sheldon reached the age of 35 in 1968, he managed to build up a personal fortune of roughly $5 million ($33 million in today's dollars). Unfortunately, thanks to a few failed business ventures and a declining stock market, Sheldon lost his entire fortune. TWICE. Thankfully, these temporary setbacks did not slow him down.

Sheldon Adelson With his Wife

In the early 1970s, Sheldon jumped on the trend of converting apartment buildings into condominiums in Boston. He did very well for a while, but then the condo market took a dive. At this point, Adelson was adrift and depressed. The drastic ups and downs of his fortunes were taking a serious toll mentally and physically. But, despite these setbacks, Sheldon was still actively on the hunt for the next big thing. In an effort to find a more stable income stream, he soon bought a company that published magazines. One of those magazines was a computer publication called "Data Communications User". One day, while attending a trade show for his condo business, Sheldon had a life changing epiphany: If the computer industry was big enough to necessitate its own devoted magazine, could it also benefit from a trade show of its very own?In 1973, Sheldon and some partners put together what was likely the world's first computer related trade show. Even though the event was just a modest, Sheldon was convinced that both computers and trade shows were the future. Adelson quickly liquidated his entire condo business and publishing company, to dive full speed into the trade show business.

In 1979, Adelson launched what would become his golden ticket: The Computer Dealers Expo (COMDEX) which was held at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. The timing was perfect. Not only was public interest in personal computers beginning to take off, but itself Las Vegas was starting to become known as the go-to destination for a fun and debaucherous weekend. In other words, it wasn't all that hard to lure a bunch of computer enthusiasts to spend the weekend partying in Las Vegas for "work". At this period in time, IBM, Apple, and Microsoft were starting their rapid growth, and Adelson gave them a crucial early forum to showcase their products to both consumers and companies. Over the next decade, COMDEX grew into a behemoth for the computer industry. Comdex quickly became largest trade show in Las Vegas, grossing $20 million per year for Sheldon ($40 million in today's dollars).It is important to understand just how huge COMDEX was for the personal computer industry and the city of Las Vegas. I grew up in Las Vegas, and the frenzy surrounding COMDEX in the 1980s was like the frenzy surrounding Comic Con today. This was THE TICKET of the year to get in Las Vegas.

By the late 80s, as COMDEX was printing money, Adelson began looking for a hotel property to buy in Las Vegas. It was the next logical step for someone who already owned a travel company, an infamous tradeshow and a private jet. In 1988, Adelson and his partners bought the legendary Sands Hotel and Casino, (the former hangout of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack) for $128 million. Adelson redeveloped the property, adding a shopping mall (they were not ubiquitous in Casinos back then), and eventually a convention center which soon became host the annual COMDEX trade show.Israeli-born Miriam Ochshorn, 66, has been married to 78- year old Adelson since 1991, and the couple has four children together. Her parents, Menucha and Simha Farbstein, fled Poland in the run-up to the Holocaust, settling in Haifa. There her father ended up owning a handful of movie theaters, though the family didn’t have a television until Miriam was 16. Her husband comes from equally modest beginnings — the son of a Boston taxi driver, Sheldon Adelson grew up in a one-room tenement in Boston’s Dorchester section.

During a 1991 trip to Italy, Adelson found himself enchanted with the canals and architecture of Venice. He soon began dreaming of a giant hotel-casino-resort modeled after Venice on the Las Vegas Strip.In 1995, Adelson sold COMDEX for $862 million. His personal windfall from the sale was $500 million. With a half billion dollars in the bank and a $1.5 billion line of credit, Sheldon shed his partnerships and various other business interests and set out to build the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino. He demolished the Sands Hotel and built his dream resort which opened in 1999. The entire resort was essentially built to attract business visitors. The Venetian featured a massive attached convention center and was the first all-suites hotel in Las Vegas. As you probably could guess, The Venetian was an instant smash hit. Within a few years, Adelson and the Las Vegas Sands corp were operating six casinos around the world including a location in Macau which is one of the largest buildings in the world.Adelson is heavily involved in political funding. Formerly a Democrat, Adelson became a Republican as his wealth grew. Specifically, he was annoyed with the higher tax rates he had to pay and the influence of the trade unions, which he frequently clashed with and who are a big part of the Las Vegas casino workforce. He backed George W. Bush's second presidential bid, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, by contributing tens of millions of dollars to their campaigns, including a $20 million gift to Romney's super PAC. Adelson also donates generously to charitable organizations, giving millions to various causes especially those that support Israeli and Jewish charity.

The Venetian Hotel Vegas

World Richest Person:

Today, the Las Vegas Sands corp is the largest casino company in the world with annual revenues of more than $11 billion. The company went public in 2004 and currently has a market cap $60.35 billion. Adelson remains the company's Chief Executive Officer and Chairman. Thanks largely to his 52.3% ownership stake in the company, Sheldon Adelson's personal net worth today is $35 billion.But like most of Sheldon's business ventures, even the Las Vegas Sands corp has experienced its share of ups and downs. When the economy tanked in 2008, Las Vegas tourism was obliterated. The trade show industry was especially hard hit. The low point was March of 2009 when the price of a single share of LVS stock hit an all time low of $1.70. Just 16 months earlier, LVS shares peaked at $140. That's a 98.8% drop in value. Adelson saw his wealth plunge from $40 billion to less than $2 billion. Things got so bad that the company came literally within an inch of being forced into bankruptcy. As a last resort, Adelson invested $1 billion of his own personal cash to help the company get through the financial crisis. The gamble worked and eventually LVS recovered.Sheldon Adelson was born into a poor family, dropped out of college, and lost large chunks of his fortune more than once due to unpredictable changes in the economy. By keeping his attention focused on the next big thing and never quitting, Adelsomn was able to earn one of the 15 largest personal fortunes on the planet. A true rags to riches American dream inspiration that comes complete with this private jet:Sheldon Adelson is a casino tycoon who famously declared he would donate "whatever it takes" to defeat the re-election of President Barack Obama in 2012. That turned out to be over $100 million in donations to Republican candidates, most of whom lost at the polls -- including Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Adelson is a self-made billionaire who grew up in a poor neighborhood of Boston, the son of Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine and Lithuania.His Net worth Present $38 B.His Source of Wealth was Casinos.