Sheldon Adelson's Net Worth: Business, Early Life, Career

For me, businesses are like buses. You stand on a corner and you don’t like where the first bus is going? Wait ten minutes and take another. Don’t like that one? They’ll just keep coming. There’s no end to buses or businesses.”

                                    -Sheldon Adelson

American business magnate, self-made billionaire, and investor, Sheldon Adelson is the founder, CEO and executive chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, a business conglomerate. He ranks No.28 in the Forbes 2020 World's Billionaires list. He is also the largest presidential campaign donor in the whole of American history, donating $25 million to the Trump campaign during the 2016 elections. A majority of his fortune comes from his casino businesses in Las Vegas. He is also a political enthusiast and donor to the American and Israeli politics.

Net worth

$32.5B as of May 27, 2020.

Early life

Sheldon Gary Adelson aged 86 was born August 4, 1933, to a mixed Jewish family in Boston, Massachusetts. Born into a low-income family of a taxi driver father and a knit-shop owner mother.  In 1932, at the age of 12, Adelson picked interest in business as a means of earning income and supporting his family. His first business was selling newspapers in Boston, he borrowed $200 from his uncle to get a license. By 1948, he started another business, a candy-vending-machine business, he borrowed the start-up capital ($10,000) from his uncle. Though his businesses didn’t yield so much increase, he was able to save up enough for college.

In 1951, Adelson enrolled at the City College of New York to get a degree but never graduated. He later enrolled at a trade school, but never completed his stay instead. With that, he moved on to join the army. After a few months with the army, he was discharged only to return back to his “first love”, business.

Business

On leaving the Army, Adelson started a new business where he sold hotel toiletry kits, and by winter, started another business which he called De-Ice-It. The business specialized in the sales of special chemical sprays used for unfreezing frozen windshields. By the 1960s, his business interest extended to providing charter tour services. He then got a job as a ‘court stenographer’ on Wall Street working this job opened him up to new opportunities and client-base. He took advantage of his new business connections and secured a job as a mortgage broker and investment advisor. Working as a mortgage broker paid off financially compared to any of his early businesses. With the money he saved, Adelson began investing in real estate and other profitable small businesses part of which was the American International Travel Service which started as a small business unit but has since expanded into a multi-million company.

By the late 1970s, Adelson and some of his partners started a cause—the Interface Group. This movement birthed COMDEX (computer dealers’ exposition), a computer trade show for computer hobbyists and PC makers though he himself knew only little about computers. The first show kicked off in 1979, and eventually became an annual event which lasted till the 1990s. By 1995, Adelson and his partners sold off the Interface Group—COMDEX inclusive for a sum of $862 million to Softbank Corporation, Japan. With Adelson being the majority benefactor of over $500 million.

         Entrepreneurship is essentially identifying the path that everyone takes, and choosing a

different, better way.”- Sheldon Adelson

Casinos

As an investor, Adelson was far from spending his gains from COMDEX and other business investments his next focus of business became hotels & casinos. In 1988, he and his partners acquired the Sands Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas which they converted into a convention center—the Sands Expo and Convention Center. By 1991, he decided to convert the Sands Expo and Convention Center into a hotel resort and casino. Eight years later, the Venice-themed hotel and casino were constructed, the project costed a sum of $1.5 billion. The hotel was officially opened on the 3^rd of May 1999 as The Venetian. It had a total of 4,049 suites, a shopping mall, gondolas, canals, and 18 restaurants. The Venetian was merely designed to be a hotel and casino, but provide a one-stop experience for all its customers. The Venetian casino had deepened Adelson’s interest in the casino business, and as a result of that opened another casino on the Island of Macau. Adelson committed $265 million to build a top-notch casino in Macau compared to the other ware-houses casinos already present. His exquisite taste gave him an advantage and made him a great threat over other competitors. In less than a year of the Sands Macau opening, Adelson had earned back his initial $265 million with profits.

With the income he generated from The Venetian and Sands Macau, Adelson since become a globally recognized billionaire. That, however, didn’t to distract Adelson as he became even more determined to build a multi-billion business empire. He acquired casinos licenses to build more casinos within and outside the U.S. including Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Political Influence

Though Adelson is not directly involved with the business of politics he has been reportedly actively supported the Republicans' political party and greatly supported Israeli governance through finance and other means. He became the largest political party donor ever in the U.S. after donating $25 million to the Trump presidential campaign. He has also reportedly donated an estimated $113 million to the overall governance of the Republicans. Adelson’s choice of party is clearly personal as he has chosen the Republican party over the Democrats. In January 2019, it was again reported on ABC News that the Knight’s donated $500,000 to the Patriot Legal Expense Fund, an entity set up by Trump supporters for the assistance of Trump’s aides under investigation. Adelson’s personal interest in the Trump administration was revealed in 2016 after Adelson mentioned the importance of having an experienced CEO onboard on the presidential train.

What’s Sheldon Adelson’s secret to success? “I’ll tell you the secret, but nobody ever follows it. Just do things differently. Just do things in life the way other people don’t do it. Change that status quo, and then you’ll succeed.” – Sheldon Adelson.