Adelson tops Forbes rich-list for casinos

Tuesday 6th of March 2018

Sheldon Adelson featured in 21st position in Forbes annual ranking of the world’s billionaires, coming far ahead of other casino moguls.

Adelson, founder and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, had a fortune of $38.5 billion as of March 6th. Forbes notes Adelson is the son of immigrants from Lithuania and Wales and grew up sleeping on the floor of a Boston tenement.

His empire includes the Venetian Macau, Parisian Macau and Sands Cotai in Asia and his company is also pushing for a casino license in Japan.

Coming in 50th place, was Lui Che Woo, chairman of Galaxy Entertainment Group, with a listed fortune of $21.1 billion. He also ranked in third position in a list of Hong Kong’s richest people.

Lui first made his mark supplying gravel for Hong Kong's postwar construction boom.

Belle Corp's Henry Sy and the richest man in the Philippines, was in 52nd spot with a fortune of $20 billion. Belle and Melco International Resorts & Entertainment operate City of Dreams Manila.

Sy has topped the list as the richest man in the Philippines for a decade. Sy is also the founder of SM Corp.

There were a record 2,208 billionaires on the list this year from 72 countries. The most were from America, which mainland China in second place with 373 billionaires. Combined the group was worth $9.1 trillion, up 18 percent since last year.

Topping the list was Amazon head Jeff Bezos, who became the first person ever to appear with a 12-figure fortune at $112 billion.