When it comes to shoveling money and making a fortune by cashing in as much as possible, no one can compete with a casino boss. Below, we will present a list of individuals who accumulate staggering sums sometimes exceeding 30 million dollars a day, and have become billionaires just by running their casino. So it’s no wonder that we find some of them among the richest people in the world…
Sheldon Adelson, founder and CEO of Las Vegas Sands
He is a figure with a notorious reputation and heads a fortune of 39 billion dollars. Sheldon Adelson is actually the CEO of Las Vegas Sands, an empire that earns him an average of 32 million dollars a day. He holds the status of the most significant casino boss, but also the ugliest casino in all of Vegas… and the rest of the country too. Founder and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, he earns an average of 32 million dollars a day with his various expanding businesses, and his company is worth much more than all the American casinos combined.
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Yet, nothing destined this man, who grew up in a poor Boston family, to become one of the greatest fortunes in the world with 39 billion dollars in his bank account. His beginnings were humble with the opening of his first newspaper business, but beware… at just 12 years old! Immediately immersed in the world of work and business from a young age, he never completed his undergraduate studies. This did not prevent him from becoming a millionaire by the age of 30, making his debut in the casino industry in 1988 after purchasing the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, a place frequented at the time by stars like Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.
To this day, the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas, which features a reproduction of Venice with canals and gondolas, is among his assets in the casino industry, but he also heads many other gigantic casinos such as the Bay Casino Marina in Singapore, the Sands Expo and Convention Center, and the Palazzo Casino Resort in Las Vegas, the Sands Casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and finally the largest casino in the world, namely the Venetian Macau Casino Resort in Macau, China! Sheldon Adelson is a political philanthropist who not only runs his gaming empire from the United States to Asia but also owns Israel Hayom, an Israeli newspaper with over 100,000 subscribers.
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Mr. Lui Che Woo, Chairman of Galaxy Casino
With an estimated fortune of 21 billion dollars, Mr. Lui Che Woo currently ranks second among the greatest fortunes in Asia. Mr. Lui Che Woo, at the age of 82, is a very wealthy casino owner who nevertheless entered the gaming industry quite late. Originally from Jiangmen, China, this figure often found in smiling images is just to show his happiness while currently ranking as the second richest man in Asia.
But this fortune estimated at over 21 billion dollars is not necessarily the result of his casino, but rather the past of a businessman. In fact, the former doctor built his fortune by developing multinational conglomerates, these groups of companies with very different assets that actually diversify risks, as losses from some assets can be offset by profits from others.
As the leader of these groups, which include property, entertainment and leisure, construction materials, and hotels with over 20,000 employees in Hong Kong, Macau, Southeast Asia, and North America, the man only entered the gaming industry in Macau in 2011. Just that year, his company opened the Macau Galaxy Hotel and Casino, a massive casino that cost him 2 billion dollars and offers 450 gaming tables, 2200 rooms, 50 restaurants, a pool with artificial waves, and a beautiful beach. Like Sheldon Adelson, this billionaire doctor turned Chinese magnate has become a great philanthropist. In fact, the government dedicates a large part of its revenues to establishing education and healthcare services.
Stanley Ho (Ho Hung Sun), King of Macau
He is one of the richest casino owners, but also the oldest as Stanley Ho is 95 years old and will blow out his 96 candles in November 2017! Stanley Ho is a man who has had a monopoly on the gaming industry in Macau for 40 years. This title of Gaming Governor was due to the fact that he won an exclusive legal license to operate all gaming establishments. A license granted by the government that thus gave him exclusive rights to operate all casinos in Macau!
Although he is still known as the “King of Macau,” Mr. Ho no longer holds the gaming monopoly. However, he is the head of 15 of the 18 casinos found in Macau that fill their pockets every day. The story of this casino industry magnate is quite original. Indeed, before spending much of his life running gaming establishments, at 92 years old, the man lived a special life certainly worthy of appearing in a sensational cinematic setting.
Born on November 25, 1921, in Hong Kong, the man arrived in Macau after the Japanese invasion of his hometown during World War II. At the age of 22, he became a partner in an import-export company that turned into a fortune by engaging in the smuggling of luxury goods that he transported across the Chinese border during World War II. But his biggest wartime event was in the 1960s when Stanley Ho won the race for the gaming monopoly in Macau, Asia, allowing him to manage a dozen casinos at that time.
Stanley Ho’s fortune is now estimated at 4.8 billion dollars, primarily composed of 3.5 billion dollars from his Casino Lisboa, still considered today as one of the largest casinos in the world. As for the rest of his fortune, it also includes the rest of his casinos, but also a business around greyhound racing, horse betting, lotteries, and a large real estate portfolio that extends royally throughout Asia.
James Packer, Chairman of Crown Limited
James Packer is actually an Australian businessman who owns casinos in Australia of course, but also in Macau, Sri Lanka, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines. But if it makes sense to present him to you on this list of the greatest fortunes in the gaming world, it’s because he has an estimated fortune of 6.6 billion dollars, making him one of the richest casino owners in the world.
Unlike other big names on our list that we just drafted, James Packer was not born into misery or poverty. Also, as the son of media mogul Kerry Packer, he inherited a colossal fortune. With this sum, he set out to spend half his life building a global gaming empire. To date, he owns Crown Limited, one of the largest entertainment and resort groups in Australia, estimated at over 11 billion dollars. This group includes casinos in Perth and Melbourne.
But as we mentioned earlier, he doesn’t just run businesses in Australia; he also manages other casinos around the world, including the Crown Casino in Sri Lanka, the Sun Vegas Casino in the United Kingdom, and casinos in Nevada and Pennsylvania in the United States.
He is also venturing into virtual casinos having acquired the Betfair Casino, the famous online gaming casino. As a side note, James Packer never attended university and spent a few years in his youth working as a “Jackeroo.” It’s unclear whether sheep farming taught him how to become a casino manager to the point of being the head of 6.6 billion dollars, but in any case, he is currently ranked third among the richest men in Australia. Finally, he has also made headlines and scandal for a particularly publicized affair with Victoria’s Secret model: Miranda Kerr.
Kunio Busujima, Founder and Chairman of Sankyo
If you know those machines that are a huge hit in Japan under the name of Pachinko; which come in the form of a vertical pinball machine where a player shoots balls that descend the edge of the machine through rows of small nails in specific places where the balls unlock ball bonuses that can then be exchanged for prizes, you can easily understand why Kunio Busujima, who is the founder and chairman of one of the largest Pachinko machine companies in Japan, quickly became one of the richest businessmen in the land of the rising sun.
At the head of a fortune of 6 billion dollars, it seems surprising to see a man getting rich in this industry, which is still illegal in Japan, but which has been moving towards reform in recent months. In fact, Japan has not yet legalized casinos, but Kunio Busujima has been able to wisely bet on Pachinko parlors across the country. These parlors are indeed operated in a manner almost similar to traditional casinos, and Kunio Busujima, who does not own a casino establishment per se, however, makes a fortune as the founder and chairman of one of the largest manufacturers of Pachinko gaming machines in the country.
Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts
If today the company is valued at nearly 4 billion dollars, it is worth noting that Casino Mirage, opened by Steve Wynn in 1989, was the one and only themed casino in Las Vegas. You can certainly say that this establishment, and more specifically this head of the casino, played an important role in the city of Las Vegas, which may not be what it is today without his groundbreaking intervention. Steve Wynn is actually the CEO of Wynn Resorts who managed to secure a loan to build the first themed casino in Las Vegas at the time. Although it is particularly common today to see such casinos, he nonetheless marked this first generation of casinos with a specific theme with the Mirage, which was the first casino to feature a South Seas theme with a replica volcano erupting.
But if Steve Wynn is on our list of the largest and richest casino owners, it’s because he subsequently built some of the most well-known casino hotels in the world. Among these significant establishments, there is Treasure Island, where he brought the Cirque du Soleil show, which soon became the first permanent show in the city. We also find the Golden Nugget or the famous Bellagio Hotel Casino!
Steve Wynn ranks very well among the greatest fortunes in the country, with his fortune estimated at nearly 4 billion dollars, which is used to enrich his collection of artworks from artists such as Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, and Pablo Picasso. And here, we have just taken a tour of the main richest casino owners. For most of them, you have seen that the road was not all paved and that it would sometimes take opportunities and a lucky star to take ownership of such establishments to become lucky and then happy millionaires…
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