LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Sheldon Adelson: Vegas Sands
built 606 days ago
In 1991, Sheldon Adelson married physician Miriam Ochshorn. Inspired by the grandeur of Venice while on his honeymoon, he conceived of a Venice-themed mega-resort hotel and casino. Commencing with the implosion of the Sands in 1996, the luxurious resort that was built in its place cost $1.5 billion and was christened “The Venetian.” The all-suite resort included several leading-chef restaurants, as well as a shopping plaza that features canals replete with gondolas and singing gondoliers, in keeping with its theme. The Venetian underwent a major expansion in 2003, when more than 1,000 suites were added as part of the Venezia Tower. In late 2004, Sheldon Adelson sold off 10% of his shares in Las Vegas Sands Corp., which increased his overall net worth immensely.
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Born in 1933 in Boston, where his Lithuanian immigrant father worked as a cab driver, Adelson built his fortune with the same take-no-prisoners ambition that characterizes his approach to politics. After dropping out of City College of New York, he tried his hand as a court reporter and mortgage broker. Then, in 1979, he launched Comdex, which became the computer industry's biggest U.S. trade show, and which he sold in 1995 in a package deal worth $862 million. Along the way he built his casino empire, starting with the old Sands Hotel and Casino, which he bought in 1989, tore down, and replaced with the lavish Venetian casino and Sands convention center. "Most of the hotel casinos were worried about filling their rooms on the weekends," says a fellow gambling exec. "He concentrated on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights and the convention business."
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[S]o he dove in. To grab a beachhead, learn the ropes, and--not the least of it--make some money, Adelson first cut a deal with the Chinese government to erect his "temporary casino." The $265 million Sands, a gleaming Vegas-style palace, opened downtown near the ferry terminal in May 2004. The traffic is so high--40% of the 16 million people who visited Macau in 2004 passed through here, according to the research firm CLSA--and the action so intense that Adelson recouped his initial investment in 12 months. In the year ahead the gambling operation at the Sands is on track to generate north of $320 million in pretax cash flow. That's more than Adelson made last year from the 4,000 hotel rooms and the restaurants, showrooms, shops, gaming tables, and slots at his highly profitable Las Vegas flagship, the Venetian.
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Investors have so far followed where Adelson leads. The shares of Las Vegas Sands, based in Las Vegas, have tripled to $87.55 as of yesterday from $29 when the company began trading publicly on Dec. 14, 2004. Adelson's stake, about 70 percent of the stock based on data compiled by Bloomberg, was valued at $21.43 billion.
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In 1995, Adelson and his partners sold the Interface Group Show Division, including the COMDEX shows, to Softbank Corporation of Japan for a cash price in excess of $860 million. In 1991, while honeymooning in Venice with his wife Miriam (a physician), Adelson gained the inspiration for a mega-resort hotel, and he proceeded with the implosion of the venerable Sands and the construction of the $1.5-billion The Venetian, a Venice-themed resort hotel and casino. The luxurious, all-suite Venetian revolutionized the Las Vegas hotel industry, and has been honored with architectural and other awards naming it as one the finest hotels in the world. In 2003, The Venetian added the 1,013-suite Venezia tower - giving The Venetian 4,049 suites, 18 leading-chef restaurants, a shopping mall with canals, gondolas and singing gondoliers.
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COMMAND CENTRAL of Adelson's empire is a sunlit, spacious, but sparely furnished office on the third floor of the Venetian hotel, right on the Vegas Strip. Part of one long wall holds blow-up pictures of his family: his second wife, Miriam, an Israeli internist whom he married in 1991 (her specialty is treating drug addicts), and their two young sons. Closer to his oval-shaped working table hangs his gallery of fame--some 25 magazine covers, mostly from the likes of Computer Reseller News, Casino Journal, Travel Agent, Meeting & Conventions, Expo, and other trade publications. They capture the decidedly nonglitzy career that propelled him into the celebrity- and power-laden world he now occupies, a world reflected in the photos on the wall across the room: Sheldon (and Miriam) with George Bushes 41 and 43, with Ariel and Bibi, with Rudy and Arnold, and with other notables.
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