Sheldon Adelson, owner of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. gambling company, has been named the world’s richest gambling billionaire, according to Forbes Magazine. With his $30.4 billion fortune, Adelson is the 20th wealthiest person in the world. The Forbes 2017 World’s Billionaires list now, for the first time ever, includes over 2,000 people who have managed to accumulate ten figure fortunes.

It has been an extremely successful year for the casino magnate octogenarian, Adelson, whose global company also runs gambling establishments in Singapore and Macau. He jumped two spots on the total list from 22nd to 20th spot, with his net worth climbing by $5.2 billion (or 20%).

Other billionaires on the list of the world’s wealthiest billionaires include:

  • #2 (#109th on the Forbes list) – Lui Che Woo, the Chinese founder and chairman of Macau gaming operator Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd with a fortune of $12.1 billion.
  • #3 (#194th on the Forbes list) – Johann Graf, founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Austrian gaming equipment maker Novomatic, with a fortune of $7.2 billion.

Also on the Forbes list are the three offspring of Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho Hung Sun.  Lawrence Ho of Melco Crown, as well as his sisters Pansy Ho (for her shares of MGM China), and Angela Leong (for Stanley Ho’s gaming company, SJM Holding) can all be found on the list. Lawrence Ho is also the youngest gambling tycoon on the list at just 40 years old.

Other gambling families who made the list include the Fertitta Family who own the Nevada based casino chain, Station Casinos.

Mark Scheinberg (PokerStars), Denise Coates (Bet365), Han Chang-Woo (Moruhan Pachinko), and James Packer (Crown Resorts), are also represented on the list, while  Playtech’s Teddy Sagi, with his estimated net worth of $3.1 billion, is #630 on the Forbes List.

Forbes profiles Adelson as such:

  • “Adelson is the chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, the largest casino company in America.
  • He gave $5 million to support Trump in 2016 and $40 million to boost Republican congressional candidates.
  • In 2016 Las Vegas Sands agreed to pay a $9 million penalty to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
  • The son of immigrants from Lithuania and Wales, Adelson grew up sleeping on the floor of a Boston tenement.”

Sheldon Adelson is one of the most vocal and active anti-online gambling personalities in the United States, and he has spent a lot of his money funding federal bills that call for a ban on igaming in the country.  His latest efforts include lobbying for the introduction of RAWA (Restoration of America’s Wire Act), although he has not garnered the support needed to pass such a controversial bill.