Sheldon G Adelson's Kevo

According to Forbes Magazine, Adelson is the 14th richest person in the world with a net worth estimated at $20.5 billion. His wealth in 2003 was only $1.4 billion [1]; in 2004, his fortune increased 750% after his company started publicly trading. [2]. He is the third richest man in the US in 2006 and Forbes estimates he has been earning about $1m an hour for the past two years³.

Sheldon Adelson did not start out as a successful businessman. He lost fortunes in venture capital and real estate before it striking rich with trade shows. He started Comdex Computer Dealers Expo in 1979 and it remained profitable. He sold to Japan's Softbank for an unprecedented $860 million 1995.

Adelson decided to get in on the casino/hotel side of the Las Vegas strip and started Las Vegas Sands Inc. to purchase the Sands casino in 1989 for $128 million. He lost money over 5 consecutive years. It was a sketchy purchase in the first place as casino magnate, Steve Wynn, was opening his $630 million Mirage complex, which boasts a 54-foot volcano. Wynn was backed by a $2 billion credit line. "Their front desk looked better than our whole hotel,'' recalls Henri Lewin, who ran the Sands for Adelson in the early 1990s. After seven years of ownership, Adelson blew it up with 100 pounds of dynamite to make way for the 1.3 billion dollar, 3,000 room Italy-themed hotel-casino-resort, the Venetian. The new resort will feature canals and life-size replicas of the ancient city's most famous landmarks. Adelson hopes to open it in April 1999 and plans to go after a customer he knows well, the Comdex people.

And Adelson knows his clientele too. Each room will have a fax, copier, printer, two phone lines, a dedicated fax line, and a safe built to hold a laptop. The entire hotel is so thoroughly wired so that conventioneers can set up private, local area networks to connect rooms, halls and floor booths. It's a strange paradox that Adelson is taking such care to be so technologically advanced as he does not use computers and is not hooked up to the Internet. Adelson has been a member of the Forbes list since 1995 and currently ranks 327 in Forbes 400 list (1998).
Work History
(1999) Chair of Las Vegas Sands, Inc.

He has been involved in dozens of businesses, including four software companies in Israel and California that he declined to name.
Affiliations
Chairman of G.W.V., a Needham, Massachusetts-based travel company
Awards
Sheldon G Adelson has also won numerous Awards