Sheldon Adelson Tops Global Gaming Rich List

Sheldon Adelson, Chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, has again become the wealthiest individual in the global gaming industry. He is in the 28th position of the Forbes 2020 rich list with a net worth of US$26.8 billion.

Carl Icahn, the man behind Caesars Entertainment’s US$17.3 billion merger with Eldorado Resorts, is in 78th position of the Forbes 2020 list with US$13.8 billion and Galaxy Entertainment Group’s Lui Che Woo is in 106th with US$11.7 billion.

However, the LVS boss has seen his fortune fall amid the COVID-19 pandemic, having been ranked 24th as recently as November 2019 with a net worth at that time of US$37.7 billion. The US$10.9 billion drop in his net worth means 28.9% of his fortune has been wiped away since the emergence of the global coronavirus outbreak.

“The richest people on Earth are not immune to the coronavirus. As the pandemic tightened its grip on Europe and America, global equity markets imploded, tanking many fortunes. As of March 18, when we finalized this list, Forbes counted 2,095 billionaires, 58 fewer than a year ago and 226 fewer than just 12 days earlier, when we initially calculated these net worths. Of the billionaires who remain, 51% are poorer than they were last year. In raw terms, the world’s billionaires are worth US$8 trillion, down US$700 billion from 2019,” Forbes noted.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos topped the list for the third year in a row with US$113 billion, closely followed by Bill Gates with US$98 billion.

Novomatic Group owner Johan Graf came in at 230th with US$6.5 billion while PokerStars co-founder Mark Scheinberg ranked 345th with US$4.9 billion.