The majority owner of Las Vegas Sands, Miriam Adelson ranks 50th among the world’s richest and leads among gambling tycoons, followed by Galaxy chairman Lui Che Woo by 166%, the new Forbes list reveals.
Miriam Adelson, wife of Sheldon Adelson, founder of Las Vegas Sands who passed away in 2021, continues to have the largest fortune among gambling tycoons, according to the 2022 ranking drawn up by Forbes magazine. Owner of 53.7% of Las Vegas Sands, Miriam Adelson is 50th on the list of the world’s richest people, with wealth valued at 27.5 billion US dollars.
Despite falling 14 places in the world table, and her fortune declining from the estimated 38.2 billion in 2021, 76-year-old Miriam Adelson clearly stands out in the casino business. In this universe, the second richest is Lui Che Woo, chairman of Galaxy Entertainment, who dropped from 93rd to 166th in the space of a year, and saw his fortune fall from 19.4 billion to 11.6 billion dollars.
Forbes recently placed 93-year-old Lui Che Woo in eighth place in the “top 50” of Hong Kong’s richest people, which also included Lawrence Ho, chairman of the Melco group. However, Lawrence Ho is no longer on the new world list, after his fortune was estimated at 2.4 billion in 2021.
In line with the general trend in the gambling industry, the wealth of Pansy Ho (951st in the ranking), co-chairman of MGM China, fell from 4.3 to 3.2 billion dollars compared to 2021, while that of Angela Leong (1,096th), CEO of SJM Holdings, fell from 3.4 to 2.8 billion, according to Forbes’ accounts.
Steve Wynn, founder and former chairman of Wynn Resorts, is in 913th place with 3.3 billion dollars. His ex-wife, Elaine Wynn, still a shareholder in Wynn Resorts, comes in at 1,645th, with 1.8 billion.
Overall, the Forbes list includes 2,668 billionaires, 87 fewer than in 2021, with a combined fortune valued at 12.7 billion dollars, an annual decrease of 400 billion that the magazine attributed to the impact of the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the crisis in the financial markets. Even so, more than a thousand tycoons are richer today than they were a year ago.
The US leads by country, with 735 billionaires, including Elon Musk, who tops the ranking for the first time. China (including Macau and Hong Kong) remains in second place, with 607 super-rich.