Sheldon Adelson Goes From Rags To Riches

Sheldon Adelson’s rise to wealth can be made into a made for tv movie. Adelson grew up in tenement housing in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Adelson's father was a cab driver and his mother operated a knitting shop from their home. Adelson grew up sharing a bedroom with his three siblings and their parents.

Even know the odds were stacked up against him he is now one of the richest people in the United States. His net worth is estimated at $9 billion dollars.

Adelson is chairman and chief executive of Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS), the casino company he founded in 1988. He has always been involved with launching businesses. At age 12, he borrowed $200 from and uncle and purchased the right to sell newspapers on street corners. When he was 16, he was running his own candy vending machine business.

Over the next couple of decades, Adelson was involved in many businesses varying from packaging toiletries for hotels to selling de-icing products for windshields. He was a mortgage broker, an advertising salesman for financial media, a tour business operator, and a real estate investor. He had many highs and lows during this time.

In 1988, with other investors, he bought the struggling Sands Hotel and Casino(NYSE: LVS) and turned it into a convention center. In the years following, he grew his empire by building the Venetian and Palazzo resorts in Las Vegas and several other casinos and hotels in Macau. Adelson’s net worth skyrocketed when the Las Vegas Sands and Casino went public in 1994.

The recession has hit Adelson hard. His net worth use to be $26.5 billion, he was the third-richest person in the United States. In recent months, Adelson's net worth has tripled at shares of Las Vegas Sands have climbed.