Billionaire, Sheldon Adelson | featured news

In a lengthy explainer on Monday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow illustrated how a risky bet and some seemingly shady dealings in China helped earn casino mogul Sheldon Adelson tens of billions of dollars, and possibly even some criminal charges.

Sheldon Adelson has reportedly given $10 million to Republican Mitt Romney’s Super PAC. This should come as no surprise and expect the $10 million to be just be the beginning of a total gift that Adelson, the billionaire owner of the Las Vegas Sands casino empire, will likely rain on the Romney campaign.

For months now, his name has gone hand-in-hand with that of Newt Gingrich. But as the former House speaker prepares to leave the Republican nomination race next week, Sheldon Adelson has to decide what political causes -- and which candidates -- to support.

Time may be up for Newt Gingrich; but his biggest backer is not going away. Sheldon Adelson, the casino billionaire who with his wife donated $16.5 million dollars to a Newt-linked Super PAC – and later said he might be willing to up that to $100 million – has made it plain he’ll eagerly switch his allegiance to whichever Republican faces Barack Obama in the fall.

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson said on Wednesday he plans to spend $35 billion on a mini-Las Vegas strip in Spain where he is courting the country's two top urban areas, Barcelona and Madrid, with plans for a casino complex.

Abraham Foxman, the amiably chatty director of the Jewish civil rights group, the Anti-Defamation League, has a story to tell about his friend, the 78-year-old multi-billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. Adelson, who is America's eighth richest man and has given millions of dollars in support of Newt Gingrich's presidential bid, was having dinner with Foxman in Las Vegas several years ago. Foxman let slip that he was having to miss an invitation to the White House from the then president, George W. Bush. Foxman explained it was impossible to get a commercial flight. Adelson replied: "If the president of the United States asks you to go, you go." Then he gave Foxman the use of his private plane.