Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson is still the richest person in Southern Nevada by far and in the top rank of billionaires worldwide.
Forbes magazine is out with its annual list of the wealthiest of the wealthy, and the 2017 compilation has the 83-year-old’s net worth figured at $30.4 billion?a $1.4 billion drop from 2016, but still good for No. 20 on the planet and way ahead of his fellow gaming moguls.
The closest in the casino world is Hong Kong construction magnate and Galaxy Entertainment Chairman Lui Che Woo, who came in at No. 109 with $12.1 billion in net worth.
A couple of other part-timers came in at No. 55 and 96, respectively: corporate raider Carl Icahn, who owns the Fontainebleau on the Las Vegas Strip, worth $16.6 billion, and Ronald Perelman, the businessman and investor who controls Scientific Games and chairs the machine gaming giant, valued at $12.5 billion.
Hong Kong businesswoman and MGM China investor Pansy Ho, the daughter of Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho, is ranked No. 414 with $4.2 billion.
Wynn Resorts Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn, with a mere $2.5 billion in wealth, was ranked 814th, significantly off his 2014 peak of $3.8 billion?tied with Strip rival Phillip Ruffin, who owns Wynn’s old Treasure Island casino hotel and co-owns Trump International in Las Vegas.
Australian gaming mogul James Packer, valued at $3 billion, came in at No. 660.
Back in the U.S., brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III of Station Casinos and Red Rock Resorts fame saw a boost to their bank accounts from the sale of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Lorenzo, 48, and Frank, 55, bought the mixed martial arts promoter in 2001 for $2 million and sold it for $4 billion in 2016. They are tied at No. 1,030 with $2 billion in net worth, a nice jump from last year’s $1.4 billion.
But even at that they were bested by their cousin Tilman Fertitta, ranked by Forbes at No. 693 with $2.9 billion in net worth. The Texas-based tycoon and reality TV star owns Golden Nugget Casinos, the Landry’s Seafood restaurant chain and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
The richest guy in the world? That would be Microsoft founder Bill Gates, 61, worth $86 billion, up from $79.2 billion in 2015, followed by his buddy, Warren Buffett at No. 2 with a net worth calculated at $75.6 billion.
Forbes estimates President Donald Trump to be worth only $3.5 billion, good for No. 544.
But don’t tell him that.
