Sheldon Adelson’s Legacy Changed Resorts and Casinos Forever

Las Vegas Sands founder Sheldon Adelson, leader of the world’s largest gaming company and benefactor of many Republican political campaigns, died Monday night from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma complications, his company announced Tuesday. He went on medical leave from his company earlier this month to resume treatment of the cancer first diagnosed in 2019. Adelson was 87. The look, feel, and economics of global cities that are gaming resorts today were shaped through the decades by Adelson's lead, mostly by creating a nexus between business gatherings and hotels. While Forbes estimated the casino mogul’s net worth at $35 billion, he started out far away from the glitz surrounding his resorts like Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands or the Venetian in Las Vegas. The son of Ukrainian-Jewish parents who drove a taxi and ran a knitting shop, Adelson grew up in Boston’s working-class Dorchester neighborhood selling newspapers on street corners as a child. Adelson changed the game