The Top 10 Wealthiest Casino Owners In The World
1. Sheldon Adelson
The world's wealthiest casino owner is a man with a relatively low-key style, but who has made billions through highly charged ambitions. Sheldon Adelson is the current owner of the Venetian Hotel And Casino in Las Vegas. Well known for philanthropy work worldwide, he also manages to spend some of his earnings on things he enjoys. Currently worth about 21.5 billion, Adelson is still the head CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation at age 76. A favorite hotel in Las Vegas, other versions of the Venetian are now in places like Singapore and Macau. Sheldon first made his fortune by running successful computer shows.
2. Kirk Kerkorian
The second wealthiest casino owner is a 95 year-old Las Vegas entrepreneur named Kirk Kerkorian. Worth about $11 billion, he came from humble beginnings. After working various jobs, he became the owner of a small airline that was famous for shuttling high rolling gamblers around the country. He bought the land on the Las Vegas strip where Caesar's Palace now stands. With money made through that, he bought interests in the movie studio MGM and from there went into the casino business in Las Vegas as head of MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. Even though he has sold some of his share of MGM several times, he still owns 39 percent.
3. Stanley Ho
A man named Stanley Ho, also known as Ho-Hung-Sung comes in third place with wealth of about 7 billion. Mostly renowned as an original Asian godfather, he is now the richest man in Macau. He has made his money through many pursuits including real estate, shipping, air transport, banking and casino ownership. He actually began in illegal activities and was a force to be reckoned with in the early years while he was accumulating his wealth.
4. Steve Wynn
Steve Wynn is listed in fourth place with Las Vegas hotel holdings of about 2.8 billion. Wynn refurbished such Las Vegas hotels as the Golden Nugget, Bellagio, Wynn, Treasure Island, Encore and the Mirage. Wynn is an enthusiastic collector of art and has spent vast amounts of money collecting works from artists like Matisse, Monet, Picasso, Rembrandt, and Vermeer.
5. Donald Trump
The very outspoken Donald Trump comes in fifth place on our list, with many real estate and casino holdings in New York and Atlantic City. Trump now has around 2 billion in assets, even after declaring bankruptcy on three properties. Trump also served as the 45th president of the United States of America, from 2017 to 2021. He was only the third president in the history of the USA to be impeached by the House of Representatives and the only one to be impeached twice, in 2019 and 2021.
6. Elaine Wynn
Another honorable mention in our list of wealthiest casino owners is Elaine Wynn, Steve Wynn's former wife, with interest in at least 68 casino properties and estimated wealth of 1.7 billion. Wynn has become known as the Queen of Las Vegas and is the largest shareholder of the publicly traded Wynn Resorts as of March 2018. She also works as a co-chair of the Lost Angeles County Museum of Art and pledged a donation of $50 million in 2016. This money is to be used to build a permanent new collection space.
7. Phil Ruffin
Entrepreneur Phil Ruffin is also on the list with interest in over 65 casino properties. Most notably, Ruffin sold the New Frontier Hotel and Casino for $1.2 billion to El-Ad Properties in 2007. Because of the hard work he’d put in and the renovations he’d put into place, this property became the highest-priced purchase per acre in the history of the Vegas Strip.
8. John Paulson
Next would be John Paulson, with interests in Caesar's Entertainment and Boyd Gaming. Known for his frequent donations to charities, in 2015 Paulson went above and beyond. He pledged $400 million to Harvard University, the largest gift the college has ever received in its 400+ years of existence.
9-10 Frank Fertitta III & Lorenzo Fertitta
Rounding out our top 10 list of wealthiest casino owners is Frank Fertitta III with 1.25 billion and interest in 49 land-based casinos and Lorenzo Fertitta, with 1.2 billion and interest in over 40 land-based casinos. The Fertitta's are also brothers who inherited their interest in the casino business from their father's many casino enterprises. Frank Fertitta III is the present CEO of Station Casinos in Las Vegas.
