Las Vegas Weekly

It’s only money

For his recent Las Vegas cover story in Time, writer Joel Stein scored a rare sit-down with Sheldon Adelson. Stein describes the interview as one of the strangest of his career. For one thing, Adelson arrived with his own video cameraman to record the interview—indeed, when there was a camera problem, Adelson sat silently until it was fixed. Then there was the casino mogul’s perspective on his wealth. According to Stein, Adelson, who once hoped to score the top spot on Forbes’ list of richest Americans, admitted that he had lost much of his fortune in the recession. But his attitude was surprising:

“He seemed completely unbothered by it. The interesting thing about Adelson is that I kind of believed he was not bothered by it. He is like a Ted Turner entrepreneur. The guy does need to work. I think he loves the big risks. My guess is that there is a tiny part of him that finds the ups and downs exciting. He has reached a certain age, and if you are that rich, it really isn’t going to matter to him.”