The House Doesn’t Always Win

I interviewed gaming tycoon Sheldon Adelson a couple of years ago when I was working on All The Money in the World: How the Forbes 400 Make—And Spend—Their Fortunes.

Adelson is certainly one of the more pugnacious billionaires I met during that project. Something tells me he will not be too pleased with Connie Bruck’s lengthy and merciless portrayal in the latest issue of The New Yorker.

When Adelson was merely rich, he wrote checks for causes that he favored and for politicians whom he supported. Occasionally, he demanded to be heard. But he did not expect to play a significant role in U.S. foreign policy, or in Israel’s strategic decisions, or in the fate of a sitting Israeli Prime Minister. That was before he acquired many billions of dollars. (He has assets of twenty-six billion dollars, according to a Forbes list published in March.) His political expenditures and his expectations have increased proportionately. Not long after [President] Bush’s encounter with Adelson last October, an Israeli government representative said that Bush, describing it to another Israeli official, had remarked wryly, “I had this crazy Jewish billionaire, yelling at me.” (The Israeli official does not recall the conversation; the White House said that it had no comment.)

Related
The Brass Ring (TNY)