Donald Trump
Successful businessmen rarely limit themselves only to one type of entrepreneurship. He is the CEO of Trump Organization, an American-based real estate developer in the premium real estate market and the founder of Trump Entertainment, which operates gambling casinos. Gambling industry often serves as a good support for main business. This is how the famous American billionaire and politician Donald Trump uses the gambling industry. Trump began his career at his father's company, the Trump Organization, and initially concentrated on his father's preferred field of middle class rental housing.The range of Trump's interests is very wide, first of all, it is real estate, mass media, restaurants. It is not surprising that such a multifaceted entrepreneur became also interested in gambling industry. Understanding that practically all niches in Las Vegas are occupied, Trump paid his attention to the developing Atlantic City. It is there that he founded three casinos. Now Trump owns "Trump Taj Mahal", "Trump Plaza" and "Trump Marina" in Atlantic City. The fortune of Donald Trump is 2.6 billion dollars, he occupies the 278th position in "Forbes" world rating. (photo by Gage Skidmore)
Steve Wynn
The third serious player on the market of gambling entertainments in Las Vegas and Macao. Steve was born in 1942 in Connecticut. Unlike Kirk and Sheldon, Steve received very good education, according to American standards - he graduated from Pennsylvania university. Steve had to engage in private business straight after graduation. His father, the owner of the network of bingo clubs in the west of the U.S., died when Steve was still a student. The son continues his business. Steve's career in "big" business starts in 1967. Having saved some money, he buys a small share of the casino-hotel "Frontier" in Las Vegas, where he moved for permanent residence together with his wife. Having no funds to build his own casino, Steve gets acquainted with the owners of the already existing casinos and offers them his services in renewal of their business. His first project was reconstruction of the casino "Golden Nugget". Steve transformed the absolutely ordinary casino into a luxurious institution, which immediately became a great success with the players. Having showed himself and earned a pretty penny, Steve decided to invest money into buying shares of other Vegas casinos, in order to reconstruct them as well. The following major project is renovation of the casino "The Mirage". According to Steve's conception, it was to become the most outstanding, rich, elite casino of Las Vegas. He intends to found there a big park and an artificial volcano, and make the best rooms and hotel service in Vegas. Steve bets on luxury. Despite apprehensions of the partners (the project was very expensive), he managed to embody his ideas. "The Mirage" became and for a long period remained the most prestigious casino of Las Vegas, bringing huge profits to its owners.After this project Steve's name enters the history of the world capital of gambling. However, Steve does not rest on his laurels. Conversely, he becomes thoroughly engrossed in a new reckless venture. Developing his conception of a "luxurious casino", he totally changes the casino-hotel "Bellagio": an artificial lake, an internal greenhouse, an art gallery with canvases of great painters, expensive boutiques and restaurants. Enormous diligence, multiplied by talent, made Steve one of the richest people in Vegas, the owner of casinos. In 2000 he sells "The Mirage" to the company "MGM Grand", which after this purchase changes its name to "MGM Mirage".
Wynn spends most of his money on building a new institution, which opens in April 2005 on the site of "Desert Inn". The new brainchild of Steve is called "Wynn Las Vegas".
Apart from interests in Vegas, Steve invests funds into conquering the Asian market. In the short-term perspective it is planned to open the casino "Wynn Macau". Steve's activity has brought him 2.1 billion dollars, which allowed him to occupy the 365th position in "Forbes" world rating.
Sheldon Adelson
The businessman came to the gambling market in 1989 buying the casino-hotel "Sands" in Las-Vegas, which was earlier owned by Frank Sinatra. Understanding that one more casino in Vegas is trivial and that is why relatively unprofitable, he decides to transform the capital of gambling into the international business center, in order to attract rich entrepreneurs (potential players) to his casino. Within several years Adelson built the business centre "Sands Expo". In 1991 he invested one and a half billion dollars for building the casino-hotel "Venetian". The new casino was targeted not only at players, but also at businessmen who came to his new business center. As many experts acknowledge, "Venetian" is one of the most beautiful casino-hotels in the world. There are more than 4000 rooms, 18 restaurants, a trade center (emporium), and all this is at the background of Venetian channels, with gondolas sailing and gondoliers singing their famous songs. In 2004 Adelson opened the casino "Venetian" in Macao, the first casino of Las Vegas type in Asia. In May 2006 he managed to obtain a permit for building a casino in Singapore, which will presumably be opened in 2009. It is planned that more than 3 billion dollars will be invested into its construction.
At the moment, according to "Forbes", Adelson's fortune is 16.1 billion dollars, i.e. he is number 14 in the world rating of the wealthiest people of the planet.
Related: When the "house" loses billions.
