Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson gambled more than $54 million on Tuesday’s elections. And he lost.
The
quixotic chairman of the Las Vegas Sands gaming company rose to the top
of campaign giving in 2012, gaining notoriety for almost
single-handedly staking the campaign of Republican primary contender
Newt Gingrich and then continuing to make audacious contributions once
Gingrich dropped out – with millions more going to GOP nominee Mitt
Romney and two superPACs supporting his bid.
Tuesday,
he emerged as arguably the single biggest loser of the campaign,
financially speaking. In addition to investing in Gingrich and Romney,
Adelson and his relatives donated to the U.S. House campaigns of Rep.
Allan West of Florida and New Jersey Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, and the
Senate runs of Virginia’s George Allen, Florida’s Connie Mack, and
Texas’s David Dewhurst. All lost. (Dewhurst never made it past the
primary.) His sole consolation was helping fund the defeat of hometown
nemesis Shelley Berkley, who lost her bid for a U.S. Senate seat.
Not
that Adelson’s likely to feel much of a sting. Adelson, 79, owns 49
percent of the Las Vegas Sands, a casino company, of which he is
chairman. The company’s operations in Macau and elsewhere in Asia have
made it the world’s leading gambling operation. His estimated net worth
is north of $20.5 billion.
Throughout
the campaign, there was widespread speculation about his motives for
donating so much this cycle. Adelson is a major supporter of Israel and
Israel-related causes. He has also been embroiled in a controversy
surrounding his company’s sizeable operation in Macau, a Chinese island
that has outpaced Las Vegas as a source of gambling revenue.
ABC
News previously reported that Adelson’s company has been the subject of
a criminal investigation for the last year by the Department of Justice
and the Securities Exchange Commission for alleged bribery of foreign
officials, according to corporate documents. A separate civil lawsuit
filed by a former Sands executive has further alleged that Adelson
ordered him to keep quiet about the casinos’ purported “involvement with
Chinese organized crime groups.” Adelson has publicly dismissed the
allegations as frivolous.
In
its filings with the SEC, Adelson’s company says it became aware of the
investigation in February 2011. The company said it “intends to
cooperate with the investigation.” At a gaming forum in 2011, Adelson
said the lawsuit “is not a serious case” and that the federal
investigations would find no wrongdoing. “When the smoke clears, I am
1,000 percent positive that there won’t be any fire below it.”
Sands corporate spokesman Ron Reese did not return messages left at his office Wednesday.
If
Adelson’s goal in donating so much to the 2012 campaigns was to open a
channel of access to high-level federal officials (he has denied he is
seeking access), experts said he is now safe in assuming that effort has
failed.
“I
don’t think he has bridges to the Obama administration,” said Bill
Allison, who follows campaign giving for the Sunlight Foundation.
“One
reason we always think people give, especially that much money, is they
want access,” Allison said. “They want an appointment or an
ambassadorship. They want the ability to pick up the phone and call the
White House. He definitely won’t have that. He has cut himself off by
coming out so strongly on one side.”
But will he be subject to reprisals, having put so much money behind an effort to defeat President Obama?
A White House spokesman responded to that question succinctly: “No.”
- Madam Prezident
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