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Las Vegas Sands Billionaire Dr. Miriam Adelson to Spend ‘Whatever It Takes’ for Trump Victory

Dr. Miriam Adelson, the largest shareholder of Las Vegas Sands with a 46% stake in the Macau casino empire, has pledged to spend “whatever it takes” to reelect her friend Donald Trump.

Miriam Adelson Donald Trump campaign
Dr. Miriam Adelson and former President Donald Trump embrace during a campaign rally at his Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Adelson, the Las Vegas Sands owner, is ready to spend over $100 million to fund Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. (Image: AP)

Adelson and her late husband, Sands founder Sheldon Adelson, have been Trump’s biggest supporters since the former casino tycoon announced his 2016 presidential run. The Adelson family poured more than $200 million into Trump’s 2016 run and unsuccessful 2020 reelection bid.

Adelson pledged this week to open up her deep pockets, estimated by Forbes to be north of $28 billion, to bankroll Trump for a third consecutive presidential election cycle. At a campaign event at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., Adelson reportedly hinted that she has a blank check policy for the former president and will give his campaign whatever it needs to get him back in the White House.

Political odds currently have Trump as a slight underdog. Vice President Kamala Harris’ odds on political wagering exchange Polymarket give her an implied chance of 51% to Trump at 47%.

Overseas bookmakers have Harris at -125, or implied odds of 55.6%. Trump is even money (+100 — 50%).

Las Vegas Sands no longer has domestic casino holdings after selling The Venetian and Palazzo resorts on the Las Vegas Strip in early 2022 for $6.25 billion. The company has several casino resorts in China’s Macau and is lobbying heavily in Texas for the Lone Star State to welcome casino resorts.

Adelson and her son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, Sands’ president and chief operating officer, acquired a controlling stake in the NBA Dallas Mavericks from Mark Cuban last year. Adelson’s fortune tumbled over the last 12 months, as Sands’ stock price crashed almost 25%.

Adelson Super PAC

Adelson will once again primarily fund Trump through her super political action committee (PAC) Preserve America. She gave the PAC $5 million in May to get its Trump campaign up and running, but the committee’s treasure chest will see considerably more money from the Sands owner in the coming weeks.

According to Andy Abboud, the Adelsons’ longtime political aide, family advisor, and spokesperson, Preserve America will spend upwards of $100 million to make sure Harris doesn’t become the 47th president.

We’re going to do whatever it takes for him to win,” Abboud confirmed in an interview with CNBC on Friday. “In her mind, and in the minds of those who run [Preserve America], we are going to do whatever it takes for him to win.”

In addition to her Preserve American, Adelson in May wrote a check for $844,600 to the Trump 47 Committee. She’s also given 38 committees and PACs $10,000 each that are working to put GOP governors and congresspeople into office this November. 

Israel in Focus

Adelson says Jewish voters should vote for Trump, a strong ally of the Israeli state who relocated the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem while president. The embassy’s relocation was of utmost importance to the Adelsons, who attended the embassy’s opening on May 14, 2018, sitting in the front row.

President Trump deserves the full support of the entire Jewish people,” Adelson, who received the Medal of Freedom from Trump in 2018 for her philanthropic work in medical research, Holocaust memorialization, and strengthening the American Jewish community. “Anyone who cares about Israel’s security and prosperity, this must be our pledge to him — this must be our promise to him — that the White House will be his again come January.”

Harris reportedly strongly considered Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) to be her running mate but was rumored to have been concerned that his Jewish heritage could turn off the Democrats’ Palestinian support.

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Las Vegas Sands’ Dr. Miriam Adelson Makes First Political Donation in Nearly Two Years

Dr. Miriam Adelson, the largest individual shareholder of the Las Vegas Sands casino empire she inherited from her late husband, has made her first political donation in nearly two years. But the cash didn’t go directly to Donald Trump, the former president whose 2016 and 2020 White House campaigns she and her husband, Sheldon Adelson, dumped more than $200 million into.

Miriam Adelson Donald Trump Las Vegas Sands
Dr. Miriam Adelson remains the largest shareholder of Las Vegas Sands, the casino empire founded by her late husband. Adelson hasn’t yet donated to Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, though she resumed her political spending in March after nearly two years. (Image: Haaretz)

Adelson controls 46% of the Sands organization following her $2 billion stock sell-off last year to acquire a controlling ownership position in the NBA Dallas Mavericks. Adelson, a stalwart Republican and perhaps the strongest pro-Israel voice in the United States, remained politically active in 2022 after the January 2021 death of her husband.

Adelson gave $1 million to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) reelection in 2022, a contribution many saw as an effort to win political favor for the state welcoming in commercial casinos. She also gave $20 million to GOP congressional committees that year.

Adelson’s political spending went quiet throughout 2023. But federal campaign finance records show that Adelson, who’s worth more than $30 billion, might be returning to the political arena ahead of the November 2024 presidential election.

PAC Money

Before 2024, Adelson’s last political donation was an $8,100 contribution in November 2022 to a California Republican’s Attorney General campaign. Records from the Federal Election Commission reveal that Adelson reopened her political treasure chest in March with a $5,000 donation to the Las Vegas Sands Political Action Committee (Sands PAC).

The Sands PAC predominantly supports Republican candidates both on the federal and state level. The PAC limits its contributions to a maximum of $5,000 per candidate.

Adelson pitching in $5,000 is rather uneventful, but it could hint that the billionaire is readying to ramp up her political spending. Adelson said during the 2024 GOP primary that she wouldn’t endorse or financially support a candidate in favor of allowing the Republican electorate to decide who should challenge President Joe Biden.

The primary is long over, yet Adelson hasn’t contributed to Trump’s 2024 campaign. He needs cash, as the costly lawsuits against him play out.

Adelson and her husband poured more than $524 million into Republican campaigns and PACs between 2011 and 2022.

Biden Outpacing Trump

According to the FEC, Biden has significantly more cash on hand than Trump. The incumbent has around $130.8 million in funds to spend on his 2024 campaign, while Trump is said to have around $66.7 million.

Adelson, of course, can singlehandedly push Trump above Biden, assuming the Democrats’ largest donors, including George Soros and Michael Bloomberg, don’t do the same with hefty donations to the president.

Trump will be without the support of Americans for Prosperity, the super PAC controlled by the Koch network. The group backed Nikki Haley during the 2024 GOP presidential primary. The Koch network is controlled by Charles Koch, one of the world’s richest individuals who has long been a Republican supporter, but a Trump foe.

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Court Voids Nassau Coliseum Lease Transfer for Sands New York Casino Plan

A New York State Supreme Court justice Thursday annulled a previously agreed to lease transfer of Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, NY — the site where Las Vegas Sands is looking to construct a $4 billion casino hotel.

Sands Long Island
Nassau Coliseum. A New York State Supreme Court justice voided the county’s lease transfer agreement with Las Vegas Sands. (Image: LongIsland.com)

In May, the Republican-controlled Nassau County legislators voted 17-1 in favor of granting Sands a 99-year lease to develop county-owned land on the Nassau Hub site. Sands revealed in January that its quest for a New York City-area gaming license would be centered on Nassau County. This year, Sands has paid $241 million to the former lease holder, Nassau Live Center LLC, as well as $54 million to the county as required by the lease accord.

Sands’ effort to procure one of the three yet-to-be-awarded New York City-area casino permits is widely supported by Nassau County politicians of both parties and the plan is mostly favored by vocals, but Hofstra University is a vocal critic of the proposal.

In April, the university, which is located near the Coliseum, sued Nassau County, alleging county officials held talks on the Sands casino without informing the public of those discussions. If true, that violates New York’s open meeting laws.

Hofstra has demonstrated that the failure to post the resolution was not merely technical, but rather was ‘an attempt to avoid public scrutiny’ of the proposed lease transfer,” wrote Justice Sarika Kapoor in her decision.

Sands said the ruling doesn’t affect its New York plans nor does it believe the decision will impact its odds of winning a gaming permit in the state.

Nassau County Has Some Work to Do

In her ruling, Kapoor asserted that Nassau County focused more on the technicalities of the Coliseum lease transfer to Sands and less on allowing public comment on the issue and how a gaming venue could affect nearby communities.

Sands has touted the job-creating potential of the proposed gaming venue and its ability to bolster receipts for Nassau County and the state. The company has also highlighted plans to lure convention business to the hotel, entertainment and restaurants — traits that diminish the argument that it would be a gaming-centric establishment.

However, the Say NO to the Casino Civic Association, a group opposing the Nassau County casino effort, argued that not only have locals not had their voices heard, but a gaming venue could increase crime, environmental harm and traffic. The group is calling for environmental and traffic impact studies to be conducted following the Supreme Court ruling.

In her decision, Kapoor noted because the county “engaged in improper segmentation by not considering the future development planned by Sands, the Court finds that the Nassau County Legislature did not take the requisite ‘hard look’ at the relevant areas of environmental concern raised by the lease transfer…”

A traffic study has yet to be conducted, and Sands chose to focus its New York efforts on Long Island to avoid contributing to motor vehicle congestion in Manhattan. In August, Sands submitted a land-use application to Hempstead — one of the towns that could be affected by the casino hotel — and that town is conducting an environmental impact review as required by state law.

Ruling Adds to Already Chaotic New York Casino Process

In 2022, New York lawmakers approved three downstate casinos — a decision that has lured some of the industry’s biggest names to the fourth-largest state to try their luck. Since then, the process has become increasingly hectic.

It was originally expected that regulators there would decide on the three winning bidders in 2024, but some analysts believe that decision will be pushed off to 2025. Additionally, bids by MGM’s Empire City Casino in Yonkers and Genting’s Resorts World New York in Queens could be hampered by former executive Scott Sibella’s alleged role in an illegal sports betting ring.

Thursday’s court ruling on the Nassau County lease transfer adds to the chaos. The Say NO to Casino Civic Association views the decision as a warning shot for other New York casino efforts.

“New York State officials should take note of this ruling by Judge Kapoor when making decisions on awarding the gambling licenses, as it highlights (Nassau) County Executive (Bruce) Blakeman’s contempt for his own constituents, and his blatant disregard for federal, state, and even county laws, as well as the right of every Nassau County resident to understand the wide-ranging, long-term impacts that this massive project will have on our way of life,” according to the group.

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