What is Miriam Adelson's Net Worth?
Miriam Adelson is an Israeli American physician, political donor and casino heiress who has a net worth of $34 billion. Miriam earned her fortune thanks to her multi-decade marriage to the late Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. Sheldon died on January 11, 2021. At the time of his death Sheldon was worth $40 billion. Upon his death, Miriam inherited majority ownership of Las Vegas Sands, the casino empire that generates more than $4 billion in revenue every year. She owns 47% of the publicly-traded Las Vegas Sands company's outstanding stock and over the last three decades the Adelsons have received $10 billion worth of dividends. She owned 57% of the company's shares prior to November 2023 when she sold roughly $2 billion worth of shares in preparation to buy the Dallas Mavericks from Mark Cuban.
A medical doctor who served in the Israeli army, Miriam is the founder of two clinics that treat substance abuse, one in US and the other in Israel. She and Sheldon were set up on a blind date in 1991 after they had both divorced previous partners. They remained together until his death in 2021. Today she is one of the richest women in the world.
Miriam and Sheldon were also notable for being among the most-generous donors to Republican candidates and conservative causes.
Early Life
Miriam Farbstein was born on October 10, 1945 in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine. Her parents fled Poland ahead of the Holocaust and settled in the Middle East. As a child the family settled in Haifa, Israel, where her father opened a chain of movie theaters.
She got her bachelor's degree in microbiology and genetics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her M.D. from Tel Aviv University's Sackler Medical School. After medical school, Miriam worked as an emergency room doctor at Rokach Hospital in Tel Aviv. She eventually rose to the position of chief internist at the hospital's emergency room. She married Dr. Ariel Ochshorn and had two sons. They divorced in the early 1980s and she moved to New York City to become an associate physician specializing in drug addiction in 1986.
Sheldon Adelson Marriage
In 1986 Miriam moved to New York City after landing a job at Rockefeller University, where she specialized in drug addiction. In 1989 she met Sheldon Adelson. They were set up on a blind date.
Sheldon and Miriam married in 1991. On their honeymoon in Venice, Italy, Sheldon – who by now was a wealthy trade show tycoon with a burgeoning casino business – had an idea for a mega hotel/resort modeled after an Italian city.
(Photo by Isaac Brekken/Getty Images)
Casino Fortune
Sheldon made his first fortune thanks to the Las Vegas COMDEX computer industry trade show that began in 1979.
In 1988 Sheldon purchased the Sands Casino for $110 million.
In 1991 Sheldon razed the Sands and proceeded to spend $1.5 billion constructing his dream mega resort. He called his new casino The Venetian.
In 1995 Sheldon and his partners sold their trade show business to SoftBank for $862 million. Sheldon's earnings from the deal topped $500 million.
Over time Sheldon expanded his empire to a number of locations, notably Macau and Singapore.
Republican/Conservative Donations
Sheldon and Miriam were known to be generous supporters of Donald Trump before and during his Presidency. It was estimated that the Adelsons would donate $200 million to Trump and the Republican party during the 2020 election cycle.
In 2012, the Adelsons donated $93 million to Republicans. Sheldon and Miriam gave $82.58 million to Republicans in 2016 and $123.25 million during the midterm elections in 2018.
Dallas Mavericks
In November 2023 it was revealed through a company filing that Miriam had sold $2 billion worth of her Las Vegas Sands equity to acquire the majority of a sports franchise. A day later it was revealed that she had reached a deal to buy a majority of the Dallas Mavericks from Mark Cuban at a valuation of $3.5 billion. That is slightly lower than the team's previous $4.5 billion estimated valuation, but a more than 10X return on the $285 million Mark paid for the team in 2000, when the seller was Ross Perot.
In addition to maintaining a minority ownership stake, interestingly, the terms of the deal allowed Mark to continue being 100% in charge of basketball operations.
Personal Life
Miriam was married to a man named Arial Ochshorn for a number of years before divorcing in 1980. They had two daughters together. She married Sheldon in 1991 and they remained together until his death in 2021. Sheldon had three adopted children from a previous marriage.
In 2015 one of Miriam's daughters from her first marriage, Yasmin Lukatz, paid $35 million for a mansion in Atherton, California. She sold this home in May 2022 for $45 million.
Las Vegas Mansion
In 2005 Sheldon and Miriam paid $4.1 million for a 2-acre property in Las Vegas. Over the next 8 years the proceeded to build a 43,500 square foot palatial mansion with 8 bedrooms and 20 bathrooms. The sprawling estate is comprised of three lots and has its own private water park in the backyard. It is the largest private residence in Clark County, Nevada.
Malibu Colony
Over the course of several decades, Sheldon and Miriam acquired an unprecedented NINE oceanfront homes in the ultra-exclusive gated Malibu Colony neighborhood. That's around 10% of all the homes that exist in Malibu Colony.
