Republican party mogul and megadonor Sheldon Adelson moves away from Las Vegas Sands Corp. for cancer treatment, leaving his company amid economic uncertainty in the global gambling industry due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr. Adelson, 87, founded Las Vegas Sands and continued to run the company after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which the company announced in March 2019. The billionaire is taking medical leave to resume cancer treatment.
Mr Adelson, whose family is the majority owner of the company, said his succession plan is for the current executive team, including 25-year-old Sands veteran Robert Goldstein and Mr Adelson’s son-in-law Patrick Dumont, to run the company, according to a person familiar with the conversations.
Goldstein, who was the most recent CEO and chairman, was appointed by Sands’ board of directors as the acting chief executive officer and chairman during Mr Adelson’s medical leave, the company said on Thursday. Mr. Dumont joined the company in 2010 and is Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President.
Las Vegas Sands operates casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, Macau and Singapore. As Covid-19 traveled the world last year, casino closures and pandemic restrictions wiped out the gambling company’s revenue. Revenue from Las Vegas Sands fell 82% in the third quarter of last year compared to the same quarter last year.