Sheldon Adelson is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist who was born on August 4, 1933, in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. He was born to a poor family in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston. His parents were Sarah and Arthur Adelson who were of Jewish, Ukrainian, Welsh, and Lithuanian descent. When Adelson was just 12-years-old, he started his own business selling newspapers. He borrowed $200 from his uncle to purchase the license to sell the newspapers. When he was 16, he borrowed $10,000 from his uncle to begin a candy-vending-machine business. Adelson attended the City College of New York but failed to graduate. He tried his hand at being a court reporter but decided to join the Army instead. Adelson was discharged from the army and in the 1960s he began selling toiletry kits. He started another business called De-Ice-It which created a spray to help melt ice off of frozen car windshields. He also started a charter tours business and his many ventures soon made him a millionaire.

Throughout his career, Adelson has started over 50 businesses. In 1988, he purchased the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. He is known for donating large sums to charities such as in 2014 when he donated $2.5 million to the Drug-Free Florida Committee. He married his wife Sandra in the 1970s but divorced in 1988. In 1991, Adelson married a doctor named Miriam Farbstein Ochshorn. Adelson is the third richest man in the United States with a fortune of around $26 billion.