Dr Miriam Adelson, controlling shareholder of Las Vegas Sands Corp, has for the fourth year in a row topped the list of global gaming leaders on the Forbes 2025 World’s Billionaires list.
The 79-year-old and her family rank 56th on this year’s list with a fortune of US$32.1 billion – broadly in line with the US$32 billion she held according to the 2024 list. She has, however, fallen 21 places since ranking 35th in 2023 with a US$35 billion fortune.
Dr Adelson is the widow of Las Vegas Sands founder Sheldon Adelson, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 87, and holds a 54% stake in the company despite selling off around US$2 billion worth of shares in late 2023 to fund acquisition of NBA team the Dallas Mavericks.
Notably absent from this year’s list is the Lui family following the recent passing of family patriarch Lui Che Woo in November. Dr Lui, who founded Hong Kong construction giant K.Wah International and Macau casino giant Galaxy Entertainment Group, had ranked 180th on last year’s list with a US$11.2 billion fortune. His son, Francis Lui, has since assumed the chairmanship of both companies but does not appear on Forbes’ World’s Billionaires list in 2025.
One man who is present is Enrique Razon Jr – the Philippine ports giant who also owns Solaire Resort parent Bloomberry Resorts Corp. Razon ranks 227th in 2025 with US$10.9 billion to his name.
Other notables on the 2025 list include Novomatic founder Johann Graf at 274, MGM China’s Pansy Ho at 902 and Wynn Resorts founder Steve Wynn at 979.
Topping this year’s list is Elon Musk, who has dethroned French luxury goods titan Bernard Arnault at the top with an estimated net worth of US$342 billion. His 75% jump in wealth follows big new valuations of xAI and SpaceX, and a 12-month rise in Tesla stock, despite the recent selloff. Musk is the first person to reach the US$300 billion mark, Forbes said.
The 2025 year’s list features 3,028 billionaires, the most since the list’s inception in 1987, with the world’s wealthiest people collectively worth a record-breaking US$16.1 trillion. A record 15 people worldwide now have 12-figure fortunes, up from 14 last year and zero in 2017.
