Sheldon Adelson's $10m bet for the White House

Billionaire businessman Sheldon Adelson has backed outside runner Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign to the tune of $10m. Is this his most flamboyant gamble?

When Sheldon Adelson recreated Venice in Las Vegas complete with a replica St Mark's Square, Rialto Bridge and Grand Canal some thought him mad, says Christina Lamb in The Sunday Times. "A man who does nothing by halves", Adelson created a lagoon in the desert and hired opera-singing gondoliers to entice business conference delegates (unlikely customers) to his casino resort. "Fifteen years on, he is seen as having revolutionised the Vegas hotel industry."

Adelson is now bent on administering a similar shake-up to the US political system, says The Atlantic. With his wife, Miriam, he has poured $10m into friend Newt Gingrich's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination funding the "attack" commercials that helped him beat Mitt Romney in South Carolina.

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