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Republican presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich speaks during a news conference after the Nevada caucus at the Venetian Saturday, February 4, 2012
By J. Patrick Coolican (contact) 
Monday, March 26, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp., speaks during the news conference of the opening ceremony of the Venetian Macao Resort Hotel in Macau Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007.
Local kajillionaire Sheldon Adelson spent $16.5 million to help his friend Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign, and I think we can say with certainty it was a waste of money, like “John Carter” or building a condo tower on the Las Vegas Strip in 2007.
Aside from a brief moment after Gingrich’s victory in the South Carolina primary, his campaign has been little more than a vanity tour, his poll numbers hampered by the thing that has always plagued Gingrich: The American people resoundingly do not like Newt Gingrich.
For Adelson, $16.5 million — that’s the confirmed family donation to a Gingrich-affiliated super PAC — is a drop in a bottomless bucket. Indeed, with so many people here in Las Vegas and in Macau and Pennsylvania playing the reverse ATM game, er, slot and table games, Adelson is the seventh-richest man in America, according to Forbes.
To many needy organizations in Las Vegas, though, that’s a lot of money. How much? Well, I decided to ask some nonprofits what they could do with that kind of coin. (When I was reporting this last week, I had been given a lowball figure of $10 million from a company insider, so I asked the worthy causes what they would do with $10 million.)
First, let’s acknowledge that Sheldon and his wife, Dr. Miriam Adelson, are already important philanthropists. As Las Vegas Sands spokesman Ron Reese says, “The Adelsons’ philanthropic donations dwarf what they do politically.”
They’ve given at least $100 million to Birthright Israel, which provides trips to Israel for Jewish young adults. They’ve given tens of millions through the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation. The Adelson Educational Campus opened in the fall of 2008 and now serves 500 students. Adelson brings wounded service members to his hotels a couple times a year to show appreciation for their sacrifices. No doubt there are other recipients that don’t make the media.
Adelson’s company, Las Vegas Sands, meanwhile, gives to Opportunity Village, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, The Public Education Foundation, the Smith Center for the Performing Arts and the Problem Gambling Center, among others.
Still, it’s hard not to think of those millions going to help Gingrich yammer away at us like Cliff Clavin of “Cheers,” only with a Ph.D. and a Tiffany’s account.
So, how better to spend next time?
My responders were uniformly leery of upsetting a potential donor, so please don’t hold it against them, Mr. Adelson.
Three Square Food Bank’s budget is $12 million. With $10 million, they could serve an additional 15 million meals per year, achieving 60 percent of the estimated need, instead of the current 30 percent. One in six people in the valley, or at least 300,000 residents, face food insecurity.
UNLV could also use an endowment to attract and retain the best students and professors. A $10 million endowment would ensure stable, permanent funding for UNLV’s Black Mountain Institute, the underappreciated center for writers.
One UNLV eminence says $10 million is halfway to $20 million, which could in turn be leveraged to find the $100 million needed to build UNLV’s own medical school.
Freedom House, a sober living facility, would work on its buildings and use the money for job training, substance abuse treatment, education, food, and rent and utility assistance for recovering addicts and homeless teens, among a bunch of other useful ideas.
Dr. Miriam Adelson is an addiction specialist and founded the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse Treatment & Research in 2000.
Ronald Lawrence, executive director of the Community Counseling Center, says that with $10 million, it could increase staff from 40 to 200, which means it could serve 15,000 clients annually, instead of 3,000. Or it could increase treatment space from 17,000 square feet to 170,000 square feet. Or it could create a complete inpatient unit with physicians, psychiatrists and nurses. Southern Nevada doesn’t have enough mental health facilities or outpatient services, which results in the county jail being our largest psychiatric facility.
The Las Vegas Art Museum, before it was shuttered in 2009, had an annual budget of about $1 million.
Child Focus brings together siblings who are separated by the foster care system, sending them to a wilderness camp and hosting events several times per year. Their annual budget is $900,000, so $10 million would, well, you get the idea.
This column first appeared in Las Vegas Weekly, a sister publication of the Sun.
Clearly, Sheldon Adelson could care less what other people think about his political donations, and it is his money after all.
What to do?
Well, if you don't agree with Adelson's wing-nut politics, just stay out of his properties. Less money in his machines means less money to support his causes.
Money talks, you know...
Onew could argue what Sheldon does with his money. However, in fairness, he does support local charities as well. Can the same be said for other local millionaires (hint... Steve Wynn, the Fertittas, Maloofs, Gaughns and the Herbst family?)
Another liberal who thinks he should be able to decide how someone else spends their money. He can do whatever he wants with it, because he EARNED it, a concept that is really alien to liberals.
With tongue firmly lodged in his cheek, Coolican has identified a considerbly well-hidden wake of the Sheldon Adelson few of us knew about. His litany of donations, of contributions and philanhropy is impressive and, for a poor boy like me, presnts a rather jaw-dropping profile of a person I know I do not know, but whom I had come to despise because of my limited understanding of his community integration.
Thank you Mr. Coolican and thank you Mr and Mrs Adelson for the breadth and depth of your sharing the wealth...
That said, let's re-examine the NPRI and Newter support. One question: how can people as shrewd and succesful as the two of you NOT see the hollow void in these enterprises that seem only to increase the heat while avoiding the light?
Really good article, Patrick. Thanks for the inclusion of some of the hidden facets of the face of the ordinary kazillionaire extraordinaire. thingsreonates with a
Coolican's comments will no doubt resonate poorly with conservatives. Adelson has done voters a service by making the Republican primary less certain, and making Romney earn the nomination , rather than taking it for granted. His regal bearing is almost too much to take, as it is. Presently, it appears that Santorum would make a better bet for a contrarian political benefactor. At least he stands a chance of upsetting the status quo, in Republican circles.
Hey Koolaid Coolican, I got an idea.
How about you become like many successful businessmen and then you can give your money away.
You just need to work around the clock from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM Sun through Sat for about 3 decades.
Go at it.
Chop, chop.
ladies and gentlemen...
boys and girls...
let a little birdie make it very clear to you...
big business has destroyed america...
big business caused the financial meltdown...
and the reason they have so much political clout is simple...
too many fools that make less than $250,000 vote against their own self interest come election time...
they are drunk on all the propaganda fox fiction, rushbo the drug addict, and all the other clowns are selling...
or...
they are just plain old dumb...
Or Sheldon's wasted $16m could have been spent to launch Noot and Calistrol in a rocket to the moon, which most thinking people agree would be a huge benefit to mankind.
Sheldon Adelson should of just dumped those millions in a big pile outside the Sands casino and set it on fire like the Joker did in "The Dark Knight" movie.
Because he EARNED it, he can do what what he wants, chop, chop.
On to the Romney lovefest now, hey guys?
:-))))))))))
The crux of the matter, with bone-heads on the left, is they are upset with folks who spend their own money since they want to spend it for them. There is an exception, of course. That is when kazillionaires such as George Soros pour untold millions into left wing causes. Not a squawk out of sages such as Coolican, in that case. As for Joe Lamy, the guy is incoherent and incomprehensible. Perhaps he's suffered a stroke or is dislexic. Pity the poor mope.
Thanks Jerry. I must admit my typing was awful. My glasses had fallen overboard, I was stuck on the lap-top, and your scrutinous eye found ALL of my errors along with my express respect for Mr. and Mrs. Adelson's generous contributions about which I had no idea until Mr Coolican brought some of their generosity into focus in this illuminating piece.
Though I once worked with dyslexic children, I seldom viewed them as mopes, often found their witty remarks remarkably astute, and always treated them respect. Thank you for your revealing comments, and have a wonderful day!
Millions more were wasted on Obama and that cost all of us, $$TRILLIONS
yeah, he could of invested the money in Gold and Silver instead of the federal reserve notes that Ben Bernanke continually debases....
He should have given the money to Shelly Berkley, then JPC would have never questioned Mr. Adelson's wisdom of how he contributes to political campaigns.
Jerry, most of us bone-head left-wing flaming liberal types generally reserve pity for those among us whose failed abilities have hemmed them into a life of denial and denigration, those whose defeatism has engulfed their humanity, those who would yell at kids trying to learn how to make change or serve people in a restaurant but found their boss prefers to YELL at them for their weakness rather than assist them in developing their talents.
Thanks again for bringing the bone-head issue to light. Mrs. Adelson's life work has wrought breakthroughs in medicine while Mr. Adelson's restauranteurs make change, donate kajillions to worthy causes, and help folks on their way to becoming whole with respect and dignity in their hearts, understanding and decency in their tone, and humanity in their demeanor every day.
Coolican's article reflects the gifts of the Adelsons to our community. And your comments??
When UNLV can afford to pay $100K for the 1 class Inverted Underwater Basket-weaving(political science) instructor from Georgia, they cant be in need of funds.
I could care less what Mr. Adelson spends his money on but he had to know, like the rest of us, that Newt Gingrich had no chance in the Republican primaries (let alone the election) and that keeping Gingrich in the race would only help Mitt Romney by siphoning votes from Rick Santorum. In several races, Newt + Rick > Mitt. So who was Mr. Adelson really supporting?
I just bought a really expensive cup of coffee at Starbucks, I hope I get a column written for it too :)
He's a Zionist that wants US to go to war with Iran on Israel's behalf just like he and his neocon buddies got us into Iraq and Newt will do his bidding! The American people are being played by foreign interests to fight their wars!
and Hillary Clinton raised more than $245 million for her failed 2008 presidential campaign. think of what that money could have been used for. oh, and her campaign went into record debt. even though she put in $13 million of her own money, she is still soliciting donations to pay it off...how "classy" of her and how dumb of her supporters. sheldon adelson at least contributes his own money to charitable causes...what has hillary directly contributed too?
acejoker--
I find it difficult to believe that "Many" believed that Gingrich would (or could) be the Republican nominee, at any time.
Las Vegas Sands casino's is now a republican only hang out.
No democrat would dare go there anymore.
Or, they could have given $1 million to 16 of us seniors who were "job eliminated" victims during the downturn. Imagine what these people had to give up in Social Security alone when they were forced to take it +/- 3 years early because no one in this town--not even the venerable Mr. Adelson's organization--will hire someone in their 60s. Not to mention that most of the hospitality companies in LV don't offer retirement programs or pensions. Were I the recipient, $1 million or even $1/2 million would make my life so much easier and more affordable.
I'm no Newt Gingrich fan (nor am I a Republican), but Sheldon Adelson can spend his money as he pleases. We don't gain if we don't risk, so it's silly to call his donation a waste. Sometimes investments pay off and sometimes they don't.
Furthermore, this column almost implies that Adelson needs the community's permission before he spends his own money. No one is required to donate their money to charity. They do it because they want to. It's not fair to talk about how the money could have been spent on a charity -- especially when Adelson is already so philanthropic. I could talk about how my life would have been different if he'd donated the money to ME and the conversation would be equally as relevant as this one.
Thank you Joe & Jim for setting me straight. I appreciate it. BTW, Joe, I owned more than one restaurant in my time and had little patience with those who could not or would not perform the tasks for which I hired them. There was no "remedial" training at Fink's Restaurant. If they weren't prepared for the world of work, I showed them the door and fast. My customers deserved the best employees doing the best job for them. I put most of the blame squarely on the public school system and its lack of preparing students for what was to come when they became adults. Forget the touchy-feely BS; the "make-them-feel-good-about-themselves" nonsense and the "ethnic" studies which they can do on their own time and on the Internet if they are so inclined. Small business owners, be they men or women, are way too busy trying to please their patrons to fool around with malarkey such as that. The good kids were worth their weight in gold and I appreciated them to no end and let them know it with pay raises from time-to-time and year-end bonuses. That's the real secret to "spreading" wealth around. EARN IT!
Thanks Jerry. I'm sure your kids enjoyed working in the restaurant business. It's been awhile for me, but I enjoyed the work too.
Shortly after my stint with Tennessee Red's BBQ, I wrote a song for Johnny Cash. Though he never recorded it, I still feel a connection to him and to Red who connected me to him. here's what I think Adelson and you have in common. Though it's not my song, it's one to remember:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNsSIX-G7...
I always read your comments, even when they're laced with vinegar and cayenne; your civility and no-nonsense attitude make for a decent blend of the way it is. We are what we are, and I couldn't agree more that our schools and our parents are not what they were back in the day. Poor kids!
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Memo to J. Patrick (Not) Coolican: since when did it become your job to control how Sheldon Adelson spends his money?
No one is telling Adelson or trying to control how he spends his money. We're just commenting that he spends it like a complete dingbat
This guy, if he is only valued at ONE BILLION dollars donated 1.5% of his net worth to gift America with the human Hemorrhoid named Newton Leroy Gingrich.
Looks like they lost. Millions.
It still doesn't matter a bit.
Coolican, are you playing the lottery today? If so, and you win, do the readers get to tell you what to do with the money?