PartyPoker Founders Among World's Richest People

Forbes magazine today released its annual Forbes 400 list compiled of the richest people in America, and for the first time, the founders of an online poker site found their way onto it.

Husband and wife founders of PartyGaming Ruth Parasol and J. Russell DeLeon made a ton of cash after taking PartyGaming public last year. Forbes estimates their net worth at more than $1.8 billion each. PartyGaming is the parent company of PartyPoker, PartyCasino, PartyBingo, and PartyGammon. They both sit at 197 on the list.

Their net worth pales in comparison to casino-owner and Las Vegas business man Sheldon Adelson, who sits at third on the list with a net worth of more than $20.5 billion. Last year, he sat at No. 15. In the last two years, he's made a little less than $1 million per hour.

Cracking the top 400 - which was the first time that all members of the list had at least $1 billion - also included Stephen Wynn and William Samuel Boyd.

According to the biography page on the Venetian's website, Adelson is chairman of the board and principal owner of Las Vegas Sands Corp, which is the parent company of the Venetian in Las Vegas and the Sands Macao and Venetian Macao Limited, both in Macao, China. The company's currently developing the Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas.

Adelson came a long way from his poor Boston roots, but he owned his own business by the time he was 12. He then worked as a mortgage broker, investment adviser, and financial consultant. In all, he created and developed to maturity more than 50 companies, including COMDEX, a tradeshow for the computer industry. He eventually sold COMDEX for $860 million in 1995 to a company in Japan.

Adelson got into the casino game when he bought the Sands in 1989. The following year built the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, the only privately owned and operated convention center in the United States.

He started construction on the Venetian in 1996 by imploding the old Sands hotel. The $1.5 billion resort opened in May of 1999.

Behind Adelson is casino owner and real estate developer Wynn, who sits at number 107 with a net worth of more than $2.6 billion. He started as the keno manager at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas

Topping the list is William Gates, who has a net worth upwards of $53 billion, but Adelson has a chance to pass Gates up in six years.

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