Sheldon Adelson Pitches $8B Casino To Brazil

Image by getty images

By JTA May 11, 2017

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — American Jewish billionaire Sheldon Adelson met with Brazilian President Michel Temer and several government officials to pitch an $8 billion casino project in Rio de Janeiro.

Adelson’s visit this week raises rumors of imminent gambling law approval in Latin America’s largest nation, where it has been outlawed for the last 70 years.

The casino magnate and major donor to Jewish causes also met Israel’s new ambassador, Yossi Shelley, and Israel’s honorary consul in Rio, Osias Wurman, during a meeting led by Rio’s Mayor Marcelo Crivella at the city government headquarters.

“He is known to be the biggest individual sponsor of the Taglit Birthright project and showed interested in knowing how many youths from Rio and from across Brazil go to Israel on the project every year,” Wurman told JTA.

On Wednesday, O Globo newspaper reported that Adelson met the mayor of Brazil’s second largest city to discuss tourism. The subterfuge is necessary because Brazil has yet to legalize casino gambling, reported the CalvinAyre.com news website devoted to on-line gambling.

Adelson has long spoken of Brazil, calling the country a “potentially very good opportunity,” although he expressed some reservations regarding the economy and called for infrastructure upgrades, including more 4- and 5-star hotels.

“Visionary, Adelson wants to be one of the first entrepreneurs to conquer the country’s gaming market and also bring his casino brand,” reported the Games Magazine website. “The approval of a consistent law could make Brazil the third best market for the group, after Las Vegas and Macau.”

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO