IT'S NOT JUST YOU: FOR SHELDON ADELSON, SNAKE EYES IN ASIAIT'S NOT JUST YOU: FOR SHELDON ADELSON, SNAKE EYES IN ASIA Asia (ā`zhə), the world's largest continent, 17,139,000 sq mi (44,390,000 sq km), with about 3.3 billion people, nearly three fifths of the world's total population.When it came to creating a business that profited from the growing wealth in the developing world, few entrepreneurs played their hand as well as Sheldon Adelson. The 75-year-old Las Vegas casino mogul won a highly coveted license in 2002 to offer gambling on the Chinese island of Macau. His first casino there, the Sands Macao, earned back his initial investment of $265 million within mere months of its 2004 opening. But Adelson didn't know when to quit. His dream was to build out an Asian version of the Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip (also known as The Strip) is a 4 mi (6.7 km) section of Las Vegas Boulevard South, most of which has been designated an All-American Road. , and he quickly put together deals for a dozen hotels on a stretch of man-made island called the Cotai Strip. When hotel companies balked balk v. balked, balk·ing, balks v.intr. 1. To stop short and refuse to go on: The horse balked at the jump. 2. at laying out the money themselves for construction, Adelson fronted the costs via Las Vegas Sands Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) is a casino resort company based in Las Vegas, Nevada and majority owned by one of the world's richest men, Sheldon Adelson. Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson, the world's sixth richest man, has said that his company will soon be , the publicly traded company publicly traded company A company whose shares of common stock are held by the public and are available for purchase by investors. The shares of publicly traded firms are bought and sold on the organized exchanges or in the over-the-counter market. he controls. Now $10 billion in debt at a time when consumers aren't gambling like before, Adelson was forced to cut back his expansion plans sharply and pump $1 billion of his personal funds into his nearly insolvent company. His stake in Las Vegas Sands, once worth more than $30 billion, is down to roughly $1 billion. As the philosopher Kenny Rogers once said: "You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em." 
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