Las Vegas Sands founder and CEO Sheldon Adelson has passed away

Adelson’s wife confirmed his death earlier today

The casino industry has lost a solid (and, at times, controversial) icon. Sheldon Adelson, the founder, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, passed away last night from complications related to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leaving in doubt what will happen next to Sands. Adelson was 87 years old and leaves behind a net worth of around $33 billion, the only casino mogul to ever make it to the top 20 on Forbes’ richest people list.

Adelson didn’t start off in the casino industry; he worked his way there after creating and later selling a trade show company that put together Comdex, then the largest event in the computer industry. That was in 1995, when he picked up $800 million and didn’t know how to spend it. He decided to look at casinos and quickly entered the Vegas scene with Las Vegas Sands. Soon after, he pioneered Macau into the gambling hub that it has become, having launched five casinos in the city.

Adelson was also a staunch Trump supporter and an online gaming antagonist. He poured millions of dollars into multiple political campaigns that aligned with his personal goals, and gave over $90 million to Trump last year. However, with Trump leaving office and Adelson no longer running the show at Sands, it’s possible that the casino company will look to move in a completely different direction and try to recover the losses that are predicted to plague the land-based casino industry for years.