Casino Entrepreneurs Race into 2006 Forbes Rich List

For the first time in history, the Forbes List of the 400 richest people in the nation held only billionaires. The inaugural list in 1982 contained only 13 billionaires.

Forbes associated editor Matthew Miller edited the list, and commented: "It is a really big deal that it's all billionaires. It shows economic growth and, as this magazine is a fan of capitalism, it shows progress."

Bill Gates once again topped the list with $53 billion, with Warren Buffet again grabbing the 2nd place with $46 billion. One of the biggest movers up the list was Sheldon Adelson at No. 3, with $20.5 billion. Adelson is also 14th on the list of the richest people in the world, having made $1 million per hour over the last two years. Now that's a good hourly rate!

Sheldon Adelson made his fortune in the casino business in Las Vegas. He is Chairman of the Board and principal owner of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which is the parent company of the Venetian chain of casinos.

Casino mogul Stanley Ho is in the top 100 richest in the world with around $7 billion. Ho made his fortune from a government-granted monopoly over the Macau gambling industry.

Nevadan Steve Wynn is 107th richest in the country, with $2.6 billion. After the huge success of his self-titled casino is Las Vegas, Wynn has broken into the Macau casino industry, and is building a super-casino there.

PartyGaming founder Anurag Dikshit made his fortune after taking advantage of the online gambling/poker boom. When PartyGaming floated, Dikshit became an instant billionaire, and is thought to be worth around $2.5 billion.

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