Former Pokerstars owned ninth richest man in Canada
News on 12 Mar 2018
News on 12 Mar 2018
44-year-old Mark Scheinberg, an Israeli-Canadian who with his father Isai created and built Pokerstars before its sale to Amaya Inc. (now The Stars Group), has been listed at ninth in a survey of wealthiest Canadians, and 422nd richest man in the world (the wealthiest is currently Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos with a net worth of $112 billion, followed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet on $84 billion.
According to the 2018 World’s Billionaires List, released by Forbes last week, Scheinberg’s personal fortune is around Cdn$ 4.8 billion. He left Israel with his family to settle in Canada as a teenager, helping to start Pokerstars in 2001. The site was to become one of the most successful online poker gambling groups in history.
Ultimately, Scheinberg held a 75 percent major shareholder interest in Pokerstars’ parent group The Rational Group prior to a surprise Cdn$4.9 billion sale to fellow Canadian group Amaya Gaming in 2014.
He reportedly has a 50 percent interest in a multi-million Euro Spanish luxury hotel, residential and retail project.
PokerStars was set up on the Isle of Man, where it remains based.
The survey covers 2,208 billionaires around the world, collectively worth some $9.1 trillion…46 of them Canadians. The wealthiest Canadian is the chairman of Thomas Reuters, David Thomson (32nd in the world).
Globally, gambling billionaires are well represented on the Forbes list by eight individuals, led by the Austrian owner of the Novomatic Group Johann Graf ($8.1 billion), trailed by UK billionairess and Bet365 CEO Denise Coates ($5 billion).
