Land casino mogul a big loser in 2014

The latest Billionaire list from Bloomberg business news shows that land casino and anti-online gambling crusader Sheldon Adelson was one of the biggest losers in the global wealth stakes in 2014, suffering a hit to his personal fortune of $8.9 billion.

Dropping from 9th to 23rd position among the world’s wealthiest men is probably ego-bruising, but the 81-year-old is still a long way from struggling despite business and political setbacks over the past year.

These have included $47 million payments to settle Justice Department money laundering charges, tens of millions lost after Iranian hackers invaded his websites following ill-judged comments about nuclear usage, and the frustration of his plans to drive the Restoration of America’s Wire Act through Congress (see previous reports).

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos (50) was another big loser, falling to 22nd richest man in the world and suffering the embarrassment of watching his Chinese counterpart, Jack Ma (50), who founded e-commerce retailer Alibaba, make the biggest gain of $25.2 billion among the stellar list of the uber-wealthy.

Bezos lost $7.5 billion, whilst IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad (88) dropped $8.4billion and made up the third member of the biggest losers.

On the more positive side, 59-year-old Microsoft founder Bill Gates accrued another $9.1 billion in 2014, enabling him to bounce back to the top of the winner list over Mexico telecom billionaire Carlos Slim (74).

Gates and Slim have exchanged the richest man in the world lead several times in the past, but Gates now holds the top spot. Slim dropped $786.8 million during the year, resulting in his slipping to third place behind the Sage of Omaha – Warren Buffet (84).

E-commerce giant Alibaba owner Jack Ma also enjoyed a serendipitous year, starting it with $3.6 billion before multiplying his fortune following a successful September IPO that boosted him to 21st position by gaining $25.2billion.

See the full list here: http://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/2014-12-26/aya