In this regular feature in IAG to celebrate 21 years covering the Asian gaming and leisure industry, we look back at our cover story from exactly 10 years ago, “Clinton v Trump,” to rediscover what was making the news in July 2016!
“What if someone told you six months ago,” IAG asked a decade ago, “that the next leader of the free world could well be a self-proclaimed billionaire property tycoon and reality TV star with four corporate bankruptcies to his credit, who’s running on a pledge to ban the world’s Muslims from entering the United States and wants to build a wall across the country’s 1,900-mile border with Mexico?”
It proved to be quite the prophetic question at a time when Donald Trump – the billionaire mentioned above – and Hilary Clinton, the wife of former President Bill, were about to fight it out to become the 45th President of the United States of America.
This was the topic of IAG’s 2016 cover story, “Clinton v Trump,” which asked more specifically what their respective appointments could mean for the gaming industry domestically and abroad.
Of particular interest at that time was how the industry would move to support prospective candidates. As of June 2021, a little over four months before Trump was voted in for his first term, campaign contributions to the 14 remaining candidates totaled just US$513,121 – of which just US$4,561 had been donated for Trump. By comparison, Clinton topped the list with US$164,337 taken in from the gambling industry, perhaps an indication that few yet truly believed Trump could become a legitimate challenger.
Experts also told IAG that donors were likely waiting for more clarity before throwing all their eggs into one basket.
Historian and author Michael Green from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, noted that, with the exception of Sheldon Adelson and probably Steve Wynn, “I do not expect most of the rest of the gaming industry to be strongly for Trump – unless it looks like he’s going to win.”
Long-time industry consultant Andrew Klebanow added that one of the problems the industry was facing in this regard was, “You just can’t predict what [Trump’s] presidency will look like.
“You just don’t know. Is he going to be conservative or liberal? I don’t know and I don’t think anybody knows.”
Said Green, “This is an unusual election. The Republican Party in the last half-century has had this internal conflict between the evangelical [Christian] side and the libertarian side. And gaming industry leaders historically have wanted the libertarian side to win out. Libertarianism stands for fewer taxes and regulations on business, which of course includes tourism. But that also relied on a degree of consistency within the Republican Party, which does not exist right now with Donald Trump. Presumably, as a businessman, he understands their concerns. But are they able to trust him? The concern is not only whether he’s a Republican, but whether he even knows himself what he is. We haven’t exactly seen a lot of policy statements.”
Of particular interest to IAG in 2016 was the influence of Las Vegas Sands Corp founder Sheldon Adelson and his wife Dr Miriam Adelson. Well-known supporters of the Republican Party over many years, the Adelsons had spent an estimated US$92 million on the 2012 election in an effort to prevent a second term for Barrack Obama. However, come July 2016, the couple appeared to be far more reticent, contributing just over US$1.6 million to that point in time.
“Mr Trump hasn’t benefited from Adelson’s largesse as yet, but it’s certain the checkbook will come out once he’s officially anointed the Republican nominee later this month,” we wrote.
Klebanow added, “Trump was in Las Vegas and has met with Adelson. I know Adelson supports a Trump presidency. But I haven’t seen anything indicating huge financial support. I haven’t heard anything yet.”
It was later estimated that the Adelsons contributed somewhere between US$90 million and US$130 million to the Republican Party, although most of this was in support of the party as a whole rather than direct payments to the Trump campaign. Following Sheldon Adelson’s passing in 2021, Dr Miriam is said to have increased her spending on pro-Trump causes – particularly in the lead-up to the 2024 election.
Of course, there are now legitimate questions around just how supportive the Trump administration has been of the gambling industry as a whole. Prediction markets continue to disrupt the nation’s sports betting industry amid calls for proper state-by-state regulation, while the major tax changes under the “Big Beautiful Bill” – signed into law in July 2025 – introduced a 90% limit on the amount of gambling losses that can be deducted against winnings. Professional punters had previously been able to claim 100% of losses up to the amount of winnings.
As for Trump? Now deep into his second term, and for better or worse, we can at least answer the question of what a Trump presidency looks like.
