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Sheldon Adelson Switches From Winning Our Future To (Quietly) Restoring It

Chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corporation Sheldon Adelson looks up at the opening ceremony of the Sands Cotai Central, Sands’ newest integrated resort in Macau on April 11, 2012. Las Vegas Sands Corp. opened its fourth casino in the booming Asian gaming capital of Macau transforming a ‘swamp’ earmarked for a fireworks factory into a $5 billion resort.

Photo by aaron tam/AFP/Getty Images

Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas casino baron best known for dumping over $20 million into the Super PAC, Winning Our Future, backing Newt Gingrich earlier this year, is going all-in for Mitt Romney, the Wall Street Journal reports:

Adelson, who helped keep Newt Gingrich’s failed presidential campaign alive during the Republican primaries, is giving $10 million to the super PAC supporting the presumptive GOP nominee, Mitt Romney, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The leader of the super PAC Restore Our Future, Carl Forti, wouldn’t confirm the donation and said his policy was to not comment on donors or potential donors. Mr. Adelson’s spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment.

The $10 million figure appears to be the largest single donation towards Mr. Romney’s efforts so far. The independent political action committee, by law, cannot coordinate its work with the formal Romney campaign.

This could be among the last large, visible donations from Adelson this campaign, as he’s indicated a desire to avoid the harsh media scrutiny that comes with using money to play an outsized role in politics. He told Nevada journalist Jon Ralston in April that he would be switching much of his activity over from Super PACs like Restore Our Future to 501(c)(4) “social welfare” groups that can avoid disclosure, the most prominent among them being Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS.