Mark Scheinberg | |
---|---|
Born | 1973 (age 50–51) Israel |
Nationality | Israeli-Canadian |
Occupation | Investor Entrepreneur Philanthropist |
Parent | Isai Scheinberg |
(Igal) Mark Scheinberg (born 1973) [1] is an Israeli-Canadian businessman and investor within various sectors including real estate and luxury hospitality. He is the co-founder and former co-owner of the online gambling company PokerStars, which was sold in 2014 to Amaya Gaming for $4.9 billion. [2]
Mark Scheinberg was born in Israel in 1973, moving to Toronto, Ontario, Canada at the age of 13 with his family. [3] They settled in the town of Richmond Hill in the 1980s. [4]
In 2001 Scheinberg founded PokerStars with his father Isai Scheinberg, a computer programmer. [3] [5] During his tenure as CEO, PokerStars became the world’s largest online poker business and host to the world’s largest online tournament series, [6] acquiring the Full Tilt Poker brand in 2012. [7] In August 2014, [8] Oldford Group Ltd, [9] the PokerStars parent company, was acquired by the Canadian publicly listed company Amaya Gaming Group for $4.9 billion. Upon completion of the sale, Scheinberg exited the PokerStars group. [2] As of May 2017, Scheinberg was the richest person on the Isle of Man. [10]
Scheinberg started Mohari Hospitality as an investment firm focused on the luxury and hospitality sectors. The firm has investments in the Peninsula Resort in Papagayo, Costa Rica, the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, the Waldorf Astoria Miami, and the Four Seasons Private Residences in Washington, DC. [11] Mohari has hired former Chief Executive Officer of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, J. Allen Smith as Managing Partner. [11]
Via his investment company Mohari Hospitality, [12] in early 2017 Scheinberg became a major investor in Centro Canalejas Madrid, a real estate project in Madrid, Spain. [5] Mohari purchased a 50% stake in the Centro for €225 million from the Grupo OHL subsidiary OHL Desarrollos and the industrial group Villa Mir, who both also retained stakes. [13] With an opening date set for 2019, [12] the project involves the restoration of seven historic [3] adjacent buildings [5] for residential, hotel and commercial use. With a large amount of retail space, the complex will also house the first Four Seasons hotel in Spain, [12] and create 4,800 positions. [14]
In September 2017, a Canadian subsidiary of Mohari Hospitality acquired the Thompson Toronto hotel in downtown Toronto, Ontario. [15] The "boutique" hotel [16] has 105 rooms, event space, and restaurants and lounges. [17]
According to The Sunday Times Rich List in 2021, his net worth was estimated at £3.519 billion. [18]
Scheinberg is single and lives in the Isle of Man. In March 2020 he and his family founded The Scheinberg Relief Fund, to help tackle the direct impact of COVID-19. With an allocation of $50 million, it supports organisations and initiatives in locations where the family has a business or personal presence. [19]
Scheinberg has a keen interest in conservation and animal welfare. In September 2020, it was announced that The Scheinberg Relief Fund would match every donation to the Wildlife Ranger Challenge, a conservation fundraiser that works with charities like the Save the Rhino Trust. [20]
Four Seasons Hotels Limited, trading as Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, is a Canadian luxury hotel and resort company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Four Seasons currently operates more than 100 hotels and resorts worldwide. Since 2007, Bill Gates and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal have been majority owners of the company. As of January 2022, Cascade Investment owns 71.25% and Kingdom Holding Company owns 23.75% of the hotel and resort company.
Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 to $2.4 billion in 2005, while a survey carried out by DrKW and Global Betting and Gaming Consultants asserted online poker revenues in 2004 were at $1.4 billion. In a testimony before the United States Senate regarding Internet Gaming, Grant Eve, a Certified Public Accountant representing the US Accounting Firm Joseph Eve, Certified Public Accountants, estimated that one in every four dollars gambled is gambled online.
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Brookfield Corporation is a Canadian multinational company that is one of the world's largest alternative investment management companies, with over US$725 billion of assets under management in 2022. It focuses on direct control investments in real estate, renewable power, infrastructure, credit and private equity. The company invests in distressed securities through Oaktree Capital, which it bought in 2019. Brookfield's headquarters are in Toronto.
Accor S.A. is a French multinational hospitality company that owns, manages and franchises hotels, resorts and vacation properties. It is the largest hospitality company in Europe, and the sixth largest hospitality company worldwide.
Onex Corporation is a Canadian investment management firm founded by Gerry Schwartz in 1984. In December 2023, it had $49.6 billion Canadian dollars under management.
PokerStars is an online poker cardroom. It is the largest real money online poker site in the world, controlling over two-thirds of the total online poker market, and can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS.
Full Tilt Poker is an Irish online poker card room and online casino that opened in June 2004. Formerly privately owned by Tiltware, LLC and later by the Rational Entertainment Group, the site was acquired by The Stars Group in a deal where Amaya acquired all of Rational's assets, including PokerStars. A statement by Amaya said the takeover would not affect the activities of Full Tilt Poker. The deal was closed on August 1, 2014.
Rafe Furst is an American entrepreneur, writer, and world champion poker player.
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Thor Equities is a real estate development, leasing and management firm, with headquarters in New York City, London and Mexico City. Thor Equities owns property in the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia, India and Latin America, including London's historic Burlington Arcade and the Palmer House Hilton. In New York City, Thor owns retail, office and residential properties on Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue as well as in SoHo, Flatiron, the Meatpacking District, and Brooklyn including Coney Island. Thor also has investments in major U.S. cities including San Francisco's Union Square; Georgetown in Washington, D.C.; Robertson Boulevard in West Hollywood; Collins Avenue; Lincoln Road; Wynwood and the Design District in Miami. Thor offers investment vehicles for institutional investors through its Thor Urban Property Funds. Thor Equities also has several subsidiary companies including retail advisory and tenant representation firm Thor Retail Advisors.
Isai Scheinberg is the Lithuanian Jewish founder of the PokerStars online poker site. Scheinberg previously had been a senior programmer for IBM Canada.
United States v. Scheinberg, No. 1:10-cr-00336 (2011), is a United States federal criminal case against the founders of the three largest online poker companies, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Cereus, and a handful of their associates, which alleges that the defendants violated the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and engaged in bank fraud and money laundering to process transfers to and from their customers. A companion civil case, United States v. Pokerstars, et al., 11 Civ. 2564 (2011), included Full Tilt and Cereus, Ultimate Bet, Oldford Group, Rational Entertainment Enterprises, and many others as defendants and sought the recovery of forfeiture equalling approximately $3 billion in assets belonging to the companies. After the indictment was unsealed on April 15, 2011, a date quickly dubbed Black Friday by the online poker community, PokerStars and Full Tilt stopped offering real money play to their United States customers. Three years after the start of the poker boom in 2003, the U.S. Congress passed UIGEA to extend existing gambling laws into cyberspace. The law made processing payments for illegal online gambling a crime; however, the defendant companies remained in the U.S. market in the belief that the law did not cover poker. A former payment processor for the companies turned state's evidence after initially being charged with violating UIGEA himself. On September 20, the civil suit was amended claiming individual fraud by Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, and Rafael Furst.
The Stars Group Inc. was a Canadian gaming and online gambling company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its shares were traded on Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange. It primarily operated poker, casino, and sports betting products under the PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, BetStars, and Fox Bet brands.
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