Gates Still Richest, Gambling Tycoons Make The List

from the slouching-towards-bethlehem dept

Congratulations to Bill Gates for once again coming out on top of the Forbes’ richest people list. Larry and Sergey are gaining, but it’ll probably take more than the acquisition of an Ajax word processor to bridge the gap. While these lists make for great gawking and cocktail-party chatter they can be informative as to the world’s economic zeitgeist. The emergence of steel barron Lakshmi Mittal (#5) in recent years reflects the world’s growing thirst for industrial materials. World #3 Carlos Slim Helu, founder of wireless giant America Movil, has capitalized on economic growth in Latin America. Fittingly this year’s new entrants are in the realm of gambling. Executives at gambling sites Bodog.com as well as Party Gaming both made the list, as the world still can’t come down from Texas Hold ‘Em fever. At the same time, speculation is a hot hobby, with the newly public NYSE and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange profiting greatly. It seems that as people get rich they like to bet on things like sports, cards and the price of December 2009 light sweet crude contracts. Let’s hope this merry fit of speculation and gambling doesn’t end like every single one before it.


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Comments on “Gates Still Richest, Gambling Tycoons Make The List”

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32 Comments
angry dude says:

Re: Re: Re: Bill Gates

I have no problem with Bill Gates being No 1 on this list as long as his company doesn’t steal intellectual property from me or other guys.
Unfortunately, MS routinely and knowingly steals IP from smaller rivals and individuals.
Somebody estimated that the total liabilities of MS for illegaly using someone else’s IP are somewhere between 100 and 200 billion bucks…
When all those small companies and individuals start demanding their compensation from MS (and some of them already did), Bill Gates will quickly move down on that list…

angry dude says:

Re: Re: Re:3 Bill Gates

Invent some neat software trick, file a patent on it,

offer to license or sell it to MS…

MS will always say that they are not interested in your stuff (no matter how brilliant your stuff is…), but then will quickly turn around and implement it in their products without asking you…

Once you get your patent (3-5 years later), just sue the crap out of them…

Read this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8122859/

To add to this story, MS recently had to “downgrade” their Office suite to get rid of this useful feature from Amado’s patent.

XYZ says:

Re: HAHAHA

This is an indian name which means as follows.

Dikshit: initated into a religious order Divij: born of the sky, heaven born, divine, a god Divij at: born of the sky, born of heaven Durva: heavenly grass Dvarik: door attendant; one of the eighteen attendants of Surya Dyumnik: inspired; grand; mighty; a son of Vashisth Dyutit: enlightened; clear; shining

Chris A says:

for 3.3 Billion u could...

For 3.3 billion i would…
-tie a 2 ton bolder to by balls and drop it off a bridge.
-cut my nipples off and sow them to my forhead.
-crap while freefalling just before opening the chute
-eat raw sewage with chop sticks

With 3.3 billion i could…
-live on the moon
-each slim jims every day all day
-build the first particle accelerator cannon just for burning ants when i get bored
-buy someone elses balls, have them surgicly grafted on me, and have moon babies with heidi klum

coyote says:

What he did.

For 700 Billion I’d spend my most active years creating and growing a software company that would enable people like this to write comments in a forum like this, as long as I didn’t have to read them.

BG probably feels this. I on the other hand have been getting a run of cold cards, and was looking for a tiny diversion – which I found.

Cast Out Your Old Tired Expectations.

That’s c o y o t E L o g i c

See ya,

c

Not a Millionaire says:

0.00001%

XYZ is right.

.00001% of 700 Billion => .0000001*700,000,000,000=70,000 that is 70 thousand, not 70 million. For example using smaller numbers => 1% of a hundred dollars is one dollar right? So, .01 * 100 = 1. Remember, you need to move the decimal place over two when using percentages. Now, back to relative integration…

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