Leonard Steinberg – Stanley Leisure

Leonard Steinberg is characteristically understated as he assesses his career. ‘I never realised that I was an entrepreneur – it's something that just happened.’
Aged 19, he inherited an illegal betting shop in Belfast (until 1957 all betting shops were illegal); gradually he built his gambling business up until deciding to float the company, Stanley Leisure, on the Stock Market in 1986, by which time it was the largest casino operator in Britain and one of the biggest bookmakers. The betting shop business was sold in 2005 to William Hill for £504 million, but Steinberg remained chairman of Stanley Leisure until it was bought by the Malaysian corporate giant Genting for £639 million in 2006.
The sale of Stanley Leisure made Steinberg one of the wealthiest people in the UK and, yet, to meet him you would never guess it. He does not wear his success conspicuously; of medium height, with swept back grey hair and astute blue eyes, his demeanour is measured, calm and underpinned with quiet charm.
Never one to waste words, he is an accomplished observer – not just of people, but of businesses, opportunities and politics. He has had to be good at this because his whole career has been based on assessing risk in one form or another, from simply deciding whether to accept money on a particular horse through to how much to invest in a business or choosing the right person to be a chief executive.
Although Steinberg plays down his entrepreneurial flair, the signs of this talent were already apparent at school when, aged 15, he made a profit from buying penny chews and selling them to fellow pupils for twopence. However, it was the sudden death of his father in 1955 that was the catalyst for Steinberg’s transformation from being a trainee accountant to being a self-employed businessman. His mother and three younger siblings were now entirely dependent upon him financially – a daunting prospect for anyone, let alone someone who was still a teenager himself. It explains the pragmatic attitude he holds towards money: ‘It’s much better having it compared to not having it. It makes you feel secure, although doesn’t necessarily make you feel happy.............