Super-rich Sheldon Adelson, who reportedly lost $36 billion during the credit crunch, has bounced back with his latest grand scheme, a hotel and casino complex in Singapore.

The 76-year-old philanthropist, while conceding the family piggy bank may have got "a little thinner", is still confident of his business acumen. "I don't listen to a critic who is not rich, because I say, 'If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?,'" he told the Sunday Times. "I send these guys embroidered Sheldon Adelson towels with a handwritten letter that says, 'This is for you to wipe the egg off your face when you come to realise how wrong you've been.'"