To start off with, it's well-established that Adelson's casinos are engaged in blackmail. Including 100 prostitutes being arrested. So many prostitutes that regular people complain.

Other Macau casinos also run prostitution rings. The arrest also threatened to implicate Adelson and his associations with the Triads. The SEC also investigated Adelson in relation to these charges.

Now let's turn to the case of Steven Jacobs, who sued Adelson for wrongful termination because he was fired after refusing to help Adelson run his blackmail operations. Were the allegations bullshit? No, Jacobs settled for an unheard of $75 to $100 million.

Why is this settlement important? Let's start with his contract"Jacobs was hired to run Sands’ Macau gambling and hotel operations in May 2009 at an annual salary of $1.3 million plus bonuses under a three-year contract, the suit says." Total salary under the contract is $3.9 million.

Anyone familiar with contract law knows you're generally suing for the benefit of the contract ($3.9 million) and maybe a little extra (punitive damages) for your trouble. The US Supreme Court usually doesn't like punitive damages of more than a single digit multiplier of the regular damages. So, $39 million would be pretty extravagant for a jury award, not likely to hold up on appeal.

Apocalyptic worst-case scenario for Adelson is a $39 million judgment, but he settles for $75 million. Given the allegations (Jacobs wouldn't allow prostitutes to operate in the casinos, and China accusing Adelson of running sex blackmail operations), it becomes crystal clear that this is hush money, and there are rich, powerful people who want this covered up.