In a sign of casino companies’ eagerness to build in Toronto, Mayor Rob Ford got a visit at City Hall from Sheldon Adelson, controversial owner of the Las Vegas Sands empire and one of the world’s richest men.

Adelson, 79, arrived at Ford’s office Thursday afternoon with his wife, Dr. Miriam Adelson, and two aides for the private, unpublicized 45-minute meeting that he had requested.

Ford’s office declined to give details but Adelson is registered to lobby city officials on his interest in building a casino resort in Toronto.

Sands, along with MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and others, signaled interest after the Ontario government said it will build one new casino in the GTA.

After the meeting, which also included senior Ford aides Mark Towhey and Earl Provost, the billionaire making headlines as a super donor to Republican election efforts sounded cautious about a Toronto casino.

“There’s lots of ifs,” Adelson said before climbing into a stretch limousine in city hall’s underground parking lot.

The province has said it won’t force the casino on an unwilling municipality, setting up what is expected to be a ferocious Toronto City Council debate this fall on whether to give the province, and casino suitors, the green light.

“The mayor has said he’d always be open-minded to casinos, but it had to be a good deal for taxpayers and in the best interest of the city,” Ford press secretary George Christopoulos said after the Adelson meeting.

Christopoulos did not respond to a query as to whether Councillor Doug Ford, the mayor’s brother, who disappeared from a budget committee meeting around the time of the visit, attended the meeting.

The mayor’s shaky hold on council means much rides on a staff report that will look at the pros and cons of a casino and potential locations.

Adelson, the son of an immigrant taxi driver, grew up near Boston and hit it rich with Comdex, a computer expo he sold in 1995 for $860 million.

His purchase and expansion of Sands, with casino-resorts in Las Vegas, Pennsylvania, Macao and Singapore, sent his wealth soaring to a reported $25 billion.

But he makes headlines for more than just business.

Adelson’s millions helped extend Newt Gingrich’s doomed run for the U.S. Republican presidential nomination. Adelson then switched allegiances to nominee Mitt Romney and running mate Paul Ryan, and suggested he’ll spend up to $100 million to help get them and others elected in November.

Las Vegas Sands announced last year that the U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating allegations that the company bribed Chinese officials to expand its lucrative Macau casinos.

Sands denied any wrongdoing, as it has in relation to a separate probe by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles into whether it violated money-laundering laws by accepting millions from gamblers accused of embezzlement and drug trafficking.

Adelson is not the first casino magnate to have a private meeting with Ford.

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Ford’s itinerary, obtained through freedom of information law, lists an April 30 meeting with Jim Murren, the chairman of MGM Resorts, as well as a June 5 meeting with representatives of Caesars Entertainment Corp.

With a file from Daniel Dale