LEONARD STEINBERG:LEONARD STEINBERG, described as "the sharpest guy on the block", was born in Belfast, the grandson of Jewish immigrants who had fled from Latvia to avoid persecution in the early years of the 20th century.
Steinberg went to school at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and it was here that he took his first step in the business that was to make him a multimillionaire.
Some sixth-form students asked him to take their stakes, which totalled £3, to a bookmaker but he resolved to undertake the risk himself. It was for the Epsom Derby, the year that Lester Piggott won on an outsider, Never Say Die, at 33-1, so Steinberg made a profit of £2 which he thought a fortune at the time.
He admitted that if the favourites had come home, he would not have been able to pay up.
Steinberg planned to become an accountant, but his father's early death left him at the age of 18 having to provide for his two younger brothers, his sister and his mother, who was partially blind. The diverse small businesses that his father had run included an opticians' workshop, which Steinberg had to close almost immediately, and a milk bar which he was building up until an employee cheated him of £3,000.
He continued dealing as an illicit bookmaker until the strict laws for gambling were changed and in 1958 he was able open his first betting shop. By the 1970s Steinberg had a chain in Belfast under the name L Stanley Ltd (an anglicised version of his name that his father had used as a salesman during the war) and had expanded into the Isle of Man.
During this time, he refused to pay protection money to either republican or loyalist paramilitaries. In a provisional IRA campaign against leading figures in the North's commercial life, a gunman shot him five times in the thigh on the doorstep of his house on the Antrim Road. One bullet remained in his leg throughout his life.
He moved himself and his company to Manchester and continued to buy up small chains of bookmakers, modernising them, replacing boards with screens and adding synergistic business lines.
In 1986 the company was floated on the London Stock exchange. It was initially valued at £9 million but within 20 years was worth £1 billion. There were occasional set-backs, such as time when the jockey Frankie Dettori rode all seven of the winners at a meeting at Ascot, which cost the company £2 million.
Steinberg extended the business into casinos which included the huge Star City in Birmingham and the prestigious 200-year-old Crockfords in London. Though a difficult and tough negotiator, he had a reputation for fairness and as one who would not go back on his word.
In 2005, his retail bookmaking business was bought by William Hill and the casinos were sold to a Malaysian Group which left Steinberg with an estimated personal fortune of more than £90 million.
Throughout his life, Steinberg campaigned to have the legislation surrounding betting and gaming relaxed. Nevertheless, in a speech in the House of Lords, he said that though he was not a Christian, in the interest of family values, he would vote against having race meetings on Good Friday and on Christmas Day.
He was one of the main instigators in the setting up of the Centre for Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Salford which, as well as doing research into the gambling industry, provides instruction for those interested in making a career in the business.
Steinberg was a passionate Zionist. This year he was president of the recently established Northern Ireland Friends of Israel which, he told a meeting in Stormont, "embodied the two most important strands of my life". A liberal donor to various schools, medical centres and a synagogue in Israel, he also gave money to many educational, cultural and welfare causes in Britain and in Northern Ireland. One of his pleasures was watching cricket and as president of Lancashire County Cricket Club, he was responsible for raising most of the funds for the club's youth academy.
He made large donations to the Conservative Party and at one time was their deputy treasurer. In 2004, he was elevated to the House of Lords as Lord Steinberg of Belfast, a life peerage.
In his maiden speech, he referred to the fact that there were three old boys from "the Inst" (Royal Belfast Academical Institution) then in the House of Lords.
He always remained attached to Northern Ireland and never lost his Belfast accent. In an interview he said: "I am Jewish, Northern Irish and an Ulster Unionist. I hope that does not cause confusion."
Leonard Steinberg was married to Beryl Cobden and they had a son and a daughter.
Leonard Steinberg, Lord Steinberg of Belfast: born August 1st, 1936; died November 2nd, 2009