Cyril Stein (20 February 1928 - 15 February 2011) was an English

bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795. Range of events Bookma ...

, businessman and finally

philanthropic Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

supporter of many Jewish causes and charities who first bought

Ladbrokes Ladbrokes Coral is a British gambling company founded in 1886. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. The business is split into two divisions, UK and International. UK operations are c ...

in 1956, then floated it in 1967 and finally left it in 1993.''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' (London), obituary Thursday February 17, 2011The Jewish Chronicle
February 17, 2011

Biography

Born in the

East End of London The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

into a family of immigrants from Russia. His father, known as “Honest Jack”, worked for the

London and Provincial Sporting News Agency London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...

, which relayed information between off-course bookmakers and racecourses. Cyril Stein was educated at West Ham Grammar School. Stein did his best to shun publicity and said one of his main concerns was to keep his family out of the limelight. He married Betty Young in 1949. He was survived by his wife sons Jonathan and Daniel and daughter Marion, and several grandchildren. An Orthodox Jew, he was never seen at a racetrack on a Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, and was frequently seen in public wearing a knitted

kippah A , , or , plural ), also called ''yarmulke'' (, ; yi, יאַרמלקע, link=no, , german: Jarmulke, pl, Jarmułka or ''koppel'' ( yi, קאפל ) is a brimless cap, usually made of cloth, traditionally worn by Jewish males to fulfill the c ...

. He used his money and influence to try to keep the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, including

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the sector of Jerusalem that was held by Jordan during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to the western sector of the city, West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Jerusalem was envisaged as a separat ...

, in Israeli hands, and built a large estate in the centre of Jerusalem. As a committed Zionist throughout his life, Stein spent much of his latter years in Israel. Stein was a major funder of the

Labour Friends of Israel Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) is a group in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that promotes support for a strong bilateral relationship between Britain and Israel, and seeks to strengthen ties between the British Labour Party and the Isra ...

along with

Trevor Chinn Sir Trevor Edwin Chinn (born 24 July 1935) is a British businessman, philanthropist, and political activist. Business career Chinn was educated at Clifton College and King's College, Cambridge and started his career at Lex Garages (later Lex ...

Business career

Stein ran his own small credit-betting office in the

West End of London The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, in which many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buil ...

when (aged 28) he teamed up in 1956 with his bookmaker uncle Mark, who traded as Max Parker, to buy the venerable but failing bookmarking firm of

, founded in 1886, for a reported £100,000. Appointed chairman of

in 1966 and some 12 months before the company was successfully floated on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

with an initial market capitalization of £1-million. Cyril Stein remained chairman until stepping down at the end of 1993 (aged 65) by which time the company was valued in excess of £2-billion.

Philanthropy

He was: * Vice-president of United Joint Israel Appeal (UJIA) * Supporter of the

Jewish National Fund Jewish National Fund ( he, קֶרֶן קַיֶּימֶת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael'', previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Syria (later Mandatory Palestine, and subseq ...

(JNF), including ** Chair of the JNF Negev redevelopment project * Trustee of the Jewish Education Development Trust * Trustee and chairman of the Governors of Carmel College, Wallingford, Oxfordshire (UK)

References

External links

Obituary in The Telegraph

Obituary in The Guardian

Obituary in The Scotsman

The Ladbrokes Story
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, Cyril 1928 births 2011 deaths Bookmakers English Orthodox Jews Labour Friends of Israel People in greyhound racing British Zionists English people of Russian-Jewish descent British emigrants to Israel English philanthropists Jewish British philanthropists Businesspeople from London 20th-century British philanthropists 20th-century English businesspeople