tonight on "nightline," love by the numbers. it's the site that mixes dealing with dating. and it's free. okay cupid helps people find love online. and they've scored a huge success. tonight, we go behind the scenes to see how it works. plus, gambling giant. he's the man behind this vegas complex. the largest hotel in the world. and, these item pm s of success. how this casino mogul lost $25 billion and came back.

>> and, sarah says. tonight, sarah palin weighs in on the controversy over new airport security measures, calling on the tsa to begin, quote, profiling passengers. we'll tell you what she said and how reaction is building. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," november 19th, 2010. >> good evening. we begin tonight with love and relationships. online dating is no longer taboo. 74% of singles now say it's how they look for love. the incentive for dating sites to figure out better ways to match up singles is thus enormous. and that's where one site created by a team of self-professed dorky dudes with math degrees has found a way to shine.

but is there really a formula for love? jeremy hubbard takes a look. >> this is going to be interesting. >> reporter: you are about to be a voyeur, an evens dropper on that awkward ritual nobody as the first date. >> hopefully he is not a serial killer. >> reporter: it's a friday night, a new york city bar, two young singles eyeballing each other for the very first time. >> hi. nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you. how are you doing? >> good. great. >> reporter: pam is an actress. ruben is a doctor. they met online. now comes the hard part. breaking the ice. clumsy conversation and all. >> a girl, we don't sweat a lot. okay. >> reporter: there their online pokes and winks translate to real life love? it is a cringe worthy quest repeated all over the country and around the world. >> it's match.com. >> reporter: 113 million people

visit online dating sites every year. it's a $700 million business. no longer creepy or taboo, it's how 74% of singles now look for love. >> the biggest thing we've been able to do is get people talking about online dating. >> reporter: and at the forefront of dating's digital frontier is a little company called ok pew picupid. >> we think that dating should feel more like going to a bar than going to a shrink. >> reporter: with a tiny office and just 18 self-proclaimed dorky dudes running the place, ok cupid has catapulted itself from obscurity to near dominance in the online dating world, boasting more than 7 million users. >> here's the preliminary release for different program groups. >> reporter: their success is in part because their site is free. but it may also have something to do with their unique approach. these aren't your typical match makers. they're mathematicians.

and they match people up, applying statistical al algorhythms. >> we can make sure the dates are not going to be disasters. >> if you like sushi, these things balance out. >> reporter: using the math skills and anonymous user profiles, they've gone a step further, creating what they call one of the largest data bases of human interaction ever. uncovering eye-popping trends about dating in general and maybe even society as a whole. for instance, they learned just how large a role race plays in how we pick our partners. >> black people get fewer messages. they are just as engaged but the world is less engaged with them. and that was not the awesomest thing to find. >> reporter: what does that say and what's the reaction to that? >> i feel like what it says is pretty obvious that, you know, there's a lot of prejudice out there. >> reporter: some of their other user findings are much more

trivia. for instance, it turns out men who start their messages with howdy have a 40% success rate. and women who show cleavage in their profiles have 79% more success. and iphone users have more sex than android users. >> we are able to pull out what kind of camera using. and people tell us a lot about their romantic behaviobehaviorse did some correlations and came up that iphone users has twice as much six as someone that uses an android phone. >> reporter: useless, perhaps, but it's made their blog one of the hottest destinations on the net and helped make ok cupid the second-most popular dating destination, behind match.com. it takes credit for starting a half million relationships every year, like ryan and cara. what is that first glance like, like you've got the picture in your mind already -- >> i was happy. i thought he was hot.

>> she was more beautiful in real life. i was just like what the hell did i get myself into? how am i going to handle this one. >> reporter: you've got her. you don't have to worry. >> i'm sore use. >> reporter: others choose the site because of its openness. >> some of the other dating sites are not as gay friendly. ok cupid has always been gay friendly. >> reporter: but there are detractors. ok cupid took heat earlier this year for being shallow, after sending an e-mail to some that were in the top half of most attractive users. they came up with that data using their math skills and tracking user reaction to profile pictures. >> the other thing that we do is, we try to figure out this concept of who is in your league. if you are a 3 1/2 star attractiveness, then maybe you shouldn't be seeing people who are ones or fives. >> reporter: you shouldn't be shopping outside your price range? >> don't outkick your coverage. >> reporter: you'll find no apologies for their approach. they say it's no more or less

vapid than picking someone out on a bar. and internet dating beats the bar scene any day. if you ask ryan and cara, who, by the way, are about to get married. and, you guessed it, they once again turned to the internet to fund their nuptials. >> we won a wedding online on the empire state building through theknot.com. >> we met online, we found our wedding online. >> reporter: but what about our first daters, pam and ruben? how did that night end up? we decided to check back in with them. how did it go? >> it went okay. some bobbles at the beginning, but he was smart and funny and he's kind of cute, so -- it went all right. >> reporter: love connection? >> i don't know. he asked me out again, i said yes, so -- that's pretty good. >> reporter: and ruben's take? >> towards the end of the evening, i did ask her if she wanted to kiss me and she said

yes. >> reporter: sounds like it could, perhaps, be another match made in cyber space. i'm jeremy hubbard for "nightline" in new york. >> well, in any case, they have a memorable document of their first date. when we come back, his company lost an incredible $25 billion in a single year. we talk with the mogul behind some of the world's flashiest casinos. exchange traded funds. some firms offer them "commission free." problem is they limit the choice of etfs to what makes financial sense to them. td ameritrade doesn't limit you to one brand of etfs... they offer more than 100... each selected by investment experts at morningstar associates. only at the etf market center at td ameritrade. before investing, carefully consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. contact td ameritrade for a prospectus containing this and other information. read it carefully before investing.

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well, lots of people took financial hits in the 2008 economic crisis, but almost no one got nailed like casino mogul sheldon adelson. the value of his las vegas sands corporation plummeted more than 90% in just one year. but adelson has forged ahead with an enormous singapore project that just turned an enormous profit. it's one reason he's back on top. here's our "nightline" exclusive.

las vegas. a place where many bet high but few come out on top. and then, there's this guy. >> really got it right. >> reporter: who proves that old vegas saying, the house always wins. >> all the best to you. >> thank you, sir. >> reporter: you like things big. >> yeah, it matches my belt size. >> reporter: and your checkbook. >> and that. my friend said, you're the dullest guy in the world. i said, how is that? when you stand on your wallet. very ve >> reporter: very tall. a year ago, the las vegas sands corporation was making an estimated $20 million a day from his toe tell ka see nopes in las vegas and macau. his proper tips are huge. in vegas, the venn knee shan boasts the title of the largest hotel in the world. 18 1/2 million square feet.

three times the size of the pentagon. in macau, he says he spent $2.4 billion on this. his reputation is for being very tough. people are afraid of you. you're pretty fierce out in the business world, don't you think? >> no. well, in my mind, now, here's a kid that comes from the slums. me. i came from a very poor family. four children. and my parents, there was one bed in the room. the bedroom was about this big. and my parents were poor. they -- when they died in 1985, 11 days apart, they didn't have as much as $100 in the bank that they saved on their own. their whole life. they gave everything to their children. so, i'm talking not from a white shoe background or from a privileged background. i'm talking from somebody who wore his skin down on his fingers trying to climb the

ladder of success. >> how you doing? >> great. >> reporter: by 2007, he seemed to be minting money. one of the richest men in the world. number three on the forbes list of richest americans, with an estimated net worth of $40 billion. just behind bill gates and warren buffett. what's your extravagance? >> airplanes. between me and the company, we have 14 aircraft. >> reporter: 14? >> probably the largest private fleet in the world. but we use them very wisely. because we use the planes to bring players in. it gives us an advantage over others. >> reporter: but the planes and the perks looked like it might be in jeopardy in 2008, his company's value plummeted more than 90%. at one point, losing up to $1,000 per second. >> certainly wasn't the most joy was time of my life. but there was nothing that anybody could do. you could look at the dow jones

industry average and you could see it swing 500 points or 1,000 points in a day. and you say, this is incredible what can anybody do to stop this? >> reporter: so you didn't think at any point, this is it? >> no. no. >> reporter: your former coo said there was terrible infighting about all of this at the top and it slowed down progress and decision making. did you think that was true? >> well, most people like to blame other people. because most people don't want to acknowledge that they've done something wrong. so, i suppose anybody could say, well, i've got to blame it on the other guy, okay? but i own the company. >> reporter: so, your fault ultimately? >> no, my responsibility, ultimately. >> reporter: looking bad, what percent of the blame do you take for what happened to the company? >> very small portion. first of all, i own the company. second of all, i was the guy

that had to put the money in. >> reporter: he sure did. to prevent the company from going under, adelson and his family put $1 billion into the company. most of us are a little worried about lending our, you know, our cousin 1,000 bucks. you're lending your company at this point -- >> a billion. >> reporter: a billion. >> but remember, billion doesn't buy what it used to. >> reporter: that must be funny somewhere, but i don't know. most of us, a billion is a lot of money. >> i'm only kidding. >> reporter: the billion bailed out the company and much of senior management was fired. adelson claims he never really broke a sweat during it all. so, where does fear factor in? >> fear? fear doesn't factor in. >> reporter: no? >> no such thing as fear. not to an entrepreneur. concern, yes. fear, no. >> reporter: you weren't frightened? >> no. >> reporter: really? >> got a bible? >> reporter: you didn't think, i could lose the whole shooting match here?

>> no. >> reporter: in fact, even in the depth of the financial crisis, he never backed off from his planned multibillion dollar project in singapore, which is now open. the marina bay sands hotel. it won't surprise you that it's another massive structure. with three 55-story hotel towers joined together by a 40,000 square foot sky park, 500-foot pool and two theaters, 50 restaurants and 800,000 square feet of retail. what's the cost of singapore? i read somewhere $5.5 billion. >> 5.6. notice i keep saying -- who is counting? >> reporter: no doubt in your mind it's going to be a success? >> no doubt. >> reporter: he turns out to be right, at least so far in its first full quarter of operations, which just ended, it enrated a whopping $242 million in profits. his vegas properties, unlike many on the strip, are thriving,

as well. for the third quarter of this year, they booked record profits of $645 million. not very long ago, you were number three on the forbes richest list. would you like to see yourself back up there again? >> sure. why not? >> reporter: he's working his way back. he's now at number 13 on the forbes list, up from 26. at the age of 77, he shows no signs of slowing down. she's kickinging you under the table. i just felt it. you just did it. >> yeah, absolutely. >> reporter: he and his second wife have two sons, aging 11 and 13. so, you're fearless in business, at home, you're a pussycat. >> why am i fearless in business? >> reporter: you lose 25 billion bucks and you don't blink? that's fearless. >> no, no, but you're saying fearless -- i'm acting like every day. i lost $25 billion. i started out with zero.

>> reporter: still, the son of a boston cabbie. what would he think if he could see you right now? >> he couldn't. my parents could never comprehend this scope. when i was able to support them and have them live in a more luxurious way, my mother would still take the bus. i would say, mother, let me send you a car and a driver. and she would always say to me, you can't teach old dog new tricks. >> reporter: but you can raise a son who grows up to have a fleet of airplanes. it's not all airplanes and casinos for adelson. he says he intends to donate the billions of dollars he believes is going to be needed to cure uterine cancer, in memory of his sister who died of the disease. up next, he took love that hurts and made it sound so good. john mellencamp joins us to talk

hurts and made it sound so good. john mellencamp joins us to talk about his musical influences. e/e/e/e/e/e/e/ e/e/e/e/e/e/e/e/e/e/e/e/e/e/e/e/ how new is the new edge with myford touch? well you could never do this before. or this. or this. you definitely couldn't do this. play kate's mix. or this. temperature, 72 degrees. say hello to the new edge with myford touch.™ quite possibly the world's smartest crossover. is a powerful force. set it in motion... and it goes out into the world like fuel for the economy. one opportunity leading to another... and another. we all have a hand in it. because opportunity can start anywhere, and go everywhere.

let's keep it moving. ♪ let's keep it moving. when i saw all the jobs disappearing, i knew i needed to find a better way to support my daughter. at age forty, greg flowers went back to school. i got a job as a computer applications engineer.

but now some in washington want regulations restricting access to career colleges and universities, denying opportunity to millions of people like greg, letting government decide who can go to college. it's my education, my job, it should be my choice. don't let washington get in the way.

>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with cynthia mcfadden. >> well, he was born in a small town and has made a career of putting what he learned there into song. john mellencamp has worked his way into the dna of america, and you can hear it in every word of his new album, "no better than this," which is out now. tonight, he tells us about the songs that have shaped his music. ♪ oh yeah ♪ life goes on

>> i just recently rearranged "jack and diane" and it's a really sad long, lyrically, when you get down to it. when you say that's a tragic song to people, they'd say you're crazy, because the music is so positive and the chorus is so big. originally, jack was black and diane was white and i was really surprised what a sad, tragic story i had written at such a young age. ♪ have you seen that vigilante man ♪ ♪ have you seen that vigilante man ♪ >> my dad would have the bongo parties. lucky for me, one of the voices i heard come out of a stair owe was woody guthrie. songs that he wrote about people trying to achieve and try to be something that this country

could say that you could be. ♪ how does it feel ♪ how does it feel >> i'm a bob dylan fan. "like a rolling stone" is probably the biggest trick i've ever seen, because it was seven or eight minutes long, when most songs were, you know, 2 1/2 minutes. i was like a sophomore in high school. you could pull your car over. that's back when things were in mono, you know, little speaker coming out, like 1965, '66. i would pull my car over, just stop on the side of the road so i could listen. finally, i got the $3.95 together and bought it. ♪ angelina ♪ the bells of the crowd >> beautiful songs. but you know, her rendition of "farewellening lina" that dylan wrote might be my favorite song

that she ever did. as a 15-year-old boy, 16-year-old boy sitting in seymour, indiana, and that album comes out, she was so beautiful. i kind of felt funny even holding it. she was so beautiful, i couldn't stand it. ♪ when you're walking out on the street ♪ >> i had a number one record with a girl named michelle. i said, you know, play a bass part like, like that van morrison song "wild night." she said, well, i don't know that song. i said to her, really? you don't know "wild night?" and my band started playing it. we just recorded it, you know, and couple weeks later the guy that was engineering the record goes, hey, john, you might want to take a listen to "wild night." i said, what? the thing you and michelle

played. he said, it's pretty smoking. i listened to it, and so i had to call her up. i said, you have to come back and sing. that's how that record was made. it was an accident. ♪ when you're walking out on the street ♪ ♪ and the wind that catches your feet ♪ ♪ sets you flying ♪ flying >> all of these duets, if you notice, most of them are interracial, and that was all done for a reason. and it was my way of saying, we should be able to sing together, dance together, make love together, marry each other and become human becomes. ♪ >> jimmy: tonight, harrison ford is here. gary dell abat tee is here.

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