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Published May 26, 2020, 01:55 PM
Updated Dec 08, 2021, 04:37 PM
HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - Mr Stanley Ho, a one-time kerosene trader who built a casino empire in Macau that propelled the Chinese island past Las Vegas as the world's biggest gambling hub, has died at age 98, local media reported.
Known as the King of Gambling, Mr Ho dominated gaming in the former Portuguese colony after winning a monopoly licence in 1961.
His SJM Holdings flourished as China's economic opening created a flood of new wealth in a country with a passion for gambling. SJM now controls 20 casinos on an island of about 26 sq km.
Mr Ho's rise transformed Macau from a commercial backwater into the "Las Vegas of Asia" by exploiting its big advantage over the rest of China - casinos were legal.
As his fortune swelled, he expanded beyond the island, building residential and office buildings in Hong Kong.
In 1984, he won a licence to operate a casino in Portugal and spent US$30 million to open the Casino Pyongyang in North Korea in 2000.
Mr Ho's Macau monopoly expired in 2001, two years after China regained control of the island from Portugal. China then granted licences to competitors, including Mr Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts.
Rather than hurting Mr Ho, the increased competition, coupled with China's booming economy, accelerated Macau's growth into the world's biggest gaming hub and Mr Ho's fortunes ballooned.
The city's gaming revenue has become a barometer of the economy of China, where two-thirds of its gamblers are from.
While casino takings have usually grown with China's GDP, it plummeted in 2014 when China launched an anti-corruption campaign and again in 2020, after the coronavirus pandemic triggered a 97 per cent drop in revenue as Chinese gamblers were prevented from travel into the enclave.
<p>(FILES) This file photo taken on April 19, 2006 shows Macau's gambling tycoon Stanley Ho (C) surrounded by photographers as he operates a slot machine during the opening of his new casino in downtown Lisbon. - Stanley Ho, the Hong Kong-born tycoon who made billions transforming neighbouring Macau from a sleepy Portuguese outpost into the world's biggest gambling hub, died on May 26, 2020 at the age of 98, his family said. (Photo by FRANCISCO LEONG / AFP)</p>
PHOTO: AFP
<p>FILE PHOTO: Hong Kong tycoon Stanley Ho looks out from the Macau Ferry Terminal and in the background berths his latest in a fleet of jetfoils from his Hong Kong flagship company Shun Tak Holdings Ltd, in Hong Kong, China. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo</p>
PHOTO: X80002
<p>FILE PHOTO: Macau tycoon Stanley Ho attends the ground-breaking ceremony of "City of Dreams", a Melco-PBL Entertainment joint venture project in Macau April 10, 2006. REUTERS/Bobby Yip /File Photo</p>
PHOTO: X00306
Mr Ho fathered 17 children with four women and when he retired around mid-2018, he passed some of the top roles at SJM to his heirs.
Ms Daisy Ho, his daughter, became chairman and executive director.
Ms Angela Leong, SJM's second-largest shareholder whom Mr Ho referred to as his fourth wife, became co-chairman with another executive director.
Still, the succession reopened long-simmering family rivalries.
<p>Family members of Macau gambling king Stanley Ho speak to the media, in Hong Kong, China May 26, 2020. REUTERS/Joyce Zhou</p>
PHOTO: X06813
<p>epa08444169 (FILE) - Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho (L) and wife Angela look away after they attended his casino flagship Sociedade de Jogos de Macau Holdings limited (SJM) IPO investors luncheon in Hong Kong, China, 23 June 2008 (reissued 26 May 2020). Ho, who spurred Macau to surpass Las Vegas and become the world's most lucrative gambling destination, died aged 98 at a hospital in Hong Kong. EPA-EFE/YM YIK</p>
PHOTO: EPA
Casino magnate Stanley Ho (right) with his first wife Clementina Leitao who died in 2004 at the age of 80.
PHOTO: APPLE DAILY
In January 2019, Pansy, his eldest daughter with his second wife, joined forces with some siblings in an alliance that holds sway over a controlling stake in SJM, giving her the upper hand over Ms Leong in the fight for the jewel in the crown of Mr Ho's US$14.9 billion(S$21 billion) empire.
Pansy, one of Hong Kong's richest people, is also executive chairman of Shun Tak Holdings, which runs most of the ferries between Hong Kong and Macau.
