Flamboyant Macau casino tycoon Ho dies at 98 in HK
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CASINO tycoon Stanley Ho, who built a business empire from scratch in Macau and became one of Asia’s richest men, died peacefully at the age of 98, his family confirmed yesterday.
The flamboyant tycoon headed one of the world’s most lucrative gaming businesses through his flagship firm, SJM Holdings, valued at about US$6 billion.
Ho oversaw the transformation of once-sleepy Macau into the world’s biggest casino center, outpacing the United States’ Las Vegas strip, and held a monopoly until 2002 when Macau licensed five other operators to run casinos.
Ho died at around 1pm at Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital, his daughter Pansy told media outside the hospital. “In Hong Kong, Dr Ho had been someone who carried a lot of weight, was highly respected and cherished Hong Kong ... (We) hope to follow our father’s footsteps and carry on the responsibility of giving back to the society,” Pansy said.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam expressed deep condolences to Ho’s family on behalf of the government in a statement.
Lam hailed Ho’s contributions to Hong Kong, including his participation in the development of Hong Kong’s community service and donations to charity organizations, schools and establishment of leisure and cultural facilities.
Ho was born on November 25, 1921, into the Hotung family, one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest and most powerful. When he was 13, his father abandoned the family after being wiped out by a stock market crash during the Great Depression. He got a job with the Macau government, bartering goods with the Japanese. The experience led to his own trading company and he became a millionaire.
In the early 1960s, he bid for the Macau gaming monopoly, and won the concession, built a harbor, added high-speed boats to lure Hong Kong’s avid gamblers and created the cash cow that made his empire possible.
His privately held company, Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau, or STDM, has stakes in everything from luxury hotels to helicopters and horse racing.
Ho earned the adoration of many Hong Kong and Macau residents for his swashbuckling business style and his philanthropic work. He served as an advisor to Beijing’s 2008 Olympic Games Bidding Committee in 2001. After Beijing won the bid, he made a substantial donation for the construction of the National Swimming Center.
In 2003, Ho donated a bronze statue of the pig head of Yuanmingyuan, or the Old Summer Palace, worth more than 6 million yuan (US$840,000) to Poly Art Museum. In September 2007, Ho purchased the horse head statue of Yuanmingyuan with HK$69.1 million (US$9 million) and displayed it publicly in Hong Kong and Macau. The bronze statue was donated to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in November 2019, as a gift to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 20th anniversary of Macau’s return to the motherland.
Flitting between Hong Kong and Macau by helicopter, the dapper Ho loved tennis and ballroom dancing well into his 80s. In 2009, Ho had brain surgery after reportedly falling at home. He spent seven months in the hospital and was rarely seen in public afterward.
He had four wives and 17 children, and was forced to restructure his business after a legal battle erupted within the family in 2012 over the family fortune. Bloomberg estimates his family empire was worth US$14.9 billion in 2019.
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