Founder of SJM Holding and the man attributed with helping to turn Macau into a gambling destination has passed away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Macau.- Gambling mogul Stanley Ho died at the age of 98, his daughter Pansy Ho has confirmed to the press. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ho has been receiving medical care at the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital and was said to be in a critical condition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is believed he passed away surrounded by family including his second wife, Lucina Lam King Ying, third wife, Ina Chan Un Chan and fourth wife, Angela Leong On-ke. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ho was the founder of SJM Holdings Ltd<\/strong><\/em> one of the largest casino operators in Asia with more than 20 properties across the region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Known as the King of Gambling, Ho is seen by many as playing a crucial role in transformed Macau from a commercial backwater to one of the largest gambling destinations in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In doing so, he amassed a personal fortune estimated to be US$3.1 billion by Forbes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ho was born Nov. 25, 1921, into a wealthy Hong Kong family of Chinese and European descent and attended university in the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His family\u2019s circumstances changed during World War II, when the Japanese invaded the British colony. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At age 21, he fled to neutral Macau where he got his start trading everything from kerosene to airplanes, at a time when the island was best known for fishing and producing fireworks and incense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI took Macau as a second home, they treated me so well \u2014 with 10 dollars in my pocket, I became a millionaire in one year, in one year\u2019s time, imagine, during the war years,” he told once to CNN. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When Portuguese rule ended in 1999, the incoming administration decided a shakeup in the industry was needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2002, it broke up Ho\u2019s monopoly, awarding three new licenses which subsequently morphed into six through a series of sub-concessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ho said he welcomed the added competition, though his company has been steadily losing its dominant market position, with Sands China taking the top slot in recent years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ho’s fourth wife, Angela Leong On Kei, is the Managing Director and largest shareholder in SJM Holdings, while his son Lawrence Ho heads up Melco Resorts & Entertainment, another of Macau\u2019s six concessionaires. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The company operates the City of Dreams, Mocha Clubs, and Studio City in Macau and the City of Dreams Manila in the Philippines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Daughter Pansy Ho is Co-chair of MGM China and its biggest single shareholder with a 22.5 per cent stake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pansy, one of Hong Kong\u2019s richest people, is also Executive Chairman of Shun Tak Holdings Ltd., which runs most of the ferries between Hong Kong and Macau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Founder of SJM Holding and the man attributed with helping to turn Macau into a gambling destination has passed away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6739,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Stanley Ho, the founder of SJM Holdings and a pivotal figure in transforming Macau into a global gambling hub, has passed away at 98. His legacy includes establishing a casino monopoly that was later broken, leading to the current six-concessionaire structure, with his family members continuing to hold significant stakes in major operators like SJM, Melco Resorts, and MGM China.","focusai_entities":"Stanley Ho, SJM Holding, Pansy Ho, Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital, Lucina Lam King Ying, Ina Chan Un Chan, Angela Leong On-ke, SJM Holdings Ltd, Forbes, CNN, Sands China, Lawrence Ho, Melco Resorts & Entertainment, City of Dreams, Mocha Clubs, Studio City, MGM China, Shun Tak Holdings Ltd.","focusai_location":"Macau, Hong Kong, Philippines, Manila","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.7), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Macau market impact?","query":"What are the long-term implications of Stanley Ho's passing on the competitive landscape and regulatory stability of the Macau gaming market, particularly concerning the concessionaires linked to the Ho family?"},{"label":"SJM Holdings strategy?","query":"How might SJM Holdings' strategic direction and market positioning evolve under its current leadership, given the historical context of its founder's vision and the increasing competition from other concessionaires?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,157,16338,158],"tags":[257,14863],"class_list":["post-6734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","category-slider-home","tag-macau","tag-stanley-ho"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6734"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777010388,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6734\/revisions\/777010388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}