Stanley Ho dies at 98 in MacauA legend in the gambling industry has just passed away. On Tuesday, May 26, 2020, at around 1 p.m., the legendary Macau land-based casino magnate, Stanley Ho Hung Sun , died at the age of 98 at the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital. Founder of the SJM Holdings Ltd group, one of the six operators legally allowed to offer gambling in the former Portuguese colony, he had been in poor health since 2009, due to a fall at his home in Hong Kong.

Difficult beginnings

Born in Hong Kong in the early 20th century, Stanley Ho is the great-grandnephew of Robert Ho Tung, who was one of the richest men in the British colony. His father, Sai Kwong, worked as a middleman for merchants. However, he lost everything in the stock market when his son was only 13 years old.

Determined to succeed, he enrolled in university. After completing his studies, during World War II, he worked for the Air Raid Services Department for seven days before the Japanese captured Hong Kong. With HK$10 in his pocket, he then went to Macau where he successfully embarked on a business venture.

Obtaining a monopoly on Macau casinos

Although he often boasts of never having indulged in gambling and advises his friends to do the same, Stanley Ho does not hesitate to invest his profits to obtain a monopoly on Macau’s land-based casinos in 1962. It was at this time that he created the famous Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macao SA (or STDM), which would manage all the city’s gambling establishments until 2002.

It was during this year that the authorities decided to open this market to competition. From that time on, the businessman had to face other giants in the sector, starting with the Las Vegas Sands group of American billionaire Sheldon Adelson.

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The question of his succession

It was during 2018 that Stanley Ho officially stepped down from his duties at the helm of SJM Holdings, a group now valued at $6 billion. But in reality, he had not really worked for the company since his famous fall in 2009. From that moment on, the question of his succession became a real one. It was finally resolved at the end of January 2019, when one of Stanley Ho’s daughters (Pansy Ho) joined forces with the Henry Fok Foundation (named after another founder of STDM) to obtain majority control of the SJM Holdings group.

Other casinos around the world

Stanley Ho also headed the Estoril-Sol SGPS SA company based in Portugal, which manages three gambling establishments there: the Estoril Casino, which is one of the largest in Europe, the Lisbon Casino, and the Póvoa de Varzim Casino. In 1999, the businessman also opened another such complex in the ziggurat-shaped building of the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.