Stanley Ho, flashy casino kingpin of Macau, dead at 98

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Stanley Ho, the flashy casino tycoon who helped turn Macau into the world’s biggest gambling hub, has died, his family confirmed Tuesday. He was 98. The Hong Kong native known as the “King of Gambling” ushered in a new era of gaming in China by building what was once a sleepy Portuguese colony into a …

Stanley Ho, the flashy casino tycoon who helped turn Macau into the world’s biggest gambling hub, has died, his family confirmed Tuesday. He was 98.

The Hong Kong native known as the “King of Gambling” ushered in a new era of gaming in China by building what was once a sleepy Portuguese colony into a global center for high rollers — even though he never hit the tables himself.

“I don’t gamble at all. I don’t have the patience,” Ho told the Associated Press in a 2001 interview. “Don’t expect to make money in gambling. It’s a house game.”

After a stint as a kerosene trader, Ho got into the casino business in 1962 and held a monopoly over Macau’s casino market until 2002, when the seaside territory was opened to foreign companies. That allowed Western competitors such as MGM Resorts and Wynn Resorts to set up their own properties there.

Ho served as chairman of his flagship firm, SJM Holdings, until he retired at age 96. The company still runs 20 of Macau’s casinos, according to its website, though its market share had shrunk to 14 percent last year.

Ho was also known as a dashing ballroom dancer and splashy spender — he bid $330,000 for truffles on two occasions at charity auctions and once paid $8.9 million for a bronze horse that French troops snatched from China’s imperial palace.

Ho fathered 17 children with four different women, all of whom he called his “wives.” Some of those kids followed him into the gaming industry — his daughter Pansy is the co-chair of MGM Resorts’ Macau business, and his son Lawrence is the head of Melco Resorts & Entertainment, a Hong Kong-based casino developer.

“[We] hope to follow our father’s footsteps and carry on the responsibility of giving back to the society,” Pansy told media.

Pansy made a deal last year to increase her control of SJM Holdings through an alliance with four shareholders of its holding company, Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau. That alliance now has greater influence at SJM than Angela Leong, Ho’s wife and the company’s co-chair.

With Post wires