The ceremony would be held sometime next month. This honors citizens who “have made major or excellent contributions” in the travel industry. The Macau Special Administrative Region said in a statement Ho would receive the “Medal of Merit.” To celebrate this anniversary, the resort city is set to honor its most famous and well-known businessmen, casino mogul Lawrence Ho, owner of Melco Crown Entertainment. This year, the island nation is planning a celebration to commemorate its 18th anniversary as an autonomous territory. Hong Kong boasts one of the highest concentrations of billionaires in the world, but the city is also shot through with inequality, fuelled by a lack of housing, sky-high rents and low wages for blue-collar jobs.Eighteen years ago, Portugal officially transferred governance of Macau to China. Pansy was named Hong Kong's richest woman by Bloomberg in 2018.Įarlier this year Ho's youngest son, 25-year-old Mario, shelled out HK$500 million (US$64.4 million) on a house at one of Hong Kong's most prestigious addresses, the South China Morning Post reported. Pansy Ho runs conglomerate Shun Tak, which includes ferry services between Macau, Hong Kong and mainland China and is a major property developer in Macau. Ho had been keeping a low profile after a serious fall in 2009 at the age of 87 which left him requiring brain surgery. In 2015 his nephew Alan Ho spent 14 months in jail on charges linked to a prostitution racket that was uncovered at the company's flagship Hotel Lisboa. One of his sons, Lawrence, runs rival casino and hotel operator Melco International in Macau. Like many of Hong Kong's magnates, Ho was reluctant to retire and only officially stepped down from SJM in 2018 at the age of 96, handing over the reins to his daughter Daisy and Angela Leong, his fourth "wife". Local media said it was unclear whether or not he had married all the women he called his "wives".īloomberg estimates his family empire is worth $14.9 billion and a spat between rival factions in 2011 became front page news before it ended with an agreement. He also added to his wealth through a property and shipping empire.Ī flamboyant entrepreneur, philanthropist and keen ballroom dancer, Ho first married in 1942 but subsequently had three other partners with whom he had children.
Ho said he had never wagered a bet, even while his casinos continued to rake in billions in revenues annually. The war allowed him to make his first fortune - smuggling luxury goods into China from Macau - before securing the only gaming licence in the then-Portuguese colony in 1962. Mily fortunes collapsed during the depression years, and when World War II came he fled to Macau virtually destitute. He was the great-nephew of one of Asia's first tycoons, Robert Hotung, an influential Eurasian businessman and philanthropist who was among Hong Kong's wealthiest individuals at the turn of the 20th century. While many of Hong Kong's tycoons have rags to riches backstories, Ho initially had a gilded start to life. Most operators, however, including SJM, have ample cash reserves built up from the boom years to weather a prolonged downturn. Gaming revenues bounced back until earlier this year when the coronavirus pandemic emptied casino floors and hammered the industry. The company took a hit alongside its competitors after China's President Xi Jinping launched a high-profile corruption crackdown in 2014, triggering a dramatic decline in high-rollers to Macau.
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