Stanley Ho

Who is Stanley Ho?

Stanley Ho, born Ho Hung Sun in Hong Kong in 1921, became the single most influential businessman in modern Macau's history and was widely known as the city's "King of Gambling." After building an early fortune trading goods across the Portuguese colony during the Second World War, he later led the consortium that won Macau's gaming monopoly in 1962, founding the Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau, known as STDM, through which he controlled virtually all of the territory's casinos for the following four decades. His companies also developed the Macau-Hong Kong ferry service, major hotels, and large sections of the reclaimed Macau waterfront, making him central to the transformation of Macau from a quiet colonial port into a major global gaming and tourism hub. When the Macau government ended the gaming monopoly in 2002 and opened the market to international operators, Ho's companies remained major players alongside the new entrants. He continued to hold vast business and philanthropic interests across Macau, Hong Kong, and mainland China until his death in Hong Kong in 2020 at the age of ninety-eight.

Sources: Reuters, "Macau gambling king Stanley Ho dies aged 98" (26 May 2020) · BBC News, obituary of Stanley Ho (2020) · STDM/Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau, corporate records