The extensive family of Macau casino industry co-founder Dr Stanley Ho has ranked 17th on a new Bloomberg list of Asia’s 20 Richest Families with combined wealth of US$14.9 billion.
The list, which excludes first generation fortunes such as that of Alibaba Group’s Jack Ma as well as those held by a single heir, comprises around US$450 billion of combined wealth from a who’s who of the region’s oil, real estate and technology leaders.
Dr Ho co-founded Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau, SA (STDM) alongside three associates in 1962 with the company holding a monopoly on casino gaming in the city for the next 40 years. When the government liberalized the industry in the early 2000s, STDM subsidiary SJM Holdings was one of the three companies to initially be granted casino concessions and is one of six concessionaires operating in Macau today.
Now 97 years old, much of Dr Ho’s wealth is spread across his many heirs. He has married four times over the years with his fourth wife, Angela Leong, still a key figure within Macau’s gaming industry as Co-Chairperson and Executive Director of SJM. He has also fathered 17 children including Melco Resorts & Entertainment Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho and MGM China Co-Chairperson and Executive Director Pansy Ho.
While the Ho family is the only one on Bloomberg’s list to have made its fortune from gaming, there are a handful of others to hold gaming interests in the region including Hong Kong’s Cheng family (12th at US$18.2 billion), which owns a 9.6% stake in SJM Holdings as well as casino interests in Australia, Vietnam and the Bahamas via its jewellery company Chow Tai Fook.
The Henry Sy family in the Philippines, whose real estate firm Belle Corp is the local partner of Melco’s City of Dreams Manila, ranked 8th with wealth of US$20.9 billion.
