The condition of Stanley Ho, the gambling king, has not been made public so far. The attention to this rich family is not only because of the wonderful plot, but also because of the Ho family controlling 500 billion Hong Kong dollars in assets. Its future direction will affect the economy of the entire region. Stanley Ho's dissolute life has laid the groundwork for the inheritance of the gambling empire today. Stanley Ho has a great influence in Macao. At the age of 87, he is crossing the line of health, and his dissolute life has laid the groundwork for the inheritance of the gambling empire today. Stanley Ho has had to deal with constant storms in recent years. Seven years ago, he had a dispute over family equity with his sister, then he had to face the challenge of the opening up of Macao's gambling rights. In the past two months, he was once rushed to the hospital due to brain disease, and spent the Mid-Autumn Festival in the hospital, which again triggered speculation about the future of the gambling empire.
Stanley Ho has four wives (the original wife has passed away) and seventeen children, known as "four houses and seventeen elites". As the children gradually grow up, the young and strong children have completed the new layout of the Ho family's gambling, entertainment and industry business in the process of dealing with the gambling industry. In addition, the wife represented by the fourth wife, Leung Eng-kei, also occupies a place in the Ho family business, and their strength cannot be underestimated.
We pay attention to the legendary life of the gambling king, not because the disputes among the rich families attract people's attention, but because the Ho family has deeply influenced the local economy and culture, and the inheritance of the Ho family business makes us think about the inheritance problem of Chinese family enterprises.
The health condition of Stanley Ho can be said to be one that affects the whole situation: it not only involves the inheritance of the Ho family's assets by the "four houses and seventeen elites", but also involves the interests of H-share listed companies and many shareholders, and may even affect the Macao gambling industry and social stability. Around the incident of the gambling king's hospitalization, the covert war between the public and the Ho family, and among the members of the Ho family, has quietly begun.
South Weekly reporter · Xuan Feng Intern · Huang Xinru Zheng Xuan reported from Hong Kong
Disease investigation and counter-investigation
This year during the Mid-Autumn Festival, the once critically ill gambling king Stanley Ho spent it in a suite at the Yan Wo Hospital in Hong Kong. Seen by the outside world as enjoying the blessings of having all his wives and concubines, this time all three wives (the first wife has passed away) and more than a dozen children were in the hospital to accompany him for the festival, making it a big family reunion.
For two months, numerous journalists from Hong Kong and Macau have been stationed at the hospital, watching the expressions of this large family change from anxiety to relaxation, and every word spoken by those in the know has become content for newspapers and magazines, even making headlines.
Led by Stanley Ho, the family's collective "appearance" this year was during the Qingming Festival when he led many of his children to the family cemetery to pay respects to their ancestors. It was said that at the time, "the 87-year-old gambling king was full of energy and still walked up the stairs with great strides." Now that Stanley Ho is bedridden, his wives and children are still closely followed by paparazzi, with every move and even their clothing being closely watched.
As the richest man in Macao, "gambling king" Stanley Ho and his family control assets worth up to 500 billion Hong Kong dollars; at the same time, as a wealthy celebrity, Stanley Ho is not only called "He Dakou" (for speaking freely to the media) by the people of Hong Kong and Macao, but the 17 children born to his four wives have also been prominent figures in the commercial, political, and entertainment sections of various newspapers and magazines for many years.
At the age of 87, Stanley Ho has been well-known in Hong Kong for his health preservation methods. He likes dancing, playing tennis, insists on swimming every day, and has the secret of "harvesting in autumn and storing in winter," even giving birth to his youngest daughter, He Chaoxin, nine years ago. Now that the gambling king has been hospitalized, what was originally a secret of the Ho family has remained silent for a while; after the news came out, major media immediately moved into two hospitals in Hong Kong where the "gambling king" was treated—Portuguese Hospital and Yan Wo Hospital—and they continue to track them 24 hours a day in shifts.
Despite the gambling king always showing an energetic demeanor, he has shown signs of aging these past few years. Two years ago, he was hospitalized due to rectal bleeding and inflammation caused by enemas at a Thai hospital. At a dinner party in early April this year, he suddenly went deaf on stage and didn't hear the host calling him, then almost fell down.
According to sources, the gambling king accidentally fell at home in late July and hit his head, leading to his being sent to Portuguese Hospital. After six days of rescue efforts, the gambling king miraculously woke up. After stabilizing his condition, Stanley Ho was transferred to the familiar Yan Wo Hospital and admitted to the most expensive luxury suite.
Stanley Ho's condition was quite confidential, and various critical situations were repeatedly rumored along the way, such as strokes and brain hypoxia. According to informed persons, Stanley Ho suffered from subdural hematoma due to the fall, underwent two surgeries and decompression through drilling to drain blood clots—the Portuguese Hospital was the first institution in Hong Kong and Macao to receive certification of the highest standard of hospital services in the United States, equipped with digital navigation knives for precise treatment of brain tumors; Yan Wo Hospital’s advanced intelligent scanning system can monitor the metabolism of brain cells, helping the gambling king recover from his brain condition.
According to media statistics, Stanley Ho's hospitalization costs have exceeded 100 million Hong Kong dollars so far. To create the best medical environment, before the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Ho family rented out two entire floors of the hospital's most expensive suites—not only offering a view of the Happy Valley scenery, but also complete home facilities, double-layered visitor verification and anti-theft door guard systems, allowing family members to stay, care for, and celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival together, while keeping the relentless journalists of Hong Kong and Macao out.
However, Stanley Ho's children like He Yulong and He Chaoying occasionally send bento boxes, mini fans, and other慰问items to the stationed journalists, fully demonstrating the grace of a grand family.
For two months, the families of the four houses of the Ho family have been taking turns visiting the hospital. Whenever members of the Ho family enter or leave the hospital, they are asked about the gambling king's condition by the journalists on duty. From the initial claim by the fourth wife of "recurrent hemorrhoids" to later everyone uniformly saying "OK" and "pretty good," the media could only gather specific clues using various methods. When the gambling king was transferred to another hospital last month, to avoid letting the journalists take pictures of Stanley Ho's face, the ambulance drove to the glass doors of the hospital for a "seamless connection." The hospital also mobilized dozens of security guards and erected white cloth to block the lenses.
Internal Competition within the Wealthy Family
Stanley Ho comes from the famous Ho Dong family in Hong Kong. The multiracial Stanley Ho is a standard handsome man, tall stature, blue eyes, sharp nose, good at singing and dancing, properly dressed, superior taste, willing to spend money to please his beloved, and can be called a generation of Cupids in Hong Kong and Macao. The recognized wives of Stanley Ho who have given birth to his children include the original wife Li Wan-hua, registered second wife Lan Chong-ying, and publicly acknowledged third wife Chen Wan-zhen and fourth wife Leung Eng-kei.
When Stanley Ho married his second wife Lan Chong-ying in 1957, Hong Kong's marriage system still followed the polygamy law of the Qing Dynasty, so Lan Chong-ying was considered the legal wife of the gambling king. However, later Hong Kong changed to a monogamy system, strictly speaking, the third and fourth wives are not the legal wives of the gambling king. Therefore, outside of the will, these two wives have no title and are difficult to inherit his assets.
Since Stanley Ho has been hospitalized for two months, the children of the four houses of the Ho family have taken turns visiting at different times. Careful media observers noticed that the eldest house children often take turns staying overnight, the fourth wife mostly visits in the evening, the third wife usually visits in the morning, and the children go at irregular times.
On local Hong Kong online forums, there are thousands of discussion threads about Stanley Ho's condition. Many netizens speculate that if the gambling king's condition worsens, how will his huge assets and control rights change?
In fact, the question of "who is the successor of the gambling king" began to emerge after 2001, when disputes among shareholders occurred in the company founded by the Ho family, the Macao Tourist Entertainment Company (Austasia). The gambling king spent great effort and took many years to resolve the disputes.
Because the gambling king has many family members and hired up to seven top doctors in Hong Kong for consultations, to prevent leaks of his condition, the Ho family, under the leadership of the second wife, listed a visitation list. For a period, the children of the third and fourth wives could only see their father through the glass. Whether to transfer from Portuguese Hospital to Yan Wo Hospital, and the arrangement of the chief doctor, also caused disputes among family members and the medical team.
It is rumored that during the time the gambling king was unconscious, the second wife Lan Chong-ying, as the "official" wife, was actually the highest decision-maker in the Ho family. Matters such as transferring hospitals were operated under the leadership of Lan Chong-ying. The second house's He Yulong, known as the "new gambling king," and He Chaokiong, the helmsman of Shun Tak, both immediately returned to Hong Kong from Beijing and New York respectively after their father was hospitalized.
In business, the gambling king's businesses are mostly controlled by the second house's He Chaokiong and He Yulong in their prime, and they have been referred to in recent years as successors of the gambling king: the "gambling queen" and the "new gambling king."
In the commercial empire under Stanley Ho, Sinotrans Group is the most industrialized, operating real estate, hotels, and transportation businesses, with the eldest daughter of the second wife, He Chaokiong, serving as managing director, and the three daughters of the second wife owning a total of 37% of the shares, making them the actual majority shareholders; the chairman of Melco International, He Yulong, the eldest son of the second wife, holds fewer shares in Stanley Ho's holdings compared to his son.
It can be said that in the gambling business of the gambling king, He Chaokiong and He Yulong have already taken charge independently—in Macao, He Chaokiong cooperates with American MGM to hold one gambling license, and He Yulong's Melco International does the same (Macao currently has six gambling licenses, and the Ho family directly or indirectly owns three), so the public generally believes that these two corporate groups have already completed the handover. Thus, the focus is on Stanley Ho's founding company, STDM, and its parent company Austasia, because this involves Stanley Ho's most precious asset—the Macao gambling license—which is also the enterprise involving the most family members and the most interwoven financial powers.
STDM went public last year and operates more than 18 casinos in Macao, including flagship projects such as the Grand Lisboa Casino and the Sixteen浦Hotel Project, with gambling revenue reaching nearly 29 billion Hong Kong dollars in 2008. Stanley Ho's third wife, Chen Wan-zhen, and fourth wife, Leung Eng-kei, are currently directors of Austasia (Leung Eng-kei also serves as a director of STDM), and the Sinotrans group led by He Chaokiong also holds shares.
The changes in internal equity of Austasia involve several wives of the Ho family, as well as multiple shareholders, and the property disputes that have occurred over the years have been complex and subtle.
The media have noticed that in recent years, the fourth wife, Leung Eng-kei, has often accompanied Stanley Ho to various events.
Leung Eng-kei was born in Guangzhou and served as a dance teacher in Macao. The "Tenth Lady," Stanley Ho's sister, who has often criticized the fourth wife, once described her as a woman who "doesn't want a monthly allowance of hundreds of thousands, but rather insists on doing business." In Macao, Leung Eng-kei is a person skilled in networking and diplomacy, and in recent years she has also been one of the main leaders of Austasia (STDM).
In 1999, the second wife publicly mocked the fourth wife for having name but no status. The ambitious Leung Eng-kei started venturing into the Ho family's business scene in 2001 and later took over the VIP room business, the crown jewel of Austasia's casino operations. In 2005, despite opposition from "Tenth Lady" He Wan-kei, Stanley Ho gifted shares of Austasia to the third and fourth wives, allowing them to smoothly become directors of Austasia, thus officially entering the gambling king's business system.
Unlike the second wife who rarely personally involved herself in family business, in recent years the fourth wife not only manages Austasia's business but also takes over the family's gift shops, decoration engineering, pawnbroking industries, and invests in properties in Hong Kong. In mid-last month, the indefatigable Leung Eng-kei gained a seat in the newly elected Legislative Assembly of Macao. She invited famous artists such as Lam Chi-shing and Wong Ming-chuen to perform in Macao to support her campaign, successfully becoming a legislator. She was moved to tears in public, expressing gratitude: "Thank you, Brother Shun, for your care. I hope he can recover soon and lead me to new heights."
Similarly, the third wife, Chen Wan-zhen, who used to be a private nurse for the gambling king, once publicly evaluated Stanley Ho's stormy life: "He is rich and romantic, this is his blessing." During the gambling king's hospitalization, the media reported that the third wife stayed up all night with the gambling king, and her two adult daughters, He Chaoyun and He Chaolian, have also frequently entered and exited the hospital recently, dressed fashionably and speaking appropriately, earning praise from many netizens as the most "sharp" (referring to bright and attractive) people in the city.
In recent years, another woman referred to as the "Fifth Wife" of the gambling king has also entered the sights of Hong Kong reporters. After the news of Stanley Ho's hospitalization spread throughout Hong Kong, many newspapers and magazines published long articles claiming that Stanley Ho's private nurse, Deng Yongshi, who is 30 years old this year, has served the gambling king for two years and has received property worth over ten million Hong Kong dollars as a gift from the gambling king. They even provided a lot of pictures and inside information to prove the authenticity of the matter; then, just before the National Day holiday while the gambling king was still in the hospital, this private nurse who was unwilling to be mentioned in public by the Ho family got married in a high-profile manner, ending another potential controversy.
Due to the rumors that the gambling king's condition was critical, discussions about the disputes over Stanley Ho's assets have sparked waves on Hong Kong and Macao networks. Some netizens commented that "a new 'Storm in a Teacup' can be filmed."
Prequel to the Asset Dispute of the Ho Family
Nowadays, STDM hosted by the fourth wife has experienced storms in the equity aspect since the 1960s.
In 2002, Ho Ying-tung and "Tenth Lady" successively proposed to sell their shares in Austasia to protest against "administrative and financial chaos in Austasia." The long-term litigant "Tenth Lady" Ho Wan-kei pointed out that the original capital of Austasia was the 2 million Australian dollars she invested. She also filed a lawsuit demanding access to Austasia's accounts, questioning why Austasia announced in 2001 that the shareholder register was lost in 1993 and delayed reconstruction, and accused the fourth wife of becoming a director of Austasia "illegally"; correspondingly, Stanley Ho once sued the "Tenth Lady" for illegal shareholder status and questioned her for misleading the public. In the previous year, STDM successfully went public in Hong Kong, and the gambling king, feeling triumphant, did not forget to give the victory sign to the reporters.
Most data shows that the current share composition of Austasia, the predecessor of STDM, includes the Ho Ying-tung Foundation, the brothers of Cheng Yu-tung (another wealthy family in Hong Kong), Stanley Ho and the "Tenth Lady," all as major shareholders, holding 61% of the shares of the listed company STDM, and Su Shuhui, Ng Chi-cheng, and Leung Eng-kei, who have followed Stanley Ho for many years, also hold shares. In actual operations, since Ho Ying-tung stopped asking about the gambling industry in the early years and Cheng Yu-tung mainly entrusted his business to Stanley Ho, Austasia has always been seen as the gambling king's family business—originally by him and his sister "Tenth Lady," and currently hosted by the fourth wife.
In 2001, the "Tenth Lady" and Stanley Ho openly quarreled, thus starting their court battles in Macao and Hong Kong. The "Tenth Lady" was kicked out of Austasia's board of directors and continued to pursue approximately 3 billion accumulated surplus and dividends from Austasia. On the personal website of the "Tenth Lady," there are still a large number of descriptions exposing Stanley Ho for "treating family matters as company matters" and even helping to launder money. Every time there was a verdict in a lawsuit or when STDM was striving to go public in Hong Kong, both sides even engaged in fierce advertising wars in newspapers, creating tension and widespread gossip.
In fact, the estrangement between the Ho siblings, outsiders believe, is mainly due to the "promotion" of the fourth wife hindering the "Tenth Lady's" control in Austasia. The son of the "Tenth Lady," Mak Sun-ming, once pointed out that the "Tenth Lady" angered Stanley Ho because she refused to transfer one share of Austasia under her name to Stanley Ho's fourth wife, Leung Eng-kei, in exchange for the qualification of her MVI company to join Austasia's board of directors. Stanley Ho then used the reason of "youngization and professionalization" of Austasia's management team to kick