Stanley Ho

Stanley Ho Hung-sun was born in Hong Kong in 1921 to a wealthy Eurasian family that lost its fortune in the Great Depression. During World War II, he fled Japanese-occupied Hong Kong to Macau, where he began building a business trading essential goods. His wartime experiences gave him the resilience and connections that would fuel his later empire.

In 1962, Ho and his partners won the exclusive franchise to operate casinos in Portuguese Macau. This monopoly, held through his company STDM, would make Ho the "King of Gambling" for four decades. He didn't just run casinos—he built Macau's infrastructure, developing hotels, ferries, and airports.

Ho understood that a casino monopoly was only valuable if people could reach Macau. He invested heavily in transportation links to Hong Kong and mainland China, making his casinos accessible to millions. The iconic Hotel Lisboa, with its lotus-shaped architecture, became Macau's most recognizable landmark.

Ho's development of Macau laid the groundwork for it to surpass Las Vegas as the world's largest gambling market. When the monopoly ended in 2002, his infrastructure investments made Macau attractive to international operators like Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts. His vision of Macau as an Asian entertainment hub has been fully realized.

Stanley Ho dominated Macau gambling for 40 years and built the foundation for its emergence as a global gaming capital. He died in 2020 at age 98, having transformed a sleepy Portuguese colony into a city that generates more gambling revenue than any other place on Earth.