When you read the names Ho or Adelson they are invariably preceded by the words mogul or magnate. These giants of the casino industry, similar in many ways, started life literally oceans apart.

Stanley Ho was born in Hong Kong nearly eighty-three years ago, into the rich and influential Ho Tung family. His great-grandfather was British, his great-grandmother from the old Canton Province in mainland China. Twelve years younger than Ho, Sheldon Adelson was the son of an immigrant Boston cab-driver and there was little money in his family.

However, they both acquired self-made fortunes that place them in the Forbes lists of wealthiest men in the world. Adelson started his business career at age 12 buying a piece of ‘turf’, a corner with exclusivity for selling newspapers. Ho’s career started later, after getting to Hong Kong University on a scholarship, but he also had to make his own way as his father lost everything in the stock market crash and left home.

Starting work in import-export for a Japanese firm, Stanley Ho moved to Macau in 1941 after the Japanese invasion. By 21 he was a partner in a trading company and started investing in Hong Kong, firstly forming a kerosene company and then moving into construction, a boom industry at the time. From his already considerable wealth he and his partners won a public tender for Macau’s gaming monopoly, for a mere $410,000, and the mogul was on his way. In 1961 the company Sociedade de Tourismo e Diversôes de Macao SARL (STDM) was formed and by 1972 the Casino Lisboa hotel had become a landmark in Macau.

Sheldon Adelson moved through mortgage broker, investment advisor and financial consultant before starting COMDEX, a trade show for the computer industry. COMDEX became the world’s largest trade show with a presence in more than 20 countries. In 1981 he bought Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, built the Sands Expo & Convention Center then demolished the hotel to build the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino, after the inspiration came from a honeymoon in Venice.

Both men have extensive lists of charitable works and donations, and chair many committees. Stanley Ho was a member of the advisory committee for the return of Macau to the Chinese in 1999. On a personal note, Sheldon Adelson has been married twice and has five children; Stanley Ho has four wives and seventeen children. Both men have caused controversy with some of their dealings.

In February 2000 the STDM monopoly on gaming in Macau came to an end. Adelson’s company Las Vegas Sands, Inc obtained one of the new licenses for the Cotai Strip and Sands Macau with 163,000 sq. ft. of gaming floor was opened in May 2004. Stanley Ho has diversified more broadly with interests in the Macau airport and Air Macau, high-speed jetfoil transport between Hong Kong and Macau (Shun Tak Group), Melco International Development Ltd with divisions in finance, technology and leisure, iAsia Technology Ltd, and he has also formed an Internet gaming company DrHo888.com based in Costa Rica.

With huge profits from Sands Macau, Sheldon Adelson is now constructing the Venetian Macau and fast becoming the world’s biggest casino resort operator. His company is looking at investment in the UK, Singapore, Japan, Thailand and the Internet. Stanley Ho is also building on the Cotai Strip and already has investments in Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines. His businesses in Macau employ around 25% of the local population, their taxes contribute 30% of government revenue and their income is a third of the Macau GDP.

These two casino moguls, born worlds apart, are now competing in the same business in the same part of the world. Neither can be called a big fish in a small pond – they are both huge fish in the ocean.

© Copyright 2004 CasinoCompendium



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