HONG KONG (AP) — Casino tycoon Stanley Ho, whose business empire dominated the Portuguese gambling enclave of Macao for decades, has died at age 98.
Ho's daughter Pansy Ho said he died Tuesday in Hong Kong. Considered the father of modern gambling in China, Ho's long and eventful life tracked the ebb and flow of southern China's fortunes.
After a swashbuckling start as a smuggler and kerosene trader, he ended up as Macau's richest person, a lavish spender and debonair ballroom dancer. Though he was unwell in his last years, Ho only fully retired in 2018, at age 96.