Pansy Ho has several nicknames, including the ‘Queen of Gambling’, but is not so much a gambler as a facilitator of gambling insofar as she is co-chairperson and executive director of MGM China Holdings, which owns the MGM Macau luxury resort, hotel and casino on the Macau peninsula. Ho is the eldest daughter of retired casino tycoon Stanley Ho, a.k.a. the ‘King of Gambling’, but was thrust into the spotlight, in her own right, when she opened the MGM Macau, as a joint venture with MGM Resorts International, formerly MGM Mirage, in December, 2007.
Although born, in her own words, ‘with a silver gambling chip in my mouth’, Ho has proved herself a shrewd, ambitious and determined businesswoman. She is by no means a ‘figurehead’, financially dependent on her father – who is believed, by many, to be connected to organised crime syndicates – and thereby ‘vulnerable to his potential influence and control’, as was suggested by a report issued by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in 2009. With a net worth of HK$36.1 billion, or US$4.6 billion, Pansy Ho would appear to be the natural heir to the Ho empire, but Stanley Ho has fathered no fewer than 17 children, so sibling rivalry over control of the business seems likely to continue for a while yet.
