Stanley Ho, a towering figure in Asia’s gambling industry who played a key role in Macao’s emergence as the world’s foremost casino hub, has died. He was 98.
A former World War II smuggler who rose to become the billionaire owner of the former Portuguese colony’s gambling monopoly and one of Asia’s richest men, Ho spent decades as a high-profile tycoon, investor, and philanthropist known as much for his opulent lifestyle as for his business interests. He died Tuesday at the private Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital. No cause of death has been announced.