As pressure grows on Macau to find new reasons for revenue, scion of casino dynasty imagines another future for the other SAR
Sabrina Ho Chiu-yeng has been doing what she can to assist Macau diversify. The 26-year-old daughter of Stanley Ho Hung-sun may be also known for gracing society and entertainment pages, in January she organised the first Macau sales by China’s state-owned Poly Auction and also in November held her own annual hotel art fair, having already launched an exhibit to advertise the project of young art graduates in September.
“Macau is beginning to change,” she tells The Collector. “We don’t need to rely just for the gaming industry. We want more families to come here for holidays, we would like to boost our cultural and inventive industries.”
This is a politically correct view for the daughter of an casino magnate. Macau is in the cross hairs of Beijing’s war on corruption and capital outflow. The central government started urging the location to stop its dependence on the gaming sector, the taxes from which spend on most public expenditures, back in the boom years, if the “build it and they’re going to come” mentality ruled the casino industry. Today, mainland policies to discourage high rollers combined with a slowing economy have raised pressure to succeed to find new revenues.
Fundamental change has become slow to come. Five casinos have opened since 2012 plus more are on the way, including two from branches in the Ho empire – the Grand Lisboa Palace, led by Ho’s mother, Angela Leong On-kei (Stanley’s so-called “fourth wife”), and MGM Cotai, headed by Sabrina ho chiu yeng‘s half-sister Pansy Ho Chiu-king.
So may be Sabrina’s cultural endeavours all just a bit of soft pr for the clan?
Well, China’s biggest ah is treating her seriously, and hopes her youthful energy and family connections may help it break into a new and wealthy market where no international house features a presence. Inturn, Ho says, she would like the auctions to assist attract tourists and possibly encourage the city’s 600,000 residents to develop a greater portion of an interest in culture. The partnership, called Poly Auction Macau, is 51 % belonging to Poly and the rest by Ho’s company, Chiu Yeng Culture.
Ho spent my youth flanked by art along with other collectables belonging to her parents but she is a newcomer for the auctions business. After graduating with an arts degree in the University of Hong Kong, in 2013, she done the branding and marketing side in the family’s hotel and property businesses. “But I favor art and i also asked Poly only could work in your free time at their Hong Kong office, to learn about the auction world,” she says.
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