As pressure grows on Macau to find new reasons for revenue, scion of casino dynasty imagines an alternative future for that other SAR
Sabrina Ho Chiu-yeng does what she will to assist Macau diversify. The 26-year-old daughter of Stanley Ho Hung-sun might be better known for gracing society and entertainment pages, but also in January she organised the 1st Macau sales by China’s state-owned Poly Auction and also in November held her own annual hotel art fair, having already launched an exhibition to advertise the job of young art graduates in September.
“Macau has been evolving,” she tells The Collector. “We don’t need to rely just for the gaming industry. We would like more families in the future for holidays, we would like to boost our cultural and artistic industries.”
This is a politically correct view for that daughter of an casino magnate. Macau is within 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 required taxes where pay for most public expenditures, back throughout the boom years, when the “build it and they can come” mentality ruled the casino industry. Today, mainland policies to discourage high rollers along with a slowing economy have gone up the pressure to find new revenues.
Fundamental change has been slow in the future. Five casinos have opened since 2012 and much more are on the best way, including two from branches from 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 Casino tycoon daughter‘s half-sister Pansy Ho Chiu-king.
So are Sabrina’s cultural endeavours all just a little of soft pr for that clan?
Well, China’s biggest ah is treating her seriously, and hopes her youthful energy and family connections can help it plunge into a fresh and wealthy market where no international house has a presence. Inturn, Ho says, sherrrd like the auctions to assist attract tourists and maybe let the city’s 600,000 residents to formulate much more of an interest in culture. The partnership, called Poly Auction Macau, is 51 % properties of Poly and also the rest by Ho’s company, Chiu Yeng Culture.
Ho was raised surrounded by art and other collectables properties of her parents but she is fairly new to the auctions business. After graduating having an arts degree from the University of Hong Kong, in 2013, she worked on the branding and marketing side from the family’s hotel and property businesses. “But I like art and i also asked Poly easily could work in their free time in their Hong Kong office, to find out about the auction world,” she says.
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