As pressure grows on Macau to find new causes of revenue, scion of casino dynasty imagines an alternative future for that other SAR
Sabrina Ho Chiu-yeng is doing what she can to help Macau diversify. The 26-year-old daughter of Stanley Ho Hung-sun might be better known for gracing society and entertainment pages, in January she organised the 1st Macau sales by China’s state-owned Poly Auction and also in November held her very own annual hotel art fair, having already launched an exhibition to advertise the job of young art graduates in September.
“Macau is beginning to change,” she tells The Collector. “We don’t want to rely just for the gaming industry. We would like more families to come to put holidays, we would like to boost our cultural and creative industries.”
This is the politically correct view for that 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 city to relinquish its being hooked on the gaming sector, the required taxes that buy most public expenditures, back through the boom years, once the “build it and they’ll come” mentality ruled the casino industry. Today, mainland policies to discourage high rollers coupled with a slowing economy have risen pressure to succeed to find new revenues.
Fundamental change may be slow to come. Five casinos have opened since 2012 plus more take presctiption just how, including two from branches with 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‘s half-sister Pansy Ho Chiu-king.
So can be Sabrina’s cultural endeavours all just a little of soft pr for that clan?
Well, China’s biggest auction house is treating her seriously, and hopes her youthful energy and family connections will help it enter a new and wealthy market where no international house features a presence. In return, Ho says, she wants the auctions to help attract tourists and perhaps encourage the city’s 600,000 residents to develop more of a desire for culture. Their bond, called Poly Auction Macau, is 51 per cent owned by Poly and also the rest by Ho’s company, Chiu Yeng Culture.
Ho spent my childhood years in the middle of art and other collectables owned by her parents but she actually is a newcomer towards the auctions business. After graduating with the arts degree from your University of Hong Kong, in 2013, she done the branding and marketing side with the family’s hotel and property businesses. “But I prefer art i asked Poly easily perform in your free time in their Hong Kong office, to find out about the auction world,” she says.
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