Update: In yet another reversal, Stanley Ho says he has sacked his attorney and that the brouhaha over his stock is all a big misunderstanding. Stay tuned for further developments in what’s already a rapidly morphing narrative.
Yesterday, aging (and ailing) casino oligarch Stanley Ho (middle) made news via an announcement that he’d supposedly relinquished all but 100 of his shares in Sociedade de Turismoe Diversoes de Macau, parent company of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau. The holdings were said to be divided between two other affiliates, one controlled by his third wife (i.e., not Angela Leong, his heir presumptive), the second run by five of his 17 children, the issue of Wife #2 — including MGM Resorts International partner Daisy Ho (right) and Melco Crown Entertainment principal owner Lawrence Ho. (That’d be a sheepish-looking J. Terrence Lanni, erstwhile CEO of MGM, on the left.) If this is a power grab by the two siblings, it could put them in control of over 50% of the Macanese casino market share, creating an interesting regulatory situation for the administration of Fernando Chui, who seems to be trying to level the playing field recently.
Today, Ho’s attorney fired back, saying the Macanese gambling potentate had been robbed blind. If Dr. Ho had wished to create an orderly succession, dissipating his SJM shares in the fashion initially reported would run a cart and horses through that plan. Leong’s 8% ownership of SJM is now quite overshadowed by the shares controlled by Chan Un-chan and the children of Lucina Laam King-ying. It’s all very dynastic.
If MGM entertained the thought that a Stanley Ho divestiture reopened the door into Atlantic City, this new controversy could slam it shut again. The old man has pegged Pansy as the ringleader of the alleged cabal. If true, that would connote rank ingratitude on her part. After all, it was dear old Dad who grubstaked Pansy with the money that bought her way into MGM Grand Paradise. Kids today, I tell ya …
Lawyer Gordon Oldham is basically accusing members of Ho’s family of impoverishing the patriarch on his deathbed. Resemblances between the division of Ho’s empire and King Lear continue to accumulate … with many more candidates for the roles of Goneril and Regan this time around.
Our friends to the north evidently haven’t heard of CityCenter. City fathers in Vancouver are mulling a six-tower casino/hotel/residential development, although it’s far from a slam dunk. Casino heiress Diana Bennett is among those behind the project. Although British Columbia politicians fret about gambling addiction, it sounds like their dependency on gaming revenues is the most severe jones in sight.
28-foot-tall robots. Was that really part of Ian Bruce Eichner‘s original concept for The Cosmopolitan? If so, that has to be one of the most dumbass and tacky ideas ever posited for a city that’s not exactly famous for subtlety or refinement. According to ABC News, Cosmo owner Deutsche Bank is 15 years away from breaking even on the megaresort.
That implies annual cash flow of $260 million, which at least gives us a yardstick by which we can measure whether the $3.9 billion casino is exceeding expectations or not. Considering the amount of creative latitude DB gave Cosmo CEO John Unwin, it can’t have been a tough decision for him to leave the one-size-fits-all confines of Harrah’s Entertainment, even if expectations of the Cosmo used to be so low that there was almost nothing but upside for Unwin.
Stanley Ho…this is going to be fun to watch. Agreed, Pansy and Lawrence already seem to have gotten their share. Let the other siblings now get theirs.
Canada, oh Canada…I am shocked by that one too. Ms Bennett should know better.
Ian Bruce Eichner….it was all a dumbass move from the start! DB certainly has a long way to go to recover anything, but they certainly have shown they are committed to getting the job done.