As pressure grows on Macau to find new sources of revenue, scion of casino dynasty imagines an alternative future for the other SAR
Sabrina Ho Chiu-yeng is performing what she’ll to help Macau diversify. The 26-year-old daughter of Stanley Ho Hung-sun may be better known for gracing society and entertainment pages, however in January she organised the first Macau sales by China’s state-owned Poly Auction and then in November held her very own annual hotel art fair, having already launched an exhibit to promote the job of young art graduates in September.
“Macau is beginning to change,” she tells The Collector. “We don’t wish to rely just for the gaming industry. We wish more families into the future in charge of holidays, we would like to boost our cultural and creative industries.”
This is the politically correct view for the daughter of the casino magnate. Macau is in the cross hairs of Beijing’s fight against corruption and capital outflow. The central government started urging the city to quit its dependence on the gaming sector, the taxes from which spend on most public expenditures, back during the boom years, once the “build it and they will come” mentality ruled the casino industry. Today, mainland policies to discourage high rollers coupled with a slowing economy have gone up pressure to find new revenues.
Fundamental change has become slow into the future. Five casinos have opened since 2012 and much more are stored on the 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 Stanley ho daughter‘s half-sister Pansy Ho Chiu-king.
So might be Sabrina’s cultural endeavours all just a bit of sentimental publicity for the clan?
Well, China’s biggest auction house is treating her seriously, and hopes her youthful energy and family connections can help it enter a new and wealthy market where no international house features a presence. Inturn, Ho says, sherrrd like the auctions to help attract tourists as well as perhaps encourage the city’s 600,000 residents to develop much more of a desire for culture. The partnership, called Poly Auction Macau, is 51 % owned by Poly and also the rest by Ho’s company, Chiu Yeng Culture.
Ho spent my childhood years surrounded by art and other collectables owned by her parents but jane is a newcomer for the auctions business. After graduating by having an arts degree from your University of Hong Kong, in 2013, she labored on the branding and marketing side from the family’s hotel and property businesses. “But I prefer art and i also asked Poly only could work in your free time within their Hong Kong office, to find out about the auction world,” she says.
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