As pressure grows on Macau to find new reasons for revenue, scion of casino dynasty imagines an alternative future for the other SAR
Sabrina Ho Chiu-yeng is doing what she will to help Macau diversify. The 26-year-old daughter of Stanley Ho Hung-sun may be better known for gracing society and entertainment pages, but also in January she organised the initial Macau sales by China’s state-owned Poly Auction and then in November held her own annual hotel art fair, having already launched an exhibit to market the job of young art graduates in September.
“Macau is evolving,” she tells The Collector. “We don’t wish to rely just around the gaming industry. We’d like more families ahead here for holidays, you want to boost our cultural and inventive industries.”
It is a politically correct view for the daughter of your casino magnate. Macau is incorporated in the cross hairs of Beijing’s war on corruption and capital outflow. The central government started urging the city to give up its dependence on the gaming sector, the taxes from which pay for most public expenditures, back through the boom years, in the event 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 increased pressure to find new revenues.
Fundamental change has become slow ahead. Five casinos have opened since 2012 and more are on the way, 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 bit of soft pr for the clan?
Well, China’s biggest auction house is treating her seriously, and hopes her youthful energy and family connections might help it plunge into a fresh and wealthy market where no international house features a presence. In return, Ho says, sherrrd like the auctions to help attract tourists and possibly let the city’s 600,000 residents to formulate a greater portion of a desire for culture. The partnership, called Poly Auction Macau, is 51 per cent properties of Poly and the rest by Ho’s company, Chiu Yeng Culture.
Ho spent my youth in the middle of art along with other collectables properties of her parents but jane is fairly new towards the auctions business. After graduating with an arts degree from the University of Hong Kong, in 2013, she labored on the branding and marketing side with the family’s hotel and property businesses. “But I like art and I asked Poly only can perform part-time inside their Hong Kong office, to learn about the auction world,” she says.
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