The young man had precocious skills as a kerosene trader during World War 2. He was a millionaire before he was 20. He traded kerosene and other essential goods across the Chinese border, defying trade sanctions. He continued to apply his Midas touch during the region’s next calamity — the Korean War.
SINGAPORE (May 29): The gambling magnate Stanley Ho, who died in Hong Kong on Tuesday at the age of 98, had 17 known children. But his legacy was not restricted to his children. He was also the unacknowledged father of the Singaporean gambling industry.
Ho made his fortune in the Macau gambling industry. He arrived in the former Portuguese colony in 1941 as a teenager with HK$10 in his pocket. He was from a prominent Hong Kong family that had been ruined by the Great Depression. Hong Kong had just fallen to the Japanese.
