Inside Asian Gaming

March 2011 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 41 conducted. But Chinese culture still places a lot of emphasis on harmony. It’s a very different environment from the purely meritocratic and iconoclastic approach of Western business. At MGM Macau, Ms Ho is simply a businesswoman (and heiress) who is the 50% owner of a Macau casino. Were she to become head of STDM/SJM, she would be steward not only of a family business, but would be taking on a role that’s one quarter political, one quarter diplomatic, one quarter about being a Chinese national celebrity and only one quarter pure free market business. It may be a question of ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man’ (or woman). There’s certainly an argument that if anyone in the family is capable of growing into the role, then it’s Pansy Ho. But STDM/SJM is, and probably needs to be, a very different culture from MGM Macau or even Shun Tak, the Hong Kong-listed and Ho family-run shipping and property conglomerate of which Ms Ho is managing director. From the moment of her birth, Ms Ho will have been fawned over, deferred to and generally treated with kid gloves by outsiders, even if privately her father and mother discouraged the family entourage and immediate circle from doing so. Under such circumstances, it would take an extraordinarily strong character not to have a little bit of imperiousness of manner by the time of reaching adulthood. By contrast, Angela Leong, Dr Ho’s fourth consort, is often portrayed in the Hong Kong media not so much as to the manor born, but more as a gold-digger—the classic archetype of a much younger woman with an eye on the main chance. She’s from a modest family in Guangdong and caught Dr Ho’s eye as a young dancer. It’s interesting to note, however, that she’s known in Macau for generally being very scrupulous and polite in her dealings with underlings. She’s also been scrupulous in cultivating her political connections, and is a two-term member of Macau’s Legislative Assembly. Those abilities to nurture her public and private image in Macau could turn out to be her greatest asset, and Pansy Ho’s greatest threat. That threat is not so much because Ms Leong might trump her to the top job at STDM, but she might trump Pansy Ho to the hearts and minds of Macau people. That’s a much more dangerous and insidious kind of opposition. As head of STDM/SJM Pansy Ho would be taking on a role that’s one quarter political, one quarter diplomatic, one quarter about being a Chinese national celebrity and only one quarter pure free market business.