Inside Asian Gaming

May 2011 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 37 P ansy Ho could sell all her equity interest in MGM China Holdings after it lists in Hong Kong later this year—and theoretically still keep her role as the managing director of the MGM Macau gaming concession. But if she wants to run STDM—the investment holding company built up by her father Dr Stanley Ho that is ultimately the parent of the SJM casino concessionaire in Macau—she would need to give up any executive role in the MGM Macau set up. The ‘Licence Contract of Macao Special Administrative Region for the Operation of Games of Fortune or Chance or Other Casino Games’ says in Article 20, headed ‘Forbidden to serve concurrently in the company’s statutory body’: “The concessionaire undertakes not to appoint as a member of the board of directors, or as an officer of the general meeting, or as a member of the statutory audit committee or other governing body, any person who is a member of any governing body of any other concessionaire, sub-concessionaire or concessionaire management company engaged in the operation of games of fortune or chance or other casino games in Macao Special Administrative Region.” It was this rule that caused Dr Stanley Ho to give up his chairmanship of Hong Kong-listed Melco in 2006 prior to his son Lawrence setting up a Macau gaming sub-concession in a joint venture between Melco and Australian entrepreneur James Packer. Another good reason for Dr Ho stepping back from Melco was that Australian gaming regulators were reluctant to sign off on the Lawrence Ho-James Packer tie up as long as Dr Ho was anywhere in the picture. When Melco first started exploring a casino development tie up in Macau with Mr Packer’s Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL) back in 2003, it quickly became apparent that using an SJM licence for such a venture wouldn’t wash with the Australian authorities Dr Ho and the Australians had ‘history’ as they say—dating back Board Games Will Pansy Ho tough it out in the STDM succession race or play it safe at MGM Macau?