HONG KONG (Reuters) – Lui Che Woo, the on line casino tycoon who helped propel Macau to eclipse rival Las Vegas in playing revenues, has died on the age of 95, his firm stated in an announcement late on Monday.
Lui, chairman of Macau on line casino firm Galaxy Leisure (OTC:), died in Hong Kong on Nov. 7, it stated, including that his “imaginative and prescient, super management and steering” had been the inspiration for the group’s improvement and continued success.
Additionally the chairman of Ok. Wah Group, a Hong Kong-listed firm centered on building and quarry mining earlier than turning to property, Lui was extensively recognised in each Hong Kong and Macau as an influential businessman with shut ties to the Chinese language authorities.
One in every of Hong Kong’s richest males, Lui stored a low profile and was at all times seen carrying a flat cap as he went in regards to the metropolis and when he attended press conferences.
A member of China’s nationwide advisory physique, the Chinese language Folks’s Political Consultative Convention, Lui had shut ties to Beijing and was a part of a enterprise delegation that met with President Xi Jinping in 2014 in China’s capital.
Galaxy Leisure holds one in every of six coveted gaming licenses that had been granted after Macau liberalised the on line casino business in 2002.
Competing with rivals just like the now deceased Stanley Ho, whose household runs the SJM Holdings (OTC:) on line casino empire, the late U.S. billionaire Sheldon Adelson and Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ:) founder Steve Wynn, Lui steered Galaxy to change into of Macau’s prime operators.
It operates a number of giant on line casino resorts in Macau, each on the Las Vegas-style Cotai strip and on the teeming predominant peninsula.
EARLY LIFE
Born on Aug. 9, 1929, in Jiangmen metropolis situated in China’s southern province of Guangdong, Lui moved to Hong Kong together with his household aged 4. Throughout Japan’s occupation of the territory within the Forties, Lui began working in a meals manufacturing and distribution enterprise on the age of 13.
He then went on to start out companies in automotive components, heavy equipment, quarrying and building supplies, in response to his 2017 biography.
Within the Nineteen Sixties, he switched to property investments and added inns to his portfolio of companies within the Eighties.
His firm Ok. Wah has over 200 subsidiaries globally, together with in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and southeast Asia.
A outstanding philanthropist, Lui supported the event of medical care, training and data know-how.
He additionally provided an annual money award of HK$20 million ($2.57 million) to people or organisations who “unselfishly promoted world civilisation via sustainable improvement, contributions to the welfare of mankind and promotion of optimistic life angle,” in response to Ok.Wah.
MACAU EMPIRE
Lui, who’s survived by his spouse Chiu Kam Ping and 5 youngsters, remained closely concerned within the on line casino business, even whereas handing a lot of the everyday working of Galaxy to his son Francis.
Francis, who’s Galaxy’s deputy chairman, has been key in creating the corporate’s tasks in Macau, the place it owns essentially the most land of all of the operators on the Cotai strip. Lui’s different youngsters are additionally concerned in numerous components of the household enterprise world wide.
Galaxy’s Macau properties embrace large-scale resorts on Cotai with services together with the territory’s largest indoor enviornment, which was unveiled final December.
A brand new Galaxy chairman will likely be introduced in “due course” the corporate stated, including that Lui’s demise wouldn’t have any influence on the group’s operations.
($1 = 7.7756 Hong Kong {dollars})
