New Jersey regulators say Asian casino boss Stanley Ho has extensive ties to organized crime

NJ: Asian casino boss has mob ties in China

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — New Jersey casino regulators said Wednesday that they have evidence Stanley Ho, the Asian casino magnate, has extensive ties to organized crime in China.

Their suspicions led MGM Mirage to agree last week to sell its half of Atlantic City’s top casino — rather than abandon the lucrative Chinese market, where it has a joint venture with Ho’s daughter.

Considered the father of modern gambling in China, Ho lets criminal gangs “operate and thrive” inside his casinos, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement said in a report issued to the casino last May and made public Wednesday. The division found that Pansy Ho, his daughter, is dependent on him and his money and remains under his influence.

The regulators concluded that Pansy Ho is an “unsuitable” business partner of MGM Mirage in the Chinese enclave of Macau. In May, they gave MGM Mirage the option of cutting ties to her and their casino in China or selling the company’s 50 percent interest in the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.

The company admits no wrongdoing and says it has a “spotless record” operating the MGM Grand Macau with Pansy Ho.

Messages left for Pansy Ho at Shun Tak Holdings, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate where she is a managing director, were not immediately returned. Stanley Ho, who was recently discharged after spending over half a year in a hospital for unspecified surgery, was also unavailable for comment, though he has previously dismissed allegations of organized crime ties.

According to the report, former MGM Mirage Chairman Terry Lanni said told regulators the company realized it would never get licensed in New Jersey if it maintained Stanley Ho as a business partner.

“You would have to be living under a rock not to know about Stanley Ho and what the perception of Stanley Ho is,” Lanni is quoted as saying. “I realize he’s never been indicted, he’s never been convicted, but perception is reality, and maybe there is reality there also beyond the failure to have the indictments or convictions.”

The New Jersey Casino Control Commission approved a deal Wednesday in which MGM Mirage will put its interest in the Borgata into a divestiture trust, to be sold within 30 months. MGM Mirage, which once planned to build a $5 billion mega-casino near the Borgata, is withdrawing its application for a New Jersey casino license and pulling out of Atlantic City, the nation’s second-largest gambling market.

The report cites numerous sources including a U.S. Senate committee, several governmental and regulatory agencies, a private investigative firm hired by MGM Mirage in 2001, and an unidentified U.S. law enforcement official asserting Stanley Ho has ties to Chinese organized crime.

Neither Ho has been charged with or convicted of a crime relating to gangs.

But the MGM Mirage private investigator asserted “it is nearly impossible to be in the casino business in Macau at present without having associations with triad groups, or what is known as organized crime,” according to the report.

“The character and reputation of Stanley Ho, the father of MGM’s joint venture partner, precludes any finding other than that he is unsuitable,” the gaming enforcement division wrote. “MGM (Mirage) senior executives conceded his unsuitability during this investigation.

“Furthermore, numerous governmental and regulatory agencies have referenced Stanley Ho’s associations with criminal enterprises, including permitting organized crime to operate and thrive within his casinos.”

MGM Mirage simply substituted Pansy Ho for Stanley Ho, once it realized it wouldn’t get licensed in New Jersey if it were affiliated with Stanley Ho, the report asserted. The New Jersey gambling agency said 90 percent of the money Pansy Ho put up as part of the joint venture with MGM Mirage came from her father.

Pansy Ho had no prior casino experience and continues to hold leadership positions in her father’s companies, the report said. Last year, she said she operates independently of her father.

MGM Mirage forcefully defended Pansy Ho, noting in a statement Wednesday that she has never been accused of any wrongdoing.

“The DGE’s report acknowledges there is no evidence that Pansy Ho has engaged in any wrongdoing or been accused of any illegal activity,” said Jim Murren, MGM Mirage’s chairman and CEO. “Gaming regulators in the other jurisdictions where we operate casinos are well aware of this matter, had access to the same information as the New Jersey gaming regulators, and have all either determined that the Company’s relationship with Pansy Ho is appropriate or that further action was not necessary.

“MGM Mirage structured its business relationship with Pansy Ho to ensure the highest standards of operation and compliance with all applicable gaming laws and to protect against any improper influence,” Murren said. “We have had a very positive working relationship with Pansy Ho and have a spotless operating record at MGM Grand Macau.”

The casino commission approved former New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice James Zazzali, who also has served as the state’s attorney general, to serve as trustee for MGM Mirage’s interest in the Borgata.

The casino will continue to operate as usual. Co-owner Boyd Gaming has the right of first refusal to buy MGM Mirage’s share but won’t say whether it plans to do so.