High-roller Yip's $1m last jackpot

A gambler to the end, casino mogul Yip Hon won $1 million on the last racing bets he placed before his death, longtime friends said yesterday.

The 93-year-old, who had built up a billion-dollar business empire, also had luck on the tables and had imported to Hong Kong a Bentley and a Rolls-Royce won from Las Vegas casinos who knew him as 'Grandfather'.

A long-time business partner, Tse Shui-on, 68, said Yip made monthly visits to Las Vegas with an entourage of doctors, nurses and relatives.

Though he rarely visited the Jockey Club, he continued to bet enthusiastically from the home of son Bing-sum in Magazine Gap Road.

He won $1 million just days ago and was studying form when taken fatally ill. But luck was smiling even at the end, believes Mr Tse.

'I think he was blessed to die in such a short and painless way,' he said.

Unlike the relatives of Yip's late opera singer friend Tang Wing-cheung, the Yip family is not expected to fight over his huge fortune.