The Collector | Sabrina Ho looks to Macau art fairs and auctions to diversify economy away from casinos

Sabrina Ho Chiu-yeng is doing what she can to help Macau diversify. The 26-year-old daughter of Stanley Ho Hung-sun may be better known for gracing society and entertainment pages, but in January she organised the first Macau sales by China’s state-owned Poly Auction and then in November held her own annual hotel art fair, having already launched an exhibition to promote the work of young art graduates in September.

“Macau is changing,” she tells The Collector. “We don’t want to rely just on the gaming industry. We want more families to come here for holidays, we want to boost our cultural and creative industries.”

This is a politically correct view for the daughter of a casino magnate. Macau is in the cross hairs of Beijing’s war on corruption and capital outflow. The central government started urging the city to quit its addiction to the gaming sector, the taxes from which pay for most public expenditures, back during the boom years, when the “build it and they will come” mentality ruled the casino industry. Today, mainland policies to discourage high rollers combined with a slowing economy have increased the pressure to find new revenues.

Fundamental change has been slow to come. Five casinos have opened since 2012 and more are on the way, including two from branches of the Ho empire – the Grand Lisboa Palace, led by Ho’s mother, Angela Leong On-kei (Stanley’s so-called “fourth wife”), and MGM Cotai, headed by Sabrina Ho’s half-sister Pansy Ho Chiu-king.