Yip Hon

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Yip Hon (葉漢, death 7th May 1997) was a gambling tycoon in South China. His wealth was estimated to be HK$ 100 million. In his childhood, he stayed in Kong Mun of Kwangtung and usually participated in gambling with his pocket money. He got a nick of Kwai Wong (鬼王), namely Ghost King.

In his adulthood, he was in Macau and worked for a casino of a gambling tycoon Fu Lo Yung (傅老榕) and helped to crack down Teng Sik Tong (聽骰黨), a gang of gamblers won by listening dice. After the crack down, he became famous and went to Shanghai. He gained a great sum of wealth in the casinos there by his technique in listening dice and opened his casino.

He closed his business in Shanghai and returned to Macau when the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out. He soon got a casino license in Macau. He cooperated with Stanley Ho, Teddy Yip and Henry Fok to form Casino Lisboa. He later left the company due arguments in shares and business. He then started a business in chariot racing and failed in the end. In 1988, he pioneered a gambling business in International waters by rent a cruise Princess of the Orient. He gained an initial success but unable to deal with large number of competitors later. He thus sold his business to Heung's Brothers.

A story about him was that in mid-1980s, he was think of gambling in Las Vegas in United States. He had played for 32 hours continuously with more than 3800 rounds of Baccarat and ends in a lose of US$ 2 million. The owner of the casino then promised to offer him a car of Rolls-Royce if he could win a million. Two day after, he won US$ 3 million and the car from the casino.

He got a heart attack and died at 7th May 1997, at the age of 93, during his research on horse-racing.

Interestingly, his fondness in the gambling is not inherited by his children.