The Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau, SA (Chinese: 澳門旅遊娛樂股份有限公司; abbreviated as STDM) is a company in Macau owned by Stanley Ho and his family. Historically it held a monopoly to Macau's gambling industry as the only licensee for casinos. In 2002, the Macau government began issuing more licenses and the monopoly was broken. Still, of the 30 casinos in operation in Macau, 14 are owned by Stanley Ho.
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The company was founded in 1962 by Stanley Ho and his then partners Teddy Yip (Stanley Ho's brother-in-law through his sister, Susie Ho), Yip Hon and Henry Fok.
In 1982, Ho and Yip had a major public falling out, as a result of which Yip disposed of his interest for a rumoured HK$400 million. Cheng Yu-tung, founder of New World Development, stepped in to fill the breach. Fok's attempt to sell his stake in 1986, for a reported HK$600 million, was resisted by Ho. Complaining about the company's strategy and dividend policy, Fok gifted the stake to the Henry Fok Ying Tung Foundation in 2002.[1]
Since 2002, STDM was the subject of numerous lawsuits initiated either by Ho of by his sister, Winnie. Only after the final challenge was resolved in 2008 was it able to list its casinos subsidiary Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.[1]
In 2011, STDM shareholders are:[2]
Ho owns eight casinos, including Casino Lisboa, Macau's most famous casino. The casino features 107 slots and 146 table games. The property has six restaurants and a hotel with 1,000 rooms.
As casino gambling is illegal in Hong Kong, it is welcomed by tourists. Benefitting from the individual traveling policy between Hong Kong and Macau, the business of Casino Lisboa has increased rapidly, especially in the Chinese Lunar New Year. Within that period, the average daily income is HK$100 million. It is predicted that Lisboa will be required to pay HK$800 Million ($103 Million USD) on betting duty.
In the 1960s, Ho owned nine casinos in the Philippines; however, Ho abandoned his Philippine business ventures due to conflict with the president of that country.
Apart from casinos, football, horse race and dog race gambling are the other main income sources of Macau's gambling industry. Before football gambling betting rules were established in Hong Kong, football gambling in Macau was very popular among Hong Kong residents.
For many years, the gambling industry of Macau was solely owned by Ho's STDM. At one time Ho controlled up to 70% market share of Macau's gambling business. This era of monopoly came to an end in 2000.
In February 2000, the government of Macau SAR proposed to split Macau's gambling operation into three parts. The casinos in Macau were still under STDM, but those in Coloane (路環) and Taipa (氹仔) were opened for bidding. At last, in 2002, other casino operators were able to obtain licenses for casinos in Coloane and Taipa. The arrival of the Sands Macau and other planned destination resorts, such as The Venetian Macao and the Wynn Macau and those along the Cotai Strip, a Las Vegas Strip-like development.
Hong Kong company owned by the family of Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho invested up to a 30% stake in Air Macau's planned US$30 million low-cost airline in a press report.
Shun Tak Holdings has signed an agreement that the territory's flag carrier Air Macau and its parent China National Aviation Co will hold a majority stake in the airline, reported The Standard newspaper.
The carrier is expected to target the lucrative routes to China as well as the Asia Pacific region. Air Macau will transfer 22 routes to the venture and hold a 51 percent stake, said the newspaper, adding the budget airline will take over 11 Air Macau routes to China and 11 cities in the Philippines, South Korea and Vietnam.
STDM also have a business aviation arm, called Jet Asia, providing private jet services.[3][4]
The STDM holds numerous buildings in the peninsula of Macau, as well as the outlying islands. The more notable ones include:
"Ho's empire stretches from gambling to graves", The Standard, 1 February 2011