Yip Hong

Childhood

Yip Hong was born in 1904 in Xinhui County, Guangdong Province, the son of a potter. He developed a talent for gambling at a young age, which led to a lifelong association with gambling. Yip Hong was constantly winning against his peers. However, when he brought the money he won home, his father did not like it and forbade him to gamble on pain of death. Then Ip Hong became close to his uncle, who also liked gambling.

At the age of 10, Ip went to Macau, where his uncle got him a job as a dealer at Chengcheng Casino, which was owned by Lou Jiu. Ip Hong was very young and knew nothing about croupier work, but he had smarts and a super memory. And just a few days after joining, he started to excel in his job and soon became the best croupier in the casino.

Career

At that time, Sic Bo was the most popular game in Macau, and Ip Hong became the best croupier at Sic Bo. He was agile, he never made a mistake and could create a pleasant atmosphere at the table, so his Sic Bo table attracted many players. Everybody liked him. People came just to admire how he worked. Ip Hong became the most popular croupier in Macau, but the casino owner Lou Jiu did not appreciate him on his own merits. Because of this, the bruised Ip quit in 1935 and went to a Shenzhen casino owned by Fu Laorong.

Fu Laorong appreciated Yip Hong's skills, not only did he often come to the table to watch Yip Hong roll the dice, but he also often played with Yip Hong. Yip Hong also regarded Fu Laorong as his benefactor and vowed to do his best to repay him for his favor.

In 1937, Fu Laorong and Gao Kening, the king of the mortgage industry, won a bid for a gaming franchise in Macau for 1.8 million yuan. The company they formed was called Taixing. Ip Hong became the director of the Sik Bo department with a monthly salary of 700 yuan. It was his first step on the career ladder.

It should be noted that at that time, the salary of ordinary croupiers in casinos was only tens of yuan a month, and the salary of a laborer was less than ten yuan.

At the time, Macau casinos were terrorized by a group of Ting Dic Party players led by Jin Ye, who bore the nickname "Golden Master." When Jin Ye made a big bet, the players in the team would repeat after him, and in this way they would take 200,000-300,000 yuan out of the casino every night, and no one could figure out how they did it. Some casinos even refused to play Sic Bo, but because of this, the number of visitors dropped dramatically.

For more than ten days, Ting Dic Party came to play at Fu Laorong's casino, and he couldn't take it anymore. He angrily told Ye Han:

. "If the Golden Master wins again, I will go bankrupt and jump off the casino roof! But before I jump off myself, I'll throw you off first!"

When this company came to Fu Laorong's casino once again, Ip Hong began to watch the Golden Master play and discovered that when he rolled the dice, he always tilted his head slightly toward the gaming table and his ears vibrated slightly. Yip Hong was shocked - could Jin Ye really be able to listen to the dice? How was this possible?

After working at the casino, he took the dice bowl and locked himself in his room for days. For days on end, he shook the bowl and listened. And finally, he discovered Jin Ye's secret. The cubes have six sides, and the number of points on each side is different, so the sound of falling is also different:

• Six points will sound like the trill of a cicada, clear and loud.
• The tone of a five is a little shorter, not as loud.
• If it's a "one" or a "two", the tone will be a little dull and the sound quiet.
• The sounds of a "three" and a "four" are different and confusing, so the Golden Master would sometimes hesitate.

When the secret was revealed, Yip Hong came up with a way to punish Jin Ye. Yip Hong glued a thick layer of transparent film on the glass bottom of the dice bowl, which is almost invisible, and the sound produced became very different from the previous sound. When the Ting Dic Party team came to the casino again the next day, they received a warm welcome. "Golden Master" was still listening to the dice, but this time it wasn't the same. As a result, the team left more than 600,000 yuan in the casino that night. And Ip Hong further improved the defense by covering the dice bowls and Sik Bo tables with a layer of flannel, making it impossible to listen to the dice at all.

Since then, the Ting Dic Party team disappeared from Macau, and Ip Hong's reputation grew to the skies, he began to be called "the saint of gambling." He saved the Taixing Company from bankruptcy, and the casino business became even more prosperous than before. Yip Hong was triumphant and hoped that Fu Laorong would give him some share of the company's stock. But the latter only praised him and nothing more. Yip Hong still received a salary of 700 yuan a month, and this angered him. After the incident of "listening to the dice game", Yip Hong became arrogant and stopped respecting Fu Laorong the way he used to. He was constantly bragging to his friends:

. "If it wasn't for me, Fu Laorong would have jumped off the roof! Without me, the casino would be bankrupt by now!"

Naturally, this reached Fu Laorong's ears, and he was not happy. He couldn't fire Yip Hong, but he wanted to get him out of his sight. So Fu decided to send him to Shanghai to open a new casino. Yip Hong himself had considered leaving Fu Laorong, but now he was being given development capital, so he agreed.

In the summer of 1938, Ip Hong took some trusted men, gathered gambling equipment and traveled to Shanghai to open a casino. At the time, there were seven major casinos in Shanghai, the most famous of which was called Casino No. 181. After a short preparation, Yip Hong opened a casino at 864 Yuyuan Street and named it "Casino No. 864". His casino was medium-sized, but Yip Hong made it very fashionable and unusual with a foreign approach. Beautiful women stood at the door and greeted the guests. The casino immediately attracted the attention of a large number of players.

Of course, this did not please the local mobsters who owned other casinos, and they complained to the Japanese occupation authorities. A few months later, high-ranking Japanese officials ordered Casino No. 864 closed for a year under the pretext of investigating suspected pornography. Ip Hong had to sublet the casino, lay off employees and send one of his men back to Macau to ask Fu Laorong for help, who naturally ignored him. After several months of waiting for help, Ip Hong had to leave Shanghai and return to Macau.

For months, the discord continued with Fu Laorong, whom Ip Hong was even more resentful of. Eventually Fu Laorong's nephew, Jian Kun, offered him a partnership. He said he no longer wanted to stay with Phu Laorong and planned to go to Vietnam to open a new casino. Yip Hong agreed. They each contributed 400,000 yuan and they traveled to Saigon where they opened a casino. Business was going well in Vietnam, but Ip Hong kept dreaming of Macau. In 1951, Ip Hong sold all his shares to Jian Kun and returned to Macau with a huge amount of money. This time he was determined to get his hands on the Macau gambling franchise and replace Fu Laorong's Taixing Company. He was tired of being second-rate.

Back in Macau, Ip Hong began gathering information about Fu Laorong's gambling business. He spent a lot of money bribing officials, prepared for a battle for the franchise and was even able to get a copy of Fu Laorong's contract to run the casino. Information about his investigation reached Fu Laorong, who was very sick at the time. Fu then said the famous words:

. "The worm is shaking the tree, don't touch it."

However, the battle for dominance in Macau's gaming industry never materialized. Fu Laorong, who was 60 years old, passed away suddenly. Along with his death, the grudges that had bound the two men together for decades disappeared. After Fu Laorong's death, his eldest son Fu Yinzhao inherited his father's business, and now Ip Hong had to compete with him.

In 1958, a franchise auction was held in which Yip Hong suffered a disastrous defeat, even though he offered a high price. But he couldn't win, either, as then Macau governor Bai Lijue was corrupted by the Fu family, which had given him many gold ornaments and precious antiques. But in 1959, a new Macau governor, Ma Jishi, was appointed, who revoked the business priority of the existing license holder and ordered a new auction.

Ip Hong, upon hearing the news, was overjoyed. Thinking he couldn't beat the Fu family with his financial resources, he found a partner, the famous playboy Ye Deli. Later, Stanley Ho and Pho Indon joined their consortium. They jointly established Macau Travel and Entertainment Co., Ltd. and successfully won a casino franchise in Macau in October 1961.

On the first day of the new year 1962, Ip Hong and company's new casino, the New Garden Casino, was officially opened in Macau. At the same time, the old Taixing company, owned by the Fu family, announced the closure of its casinos, thus ending its 24-year dominance of the Macau gambling scene. Well, Ip Hong did get his way - for the first few years after the company's creation, all the media in Hong Kong and Macau referred to him as the "king of gambling".

Ip Hong and Stanley Ho then invested $3 million each to create Macau Gaming Company. Stanley Ho became the gaming licensee, and Ip Hong was the only person with casino experience and naturally became a key figure in the company.

As the casino business became more and more prosperous, the partners thought about expanding. In June 1970, their company spent more than 60 million yuan to build a grand new casino hotel, Casino Lisboa. The partners divided the responsibilities so that Stanley Ho was the general manager of the company and Ip Hong was the general manager of the casino.

However, tensions were growing between the partners. Stanley Ho put his sister Hae Wanki from the United States on the board. She successfully brought the modern business model of American casinos to Macau and gradually replaced Ip Hong's old-school style. In 1973, the management of the casino was fully taken over by Stanley Ho, and the conflict between the partners became increasingly serious. In 1975, Ip Hong was ousted from the company and announced the end of his career.

But Ip Hong never admits defeat. Although he is now 69 years old, he continues to compete with Stanley Ho. In 1980, Ip Hong started the Racing Club. Players were hungry for something fresh, and the racetrack was immensely popular. Business boomed, and Ip Hong was once again at the pinnacle of fame. The title of "King of Carriages" was added to his former titles. At the same time, the casino business plummeted and Stanley Ho suffered heavy losses.

The battle between Macau's two biggest gambling kings captured the world's attention. In 1982, Ip Hong sold his stake in Macau Gaming Company for 300 million yuan and exited the company completely. Later, Ip Hong put a lot of efforts to develop the Racing Club. In 1985, the racetrack was resold to Taiwanese businessmen for 500 million yuan.

In 1988, Ip Hong pioneered the concept of shipboard gambling by inviting players onto the high seas. He invested HK$5.5 million to lease a passenger liner and spent HK$2 million to refurbish it. The luxurious gambling ship named "Oriental Princess" shone brightly on the high seas, attracting a large number of players. Under the guise of a day sea trip to and from Hong Kong and Macau, taking guests to the high seas to gamble. Stanley Ho was again making losses and there was nothing he could do about it. He reported the gambling on the high seas to the Macau authorities, but the official response was:

. "They are gambling on the high seas, it's out of our jurisdiction."

In 1989, when Oriental Princess was at the height of its popularity, Ip Hong, now 85, suddenly sold it to the Yongsheng Group, ending its long history in gambling. The battle between him and Stanley Ho was over. Still, Yip Hong never entered a casino owned by Stanley Ho again in his life.....

Yip Hong recalled his youthful dream of gambling. When he was a teenager, he was always bothered by small stakes, and admired at the time a big gambler who could bet a silver dollar. Now Ip Hong is a billionaire, he can enjoy gambling without worrying about winning or losing. And he started traveling the world, frequenting the big casinos.

In recent years, he traveled to Las Vegas the most.Yip Hong usually stays at the Golden Palace Casino Hotel when he visits casinos. He and Golden Palace owner Steve Wayne are good friends. He doesn't have to bring money - Steve has given Yip a $5 million loan to play and pays all his hotel bills and transportation.

Ip Hong owns real estate in Los Angeles and often lives in his own apartment. A limousine is on duty outside Ip Hong's apartment to take him to the airport, where a private jet is waiting for him, ready to go anywhere he wants to go. Ip Hong has led the life of an emperor in recent years.

In 1997, at the age of 92, Ip Hong passed away. Before he died, he realized that all the gambling secrets he had collected throughout his life could be expressed in just four words:

"If you don't gamble, you win."

Personal life

Ip Hong's entire personal life is little known to the general public. It is only known that he was married and had children. Ip Hong's descendants are also very modest, and there is little information about his family on the Internet.

His eldest son Ye Weizhou is also said to have registered a $1 million company to bid on Macau gaming franchises in the first few years. But no one knows how many assets are behind his family.

Revenue

Ip Hong has worked in the gambling industry all his life, so in terms of financial resources, he has always been a wealthy man.

He has also invested in Hong Kong real estate, and with his unique business vision and keen business sense, he has also made a lot of money.

During his lifetime, Ip Hong earned a total of more than 3 billion yuan, but he also made many donations.

He also made a lot of donations.

Interesting facts

It was at Caesars Palace casino that Ip Hong set his most outstanding gambling record: he played baccarat for 32 hours without sleep, playing 2,880 games and losing more than $2 million. After returning to his home in Los Angeles, he slept for two days and then returned to Caesars Palace. This time, Ip Hong not only broke even, but also won over $1 million dollars and broke the casino record. In honor of his outstanding play, the casino management presented him with a Rolls-Royce RV.

On the gates of Casino Lisboa still hangs a plaque that Ip Hong put up when he was general manager of the casino. It is engraved with a "Poem of Warning."

• You can't win at gambling.
• Small stakes are a good thing.
• Use spare money for gambling and fun.

Legacy

Ip Hong has dedicated his entire life to gambling and is a living history of Macau gaming. He served two generations of Macau gambling kings, Lu Jiu and Fu Laorong. He then became king himself, and fought for the title for a long time with Stanley Ho, eventually ceding the throne to a younger rival.

Ip Hong has received many honors and awards:

• Order of the British Empire
• French Knight's Medal
• Japanese Juibao Medal.
• Malaysia's Datuk Seri Medal of Honor
• Lord Grand Cross of Portugal
• Honorary Doctor of Social Sciences of the University of East Asia (now the University of Macau )
• Honorary Citizen of Tianjin
• Honorary Citizen of Guangzhou