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HONG KONG: Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho on Thursday rejected claims by US gaming regulators that he has any links to the city's criminal underworld, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In a statement issued through his personal secretary, Ho said there was "absolutely no foundation in any suggestion" that he is associated with triads in the former Portuguese colony, the paper said.
His secretary was not immediately available when contacted by AFP.
Ho, who controlled Macau's gaming sector for four decades until it opened to foreign competition in 2002, has long denied rumours that he was tied to organised crime and allowed triad gangs to operate freely in his casinos.
His comments on Thursday come after a previously confidential report by New Jersey's Division of Gaming Enforcement was made public on Wednesday.
The report last May told Las Vegas-based MGM Mirage to cut any business ties with Ho's daughter Pansy after deeming her "unsuitable" because of the elder Ho's alleged triad links, or risk losing its state gaming licence.
But MGM on Friday said it would unload its 50 percent stake in the Borgata hotel-casino in Atlantic City in New Jersey so it could keep a joint venture with Pansy Ho in the glitzy Asian gambling hub, which has now leapfrogged Las Vegas in terms of gaming revenue.
Pansy Ho declined to comment on Thursday but has previously said she was independent of her father despite their business ties.
The gaming tycoon's Hong Kong-listed SJM Holdings remains a major player in Macau, the only city in China that allows casino gambling. - AFP/de
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