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 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 own 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 after arguments over shares and the 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 renting a cruiseship Princess of the Orient. He gained an initial success but was unable to deal with a large number of competitors later. He subsequently sold his business to Heung's Brothers.
A story about him was that in the mid-1980s, he was gambling in Las Vegas in the United States. He supposedly played for 32 hours continuously involving more than 3800 rounds of Baccarat and ended up losing US$ 2 million. The owner of the casino offered him a Rolls-Royce if he could win back a million. Two days after, he won US$3 million, and the car, from the casino.
He had a heart attack and died on 7th May 1997, at the age of 93, during research he was undertaking on horse-racing.
Interestingly, his fondness for gambling was not inherited by his children.
