The story of “Gambling Tycoon” Yip Hon, who cracked the dice-listening gang, and through this technique became a casino owner, is incorporated in the film.Ĭlementina Leitao, who is from the prestigious Portuguese Leitão family and the first wife of Stanley Ho, seems to have inspired parts of the characters of the three main female leads.

The character of Kwok Ying-nam is based on Henry Fok, who was a powerful politician, businessman and philanthropist. Ho is a business and real-estate magnate in Hong Kong and Macau, who dropped out of university, after having received a difficult-to-earn scholarship, and fled to Macau after the Japanese invaded Hong-Kong.

The character of Benny (Andy Lau) is inspired mainly by the life of “The King of Gambling”, Stanley Ho, who held the government-granted monopoly on the Macau gambling industry for 75 years. The film is inspired by the life stories of the biggest “Casino Tycoons” of Macau, Stanley Ho, Henry Fok and Yip Hon, who became partners, but were also involved with smuggling and ties to organized crime. With the help of his new boss, Benny slowly builds his way up the ranks in the casino business, which involves corrupt politicians, competing businessmen, and rival organized crime groups known as the Triads. Once in Macau, he impresses a local business man who has ties to organised crime. Set in World War II, Casino Tycoon chronicles the story of Benny, a university student, on a difficultly-earned scholarship, who flees Hong-Kong during the Japanese invasion and heads for the gambling haven of Macau.

Casino tycoon 1992