LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – MGM Mirage, accused by New Jersey authorities of links to the Chinese mob, has sealed a plan to exit the weakened Atlantic City market in favour of the booming Chinese gambling center of Macau.

New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement had accused the company last year of questionable conduct in associating with Pansy Ho, the daughter of Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, who they said is linked to Chinese organized crime.

Pansy Ho is a 50-percent partner with MGM in its MGM Grand Macau casino.

MGM’s plan to sell its stake in the Atlantic City Borgata casino and give up its New Jersey gambling license, first proposed in February, was approved yesterday by state regulators.
“From the beginning of its efforts to enter Macau, MGM pursued partnerships with persons that it knew were associated with those aspects of gaming in Macau most heavily penetrated by organized crime,” the enforcement division said in a previously confidential report released yesterday.

The former Portuguese colony’s transformation from a seedy gambling haven into a Las Vegas-style entertainment paradise since 2002 has meant stiff competition for the elder Ho, although he still controls one of six gambling licenses in Macau.

Sometimes known as the godfather of gambling, Stanley Ho, a patriarch of mixed European and Chinese parentage, heads an extended clan of 17 children born to his four wives.