You must give it to the Dr Stanley Ho who is a healthy 85-year old and still is calling the shots in Macau. He just opened two casinos in the last two months, first in December 2006, the Babylon Casino followed yesterday by The Grand Lisboa. If that is not enough he is hoping to follow up with Ponte 16 Casino later this year as he wants to give the foreign invasion a run for their money, well I guess we just have to wait and see!

But, meanwhile at his palatial homes across Hong Kong, he bows to his wives.

All three of them.

That means at Chinese New Year, he has to visit all three and eat all that they cook for him.

‘I have to eat so many meals over the festive period that the food actually reaches up to my throat,’ he was reported as saying by foreign news agencies. ‘But my wives put in a lot of effort to make soups for me. So once I step into their houses, I would say I’m very hungry.

‘The good thing about me is that I have a good stomach. I can even digest metal. That is why I can enjoy such good fortune.’

Mr Ho provided the glimpse into his unorthadox private life when he attended a charity function in Hong Kong on Thursday.

He told reporters that a man must listen to and obey his wife, even if it is blind obedience.

He added that a husband must have four virtues: Be able to wait, be able to remember, be generous and to be willing to encourage.

Asked if he would marry again, he replied: ‘There’s no need. There are enough of them now!’

Mr Ho’s first wife, Madam Li Wan Hua, died in 2004 at age 80. His second wife is Madam Lan Qiong Ying, third wife Chen Wan Zhen and fourth wife Angela Leong.

Together they have given him 17 children.

Ms Pansy Ho, his daughter by his second wife, has been earmarked to take over his empire.

His fourth wife has been dubbed the ‘thousand-armed Guanyin’ for her influence over her husband’s business affairs.

On the alleged rivalry between the two, the billionaire said: ‘She (Pansy) is already a grown-up. She should know how to handle it.’

Mr Ho last spoke of his private life in 2001, when his revealed his secret to staying virile.

He said he lived like a tortoise.

‘I eat little. I go outdoors only after the sun sets – tortoises are afraid of sunlight.’

He also claimed to avoid intimacy during autumn and winter. ‘Snakes, worms, rats and ants stop during autumn and winter. I sleep in a separate room. I do not have any ‘exchanges’ until the winter is over,’ he said.