RIP: Lim Goh Tong

This a lovely snapshot of the life and achievements of the late Lim Goh Tong, who built a built a mountain-top casino resort in Malaysia and a sprawling empire from scratch more than 40 years ago. All the pix came from The Star, which has a gallery and a video as a tribute to the tycoon who died yesterday.

Goh Tong at the celebration of his 90th birthday earlier this year. Probably his age in Chinese calendar as he's supposed to be 89 based on official records showing his year of birth as 1918.

Aerial view of the Genting Highlands resort, about 50km from Kuala Lumpur. The Star said First World Hotel is currently the largest hotel in the world with 6,118 rooms. The resort has the only legal casino in Malaysia and theme parks.

He started building the casino and the resort when he was already in his 50s.


Goh Tong and old friend, former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. They probably had mutual admiration for each other.

Genting is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, taxpayers in Malaysia. Last year, Genting dished out more than RM500 million in corporate income tax. This does not include all the other gaming duties paid by gaming arm Resorts World. Genting earned nearly RM2.8 billion in pre-tax profit last year on the back of revenue of nearly RM7 billion.


A 1969 photograph showing Goh Tong briefing the late Tunku Abdul Rahman, who was Malaysia's first PM, on the plans for Genting Highlands Resort.

Genting has announced that it will close its casino and theme parks for 12 hours on Monday as a mark respect to its founder. Read more news reports on the funeral.

RIP: Lim Goh Tong (1918-2007)