Lim Kok Thay, the head of gaming conglomerate Genting group, was ranked 14th on the latest “Malaysia’s 50 Richest” list compiled by Forbes, published earlier this week.
Mr Lim (pictured) was down five spots from 2024, with a fortune of US$1.8 billion in the 2025 list, versus US$2.3 billion a year earlier.
The Chen family, consisting of the heirs of late casino tycoon Chen Lip Keong, who died in December 2023, was ranked 30th in this year’s list, with an estimated net worth of US$775 million. That was down from 18th in 2024, with an estimated wealth of US$1.1 billion.
Mr Chen was the Malaysian founder of casino operator NagaCorp Ltd, which runs the NagaWorld casino monopoly in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital. On his death, his son Chen Yiy Fon was appointed as chief executive of Hong Kong-listed NagaCorp.
Mr Lim is the executive chairman of the Genting group, a casino and resorts conglomerate with a global footprint, which also has businesses related with oil palm plantations.
The executive was said to have put his succession plan into motion earlier this year, stepping down as CEO of the parent company, Genting Bhd, in February after nearly two decades at the helm of the group.
Tan Kong Han, until recently Genting Bhd’s president and chief operating officer, is now the first non-family member to run the company.
Mr Lim’s eldest son, Lim Keong Hui, became CEO of palm oil producer Genting Plantations Bhd. The younger Mr Lim is also deputy chief executive at Genting Bhd and the group’s leisure and hospitality arm Genting Malaysia Bhd, which owns and operates Resorts World Genting, a monopoly casino business in Malaysia.
The group also operates the Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore, via Genting Singapore Ltd. Genting also runs casinos in the United States, the Bahamas, the United Kingdom, and Egypt.
According to Forbes, a stronger ringgit – with the Malaysian currency up more than 5 percent in the past 12 months – helped lift the collective wealth of tycoons on the 2025 Forbes list of Malaysia’s 50 Richest to US$90 billion, from US$83.4 billion last year.
