Asian casino icon Stanley Ho has officially stepped down as chairman of Macau’s original casino operator SJM Holdings.

The 96-year-old Ho signaled his intention to relinquish his chairman’s seat in April, and the move was formally approved at SJM’s annual general meeting this week. Ho’s daughter Daisy was duly elected to her father’s former position, while directors Timothy Fok and Ho’s ‘fourth wife’ Angela Leong will serve as co-chairs.

SJM elevated Ho to the newly created position of chairman emeritus in recognition of his “invaluable contributions” to the growth of not only SJM but the entire Macau market. SJM lauded Ho as “the founding father of Macau’s gaming industry” and credited his “visionary leadership” for helping SJM achieve its “significant growth” over the past decade.

SJM may have grown in relative terms but its share of Macau’s overall casino market has shrunk dramatically in recent years, hitting an all-time low of 16.1% in 2017. The company is the only one of Macau’s six casino concessionaires yet to open a property on the Cotai strip, and the in-development Grand Lisboa Palace won’t launch until 2019 at the earliest.