When MGM Mirage officials sought approval from Nevada gaming regulators to build casinos in Macau with Pansy and Daisy Ho, daughters of controversial Hong Kong billionaire Stanley Ho, cynics suspected regulatory approval was a done deal.

After all, the first $1.1 billion casino under the MGM Mirage-Ho partnership is already under construction, and on Feb. 13 MGM Mirage announced a second casino would be built in Macau with the Ho sisters, even before approval for the first had been granted.

So what would have happened if, instead of giving their unanimous approval Tuesday, Nevada Gaming Control Board members had rejected the MGM Mirage's application to do business with the Hos?

Well, they could have sold the sub-concession that gives them permission to operate casinos in Macau. MGM Mirage Chairman Terry Lanni said the sub-concession, which his company paid $200 million for in 2004, might have sold for as much as $1.5 billion today. His stockholders could enjoy a tidy profit.

"I think it would have been a major mistake to wait," Lanni said after the hearing, explaining why they didn't. Regulators in Mississippi already approved the Hos as suitable partners for MGM Mirage, and the Nevada Gaming Commission probably will give final approval this month. (New Jersey approval is pending, but Lanni said, "I never concern myself about things I can't affect.")

However, it's not a short-term windfall Lanni desires, but long-term profits. He told the control board that operating in Macau is "critical to the success of the MGM Mirage."

MGM Mirage, the biggest gaming company in Nevada and the state's biggest taxpayer, needs to join Wynn Resorts and the Las Vegas Sands Corp., which already are in the lucrative Macau market reaping enormous profits from Chinese gamblers. MGM gains its foothold in Macau by partnering with the Ho sisters and purchasing a sub-concession from their father, who had a 40-year monopoly on casinos until 1999.

The hurdle the partnership had to overcome Tuesday: Proving that Pansy Ho won't turn to her father to make decisions about the MGM Grand Macau. She needed to show she is independent of her father, even though he provided most of the $80 million she and her sister (her "first lieutenant") needed for the joint venture, and even though Pansy Ho is a major player in her father's various companies, including ferries, casinos, land and commercial properties.

"What is your relationship with your father?" asked board Chairman Dennis Neilander.

Pansy Ho, 44, said she welcomed the chance to explain her independence from the man she called "Dr. Ho," based on an honorary doctorate. Describing how she grew up "only recognized as somebody's daughter, with a father who's bigger than life," she said she tried to break away from that by not going straight into the family business. She opened a public relations company, waiting until 1995 to enter her father's vast empire, Shun Tak Holdings.

She said she was put in charge of running the ferry company. A merger with another ferry company created a monopoly that was "a turning point in my career development" because after the merger she took an unpopular position and downsized. The job cuts came from among Shun Tak employees.

"The one person most against it was the chairman of the company," she said, referring to her father, who didn't like her cutting what he considered his staff. "I could do that in 1999. I can do that now. I can make objective decisions."

Stanley Ho, 85, allegedly has ties with organized crime triads in China, according to his estranged sister, Winnie, and various law enforcement agencies, although the Department of Justice has removed him from its list of organized crime figures.

But this hearing wasn't about daddy's suitability. It was about his daughter's.

Finally, board member Mark Clayton said the magic words: that the board's staff found "no evidence Dr. Ho controls either daughter."

Asked by Neilander what she would do if her father offered her gifts in the future, Pansy Ho drew one of the few laughs of the hearing: "I believe it is not wrong to accept gifts from my father. I would not decline them if they came my way."

Spoken like a true daddy's girl.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0275.