Lim Goh Tong and the Founding of Genting

The short version

From Anxi to Malaya: the early years

Lim Goh Tong was born in 1918 in Anxi county, in China's southern Fujian Province⁵. It is a mountainous part of the province, and the family was not wealthy. He had no tertiary education⁵.

In 1937, he left China for British-controlled Malaya¹. He arrived as a penniless young man, and the move was the start of everything that followed⁵.

The timing matters for anyone trying to understand how Genting came about. He was a young migrant with no capital and no connections, in a colonial economy where Chinese immigrants often worked in trade, tin or rubber. He worked his way up over the following decades, and by the 1960s he had the resources and the standing to attempt something much larger.

Founding Genting in 1965

The Genting Group was founded in 1965, when Lim Goh Tong started the journey to realize his vision³. The same year, the first casino opened in Malaysia⁴. Genting Berhad dates its own history from 1965 as well⁶.

That is the short version. The practical point for anyone reading about Genting today is that the group has been running continuously since that year, and it has grown well beyond one hilltop site. Genting Malaysia Berhad, the Malaysian arm, was incorporated in 1980⁷.

Genting's headquarters are in Kuala Lumpur¹. The group describes itself as having risen above challenges since 1965, and the corporate history is built around that single founding year⁶.

Malaysia's first and only casino license

Malaysia granted its first and only casino license to Genting on April 28, 1969⁵. That date is the reason the Malaysian casino market looks the way it does today.

As of July 2025, there is only one licensed casino gaming services operator in Malaysia, which is Genting Malaysia Berhad⁸. Everything else in the licensed gambling sector is different: licensed lotteries, sweepstakes, number forecast operators, gaming machine operators, and horse racing at three turf clubs in Penang, Perak and Selangor⁸.

So if you are in Malaysia and want to play table games or slots in a licensed casino, there is one operator, and it is the company Lim Goh Tong founded. The legal minimum age for gambling in Malaysia is 21⁹.

Genting's casino business is not only in Malaysia. Genting Malaysia owns and operates:

• Resorts World Genting in Malaysia
• Resorts World Casino New York City in the United States
• Resorts World Bimini in the Bahamas
• over 30 casinos in the United Kingdom⁵
• Resorts World Kijal and Resorts World Langkawi in Malaysia¹⁰

The UK portfolio was later reported at over 30 casinos after acquisitions, and the group has continued to expand⁷.

For a wider look at how the country's rules work in practice, see Can I Gamble in Malaysia?.

Building Genting Highlands into a casino resort

The casino license was one thing. Turning a mountain site into a resort that people would travel to was another, and it took years of construction and continued investment.

By November 2017, the group had embarked on a 10-year master plan to reinvigorate and transform Resorts World Genting under the Genting Integrated Tourism Plan¹¹. That plan covered the resort's hotels, attractions and facilities, and it is the reason the site looks different today from the Genting of the 1990s.

The resort side of the business has kept moving. Genting SkyWorlds Theme Park had its soft opening, announced by the operator in 2022¹². Genting Malaysia is described as a member of the Genting Group, one of Asia's leading and best-managed multinationals¹¹.

For visitors, the practical picture is this: Resorts World Genting is a full resort, not just a casino floor. It sits in the highlands, it has theme park and hotel components, and the casino is one part of a larger complex. If you are planning a trip, the casino is the licensed gambling option in the country, and the minimum age is 21⁹.

Genting's casino brand also operates under a UK license for its UK-facing site, which is a separate regulatory arrangement from the Malaysian license⁴.

Tan Sri: honors and later wealth

Lim Goh Tong was bestowed the title of "Tan Sri" by HM the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in 1979⁵. It is one of Malaysia's highest federal honors, and it is why he is usually written about as Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong.

His wealth grew with the business. Forbes estimated his wealth at $4.3 billion in May 2007, and he was described as Malaysia's third-richest person¹.

He retired at the age of 85⁵. He died on October 23, 2007, at 90⁵. One profile gives his age at death as 89, but the contemporaneous report and the company's own account both put him at 90².

The family's involvement did not end with him. His son, Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, took over the group. Lim Kok Thay was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive of Genting Malaysia Berhad on October 17, 1988, and was 64 at the time of the 2016 annual report¹⁰. He is also executive chairman at Genting Singapore¹³. His son, Lim Keong Hui, was 33 in 2018 and served as executive director of Genting Bhd. and Genting Hong Kong².

Lim Kok Thay holds a 44.01% stake in Genting via Kien Huat Realty Sdn Bhd and Kien Huat International Ltd, according to Genting's own disclosures¹³. In February 2026, it was reported that he was set to relinquish his role as the group's chief executive officer, a position he had held since 2007¹³. In Genting Malaysia, he is group deputy chairman and chief executive¹³.

The group has continued to invest overseas. Lim Kok Thay was reported in 2018 as investing at least $5 billion in five years on gambling resort projects in the U.S., the Bahamas and the Philippines². In February 2024, Genting Malaysia unveiled a transformative multi-billion expansion plan as preparation to bid for a full commercial casino license in downstate New York⁶.

For more on the people who built Asia's gambling industry, see Asia's Gambling Tycoons: Stanley Ho, Lim Goh Tong and Other Industry Founders.

A new casino resort next to Foxwoods

Foxwoods, in Ledyard, Connecticut, is one of the largest casino resorts in the United States, and the Lim family's involvement in its expansion is part of the Genting story.

A new $700 million casino resort was developed adjacent to the existing Foxwoods casino resort, according to a 2009 company filing¹⁴. The project, MGM Grand at Foxwoods, was built alongside the original property.

The connection matters because it shows how far the group's reach extended beyond Malaysia. Genting's overseas footprint now includes the United States, the Bahamas, the United Kingdom and Singapore, where Singapore awarded one casino license to Las Vegas Sands and a second to Genting International Bhd. in 2006¹⁴.

If you are trying to place Genting in the wider industry, the pattern is consistent: a Malaysian base, a Singapore license, UK casinos, a New York City property, and involvement in major US resort projects. The Foxwoods expansion is one piece of that.