When it comes to business, few people are as lucky as Stanley Ho, also referred to as the King of Gambling: he was granted a 35-year monopoly over Macau's casino business. The gambling business earned him billions.

However, he was not always so lucky. Born in a poor family, he had to drop out of school when his father, having lost a lot of money in the stock market, went bankrupt and left his family. Stanley Ho's two brothers could not handle the grief and the pressure and committed suicide, leaving the young boy with his helpless mother.

But he was a tough cookie and fate helped him too. Ho was a poor student, but now he is one of the wealthiest men in the world with a personal fortune of $7 billion.

Image: Casino tycoon Stanley Ho during the listing ceremony of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau Holdings in Hong Kong on July 16, 2008. | Photograph: Andrew Ross/AFP/Getty Images