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(Associated Press) - Casino mogul Stanley Ho, the father of Macau's fabled gambling industry, has been hospitalized in Hong Kong, local newspapers reported Tuesday.

The reports said the 87-year-old billionaire had been admitted to Hong Kong Adventist Hospital, but it was not immediately known what he was being treated for. Pictures from Hong Kong's Apple ( AAPL - news - people ) Daily newspaper showed a stream of Ho's family members, including daughter Pansy and son Lawrence, visiting the hospital Monday. None of them commented on Ho's health.

Ming Pao Daily cited Angela Leong, one of the four women Ho calls his "wives," as saying last week that he needed treatment because of a rectal injury that he suffered two years ago following a procedure to relieve constipation.

Apple Daily newspaper, meanwhile, cited an unidentified source as saying that Ho had fallen and hit his head last week at Leong's home and that he required a brain surgery. The report said he is in stable condition in Adventist Hospital's intensive care unit.

Ho, worth more than $9 billion according to Forbes, presided over Macau's casinos for four decades until his monopoly was broken up in 2002.

Since then, he has faced fierce competition from American operators such as Wynn Resorts Ltd. ( WYNN - news - people ) and Las Vegas Sands Corp. ( LVS - news - people ), but his company, SJM Holdings, still leads with nearly 30 percent of the local gambling market.

Macau is the only place in China where casinos are legal.