Among the many fascinating stories to come out of this year’s highly memorable Asian Games, one of the most unique would have to be that of host country Indonesia’s oldest and richest competitor, Michael Bambang Hartono. The 78-year-old billionaire tobacco and banking tycoon is also a keen bridge player and his strategic skills helped him and his five teammates earn a bronze medal for Indonesia in the the bridge supermixed team event.
Meet 78-year-old billionaire Michael Bambang Hartono, the richest athlete in the #AsianGames #tictocnews pic.twitter.com/SeF9PzvSXS
— Bloomberg Originals (@bbgoriginals) August 26, 2018
At a ceremony yesterday at the State Palace in Jakarta in which President Joko Widodo handed out monetary bonuses to all of the athletes that helped contribute to Indonesia’s record-breaking 31 medal count result, Hartono received a IDR250 million (USD16,700) reward from Jokowi for his bronze medal performance (silver medalists received IDR500 million while gold medalists got a whopping IDR1.5 billion).
While IDR 250 million is a huge amount for the vast majority of Indonesians, it’s miniscule compared to USD11.2 billion — the estimated combined net worth of Hartono and his brother Robert (making them the richest men in Indonesia according to the latest Forbes Indonesia ranking). Many found it amusing that the prize money was given to BCA-bank-owning Hartono in the form of a BRI bank savings account.
Nonetheless, Hartono accepted the reward money but said he would donate it to the development of his beloved card game.
“This bonus money will be given for the development of bridge. So it will go back to bridge, all of it,” Hartono said after the ceremony as quoted by Merdeka.
This was actually the first year that bridge was included as an event at the Asian Games and Hartono was reportedly instrumental in persuading organizers to include the card game in the massive regional sporting competition.
Hartono said he amassed his massive fortune using similar skills to those he employs for bridge.
“Bridge is like business. First you get the data, the information. You analyse the information, and then you make a decision. So business, real life and bridge are the same. Decision-making is the same,” he said last week.
“If you want to be a good leader, and you want to be a successful man, business man, play bridge. Never quit, never give up,” he added.
With additional reporting by AFP
(US$1=IDR14,800)
