We still don't know if the Peking government will further restrict access to Macao -- at least for residents of Guangdong Province, who've already been cut back to six visits a year. But even the mere rumor of further visa constriction in China was enough to send Wall Street into a tizzy. (Larry Klatzkin remains bullish, though, God bless him.)

Whereupon Las Vegas Sands President William Weidner went into full Rapunzel Mode, spinning golden threads of sunshine and happiness from what may or may not turn out to be another dump taken on him by the ChiComm potentates that Sands execs idolize.

Now, you or I might think that Peking is micromanaging the Macanese economy virtually to the point of throttling it altogether, but erstwhile free-market advocate Weidner considers this A Good Thing. It's a quality-control move, y'see: "they want to separate the wheat from the chaff. The restrictions are aimed at bringing a higher quality of visitors." What a lovely thought. Weidner's Guandong patrons are "chaff."

He also contended that most of Sands' Macao customers come from outside Guandong Province. Given the amount of mass-market business Sands needs to make its nut, I'm a bit skeptical of that contention, but Weidner's got a good point when he says that the (unaffected) Peking and Shanghai markets are the ones Sands need to tap, especially in order to ramp up overnight and vacation stays. Sands' ultra-metaresort concept of Macao isn't going to be achieved out of the wallets of day-trippers, that's for sure.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Weidner also identified Jakarta and Calcutta as target markets. Then again, those two cities would rank high among the ones central to the success of Sands' Marina Bay resort in Singapore. Another problem Weidner probably doesn't want to discuss right now (although every other casino operator in Macao is going to feel the pinch, too) draws nigh on Sept. 1. That's when visa-holders from mainland China to Hong Kong will no longer be able to proceed onward to Macao.

Given this kind of meddling from on high it's miraculous that Sands, Wynn Resorts et. al. have done so well over there. If access to Las Vegas were constantly being rationed like this, the resultant indignation would cause businessmen to spontaneously combust (and -- need it be said? -- rightly so). I can't help but have a recurrent suspicion that China's Communist government perceives "running dog" American companies earning a fortune in Macao, and periodically feels the need to put its foot on their throats, whether to choke off some of the money flowing out of the country or merely to remind everybody who's boss over there.

But amidst the general sell-off, guess whose shares actually rose 1%? Why it's our old buddy Stanley Ho. What's bad news for Melco Crown Entertainment, Galaxy Entertainment, MGM Mirage, etc., is paradoxically good for Ho's SJM, sayeth the market.

Perhaps it's because SJM's (mostly) rattletrap old casinos constitute less financial exposure than the multi-billion-dollar pleasure palaces his competitors have erected. Or maybe his customer base is believed to be more entrenched and reliable. Whatever the reason, this ancient casino vizier has more lives than a cat.