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We answered this question a few months ago (see QoD 7/4/08), but given the recent freefall of the stock market, we thought it timely to revisit it. If you believe that casino stocks, which have been hit pretty hard by the crisis, will rebound to their previous heights, this is a pretty good time to buy; we haven't seen prices this low since right after 9/11.
The number of Vegas casinos owned by publicly traded corporations dropped dramatically last year, thanks to the private-equity buyouts of Harrah’s Entertainment and Station Casinos.
On June 16, Landry Restaurants CEO Tilman Fertitta announced that he was taking his company private, removing one more skittle –- the Golden Nugget –- from the Big Board. Aztar Corp., owner of the Tropicana, went off the stock market back in 2007, following its sale to Kentucky hotelier Columbia Sussex.
However, because of the way its debt is structured, Columbia Sussex subsidiary Tropicana Entertainment still files regular reports with the Securities & Exchange Commission –- as does Harrah’s, thereby providing a fair measure of transparency into how these companies continue to operate. Harrah’s, for instance, has been segregating its casinos between Harrah’s Entertainment and Harrah’s Operating Group.
As for those casino companies that are still publicly traded …
Boyd Gaming (ticker symbol: BYD) owns the Fremont, California, and Main Street Station downtown; Sam's Town, Gold Coast, Suncoast, and The Orleans, along with the Jokers Wild and Eldorado casinos in Henderson. Boyd has temporarily halted construction its first Strip megaresort Echelon Place, which was scheduled to open in 2010 on the former site of the Stardust. This project is a joint venture with Morgans Hotel Group.
Morgans (symbol: MHGC) has its own fish to fry, as well, having lined up $760 million in financing for an ambitious expansion of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, which it co-owns with its primary lender, DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, which holds 80% of the property.
Landry’s Restaurants (symbol: LNY) not only owns the Golden Nugget downtown but its sister property in Laughlin. While Fertitta’s buyout would involve 179 restaurants in addition to the two casinos, the latter represented 43% of Landry’s revenue, according to its most recent earnings announcement.
MGM Mirage (symbol: MGM) is the mother corporation for Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, New York-New York, Monte Carlo, MGM Grand, Bellagio, Mirage, TI, Circus Circus, and Slots A Fun. It’s constructing CityCenter, is an equity partner in M Resort (under construction on far south Las Vegas Boulevard), and owns the vacant lot on the northwest corner of Sahara and the Strip, where it’s planning another metaresort, in collaboration with multiple joint-venture partners.
Crown Ltd. (NASDAQ symbol: CWLDF) is in the process of buying out privately held Cannery Casino Resorts, which owns the Cannery Casino & Hotel in North Las Vegas, is building Cannery East Side on the Boulder Strip, and manages the Rampart Casino in Summerlin.
Its shareholders having rebuffed several takeover attempts, Riviera Holdings, parent of the Riviera Las Vegas, still trades as RIV. Las Vegas Sands, owner of Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and its outgrowth, the Palazzo, trades as LVS, while archrival Steve Wynn’s Wynn Resorts goes by the ticker symbol –- what else? –- WYNN.
Another investment you might consider is International Game Technology, the slot manufacturer, which generally rises and falls with the casino-stock tide: ticker symbol IGT. Lately, two rival slot-maker stocks have been outperforming it: Bally Technologies (BYI) and Williams Gaming (WMS).
And if you want to invest in a mutual fund that specializes in casinos and gaming manufacturers, plus companies in the parimutuel, lottery, and electronic/video-game industries, look up the Ladenburg Thalmann Gaming & Casino Fund (ticker symbol: GACFX).
