Tobacco stocks may offer the slow and steady consistency that a portfolio no doubt needs, but they aren’t exactly sexy. For a bit more risk, investors might want to try gambling. Not roulette or poker or craps, but casino companies. Cramer’s favorites? Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands , though more for their exposure to Macau than Sin City.
“Macau is where the money is,” the Mad Money host said Thursday.
In the second quarter of 2010 alone, gross gaming revenues across all the casinos were up 77% year-over-year, and 10% from the previous quarter.
Right now, Wynn operates two casinos in Macau, with a third in development. LVS, meanwhile, boasts three operational properties, while it recently recommenced construction on its halted development projections. Still, Cramer’s a bigger fan of Wynn because of its stronger balance sheet, top-notch CEO Steve Wynn and smart execution. Wynn recently gave up its plan to take over a riverfront casino in Philadelphia—a good move, according to Cramer—contrasting LVS’s Bethlehem, Pa., which “truly depressed me when I went there,” Cramer said.
“Wynn goes where the market is,” he said. “Las Vegas Sands goes where they let it.”
Why recommend LVS at all then? Because it “may be the greatest comeback story after Ford of the new millennium,” Cramer said. After a going-concern scare in 2008, LVS has restructured its debt, paying down $1 billion and putting the company in much better shape.
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