A shot at Las Vegas

One of the world’s largest casino operators may benefit from a post-Covid-19 boom in Asian gambling demand.

- Petri Redelinghuys

Interesting times lead to interesting stock picks, and the one we have gone for in this issue is a casino stock – Las Vegas Sands (LVS). It trades on the New York Stock Exchange and owns some of the most iconic gambling properties in the world. These properties are in Las Vegas (which, ironically, only accounts for a small percentage of the company’s total earnings), Singapore and Macau.

LVS is a play on the Chinese demand for gambling, which is generally high. With Las Vegas accounting for less than 10% of LVS’s earnings, it means that the bulk of the generated profit originates in Asia. LVS is considered the “Ferrari” of the casino businesses because it not only has the best-looking hotels in the industry (who hasn’t noticed the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore during the Grand Prix?), its properties are also found in the world’s most profitable gambling destinations – Macau and Singapore.