Regulatory Risks Hit Macau Casinos (WYNN, LVS, MPEL)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Burning Money PicNews out of Macau, China is crushing some of the gambling stocks that have direct operations in Macau.  It looks like the Chinese are considering curbing the number of gambling tables, the minimum age of gamblers that can enter the casinos, and other potential restrictions, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Asia reports.  While the full details and full implications are not yet out, Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN), Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS), and Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL) are all getting hit on the reports.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) just did an IPO for its assets there.  Its shares are down over 4% at $65.07.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) has an IPO pending for its operations, and its stock is down 6.7% at $16.87.

Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL) is effectively a pure-play stock on this and it’s down 6% at $6.74 on the news.

If you have ever seen an instant political risk event come out that can instantly change the game for an entire sector in an entire geographic area, this is one of those instances.  This would not be the first such regulatory issues that have affected the region, and so far they have always managed to bounce back and survive.

JON C. OGG

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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