Of all the ways there are to invest in stocks, one of the most popular is buy-and-hold—that is, buy a stock for long-term growth and hold it for three years, five years or forever.
In gaming, regional casino stocks have made big money for buy-and-hold investors. But the glamor names have been terrible.
Las Vegas Sands, for example, is down 74 percent as of this writing since its all-time high of $144.56 way back in October of 2007. That’s 14 long years.
Likewise, Wynn is down 66 percent from its all-time high in 2014, another long stretch for the buy-and-holder to wait out. MGM Resorts is down 55 percent from its October 2007 high.
The picture is better in more recent time frames. MGM is up 70 percent over the past five years, and a whopping 337 percent over 10 years.
Wynn and Las Vegas Sands were also less drastic over those shorter periods, but still lost money for investors. Wynn is down 17 percent over five years and 38 percent over 10. LVS is down 35 and 15 percent.
Macau stocks likewise have been losers, with the exception of Galaxy Entertainment. Galaxy is up 34 percent over five years and 193 percent over 10. However, events including Covid-19 have taken their toll. Galaxy is down 53 percent from its all-time high in January 2007, and all the other pure-play Macau casino stocks are down 70 and 80-plus percent.
As mentioned, the purely domestic casino operators have been the place to be for buy-and-hold investors. Every regional casino stock is up over the past five and 10 years.
Eldorado-Caesars wins the long-term championship, up 5,553 percent over 10 years and 705 percent over five years
The next biggest winners over the past 10 years have been Churchill Downs, up 1,795 percent, Boyd Gaming, 1,161 percent, Golden Entertainment, 970 percent, Penn National at 847 percent, Monarch Casino at 626 percent and Century Casinos, plus 449 percent.
Over the past five years, the biggest winners after Eldorado-Caesars have been Penn National up 456 percent, Full House Resorts at 427 percent, and Golden at 285 percent.
Further, the big gains by regional operators aren’t ancient history, like the all-time highs for the glamor and Macau stocks. Every regional casino stock hit an all-time high this year in a list that includes Red Rock Resorts, Churchill Downs and the most recent to go public, Bally’s.
The four major suppliers have all made profits for buy-and-hold investors, led by Aristocrat, up 2,130 percent over 10 years, Scientific Games, up 966 percent, Everi at 840 percent, and IGT at 81 percent.
Everi wins the five-year title, up 881 percent followed, by Sci Games at 632 percent and Aristocrat at 187 percent. Aristocrat, Everi and Sci Games are also recent achievers, hitting all-time highs this year.
If there’s a common theme in the divergence of casino stocks, it’s that purely domestic players outperformed companies that made big bets in Macau.
It’s another lesson that glitz doesn’t assure long-term stock price appreciation. Wynn and Las Vegas Sands spend billions of dollars on properties. Eldorado-Caesars, Boyd, Churchill Downs, Golden and their peers spend millions. Yet they provided the better returns for investors.
