What Are Gambling Sin Stocks?
Sin stocks are stocks that profit from social taboos and activities that are perceived to be “forbidden” or highly restricted. Alcohol and tobacco are two well-known sin stocks. Gambling sin stocks are another group of well-known sin stocks.
As the name suggests, gambling sin stocks are companies that are associated in some way with wagering. Casinos top the list, particularly in North America. However, in Europe there are offline and online “bookie” type companies that are publicly traded.
Gambling sin stocks include:
- Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE: BYD)
- Galaxy Entertainment (OTC: GXYEF)
- International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT)
- Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. (NASDAQ: ISLE)
- Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS)
- MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM)
- Paddy Power plc (LSE: PAP)
- Penn National Gaming Inc. (NASDAQ: PENN)
- Sportingbet plc (LSE: SBT)
- The Rank Group plc (LSE: RNK)
- Wynn Resorts (NYSE: WYNN)
In a lot of cases (especially with casinos) they have a huge up-front cost (which might be the motivation for an IPO) but the stronger brands are cash-rich because money pours in but ongoing costs are much lower.
