Written by :
Published on :
It was a bad year for stocks overall and the gambling sector proved to be no exception to that rule.
START YOUR OWN SPORTSBOOK - PAY A SMALL FEE PER CUSTOMER PER WEEK
The Dow Jones U.S. Gambling Index fell 33 percent in 2018. That compares with a 5.6 percent drop for the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index.
The only casino stock to fair well was El Dorado Resorts.
There were early gains only to be completely wiped away by year's end, including Wynn's 19 percent boost.
Something else spooking investors: The China-U.S. trade wars imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
From the Las Vegas Review Journal:
After months of fruitless trade talks, Trump imposed tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods in July. The spat intensified as China retaliated and the United States responded with additional tariffs. That may have spooked high rollers in Macau, the Chinese gaming enclave, who are dependent on U.S. trade, analysts said.
“The top 10 China provinces by visitors to Macau had combined about $294 billion of exports to the U.S. in 2017, so we believe the trade war could hurt consumer and business confidence of players coming from key source markets in China,” UBS analysts Robin Farley and Arpine Kocharyan said in a Dec. 5 note.
That seemed to have been the case. Macau gross gaming revenue growth fell from 22 percent over the first four months of 2018 to 9 percent over the next seven months.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
