To stay in Vegas, you’d have to get to Vegas. And that costs money no-one is willing to spend right now. Accordingly, the supposedly recession-resistant vice stocks are taking it on the chin. Just yesterday [Thursday], we claimed our own 25% short profits share from the collapse of Las Vegas Sands (LVS) share price.

Today, I’d like to direct your attention to Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ:WYNN).

When it came to the subject of Macau, casino mogul Steve Wynn said on Wednesday: “The central government and the Macau government putting a crimp in or a slowdown in visitation was an attempt to give the community a chance to absorb the stuff that had been built.”

But that really makes no sense at all. Revenue growth has slowed as global recession and new travel restrictions on mainland Chinese tourists have hit all Macau casinos. Allowing “the community to absorb” new casinos doesn’t bring renminbi, yuan or dollars into the till. And the outlook that this may change is getting dimmer by the day:

Citi just downgraded Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (NASDAQ:CTRP), China’s premier travel service provider for hotel accommodations, airline tickets and packaged-tours in China. Analysts reduced it from a Buy to a Sell, slashing its price target from $53 to $18. We dipped below that price this morning.

If the outlook for the company who’d make a mint off shuttling Chinese gamblers to Macau is lagging… when China is lathering a good third of its currencies reserves into work-creation programs (infrastructure investment is nothing else!)… and when the companies responsible for China’s prosperity are closing at a record pace… it is time to bail.

WYNN is currently trading at around $30.15, down a hundred bucks from its 52-week high of $137.93, and uncomfortably close to its 52-week low of $28.06. Other than $3 LVS, WYNN still has a decent height to fall from.

I say short it at current levels, for gains of 15-20% by New Year’s. Cover at $33 should there be an upward bounce.

Source: After LVS, Wynn set to lose

This from Today’s Financial News:

Despite the substantial drop in the U.S. equity markets, Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) gained over 9% today. The company is currently in talks with a syndicate of banks to raise between $1.5 billion and $2 billion to finance new casino projects in Macau. The company had suspended construction on its expansion into Chinese gaming, laying off most of the 11,000 construction staff.

The stock price has dropped from over $122 last December to just above $6 today.

We think Sands is the new GM: Obtaining credit to finance the Macau project at this point is a self-defeating target. By the time the money comes in, the Chinese gaming market will be just as hard-hit as Vegas. There may be room for another 10% gain in the next weeks. More likely, the company will blow past its 52-week low of $4.32 before November is over.

Since I first wrote about this stock on August 19, 2008 (“The House always wins: Investors lose big with MGM Mirage (MGM), Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS), Wynn Resorts (WYNN)”), the price has dropped from $50.93 to below $5.

Short it again, for 20-30% gains by mid-December!

Source: The long dying of vice stocks: Short Las Vegas Sands (LVS) for 20-30% gains!