Short Sellers Increasing Bets Against Casinos (BYD, CZR, LVS, MPEL, MGM, PENN, WYNN, IGT)

Short sellers have not unilaterally increased their bets against casinos, but there was a rise in the short interest in this sector's leaders on the August 15 settlement date versus the July 31 settlement date. We tracked the following casino and casino related stocks: Boyd Gaming Corp. (NYSE: BYD), Caesars Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: CZR), Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS), Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL), MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM), Penn National Gaming Inc. (NASDAQ: PENN), Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) and International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT).

Boyd Gaming Corp. (NYSE: BYD) saw a small drop of 1.7% in short interest, down to 10.511 million shares in mid-August versus 10.693 million shares as of the end of July.

Caesars Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: CZR) is still hard to short due to the size of the float, but that short interest did rise by 14.1%. The mid-August short interest was 4.083 million shares short versus 3.579 million shares at the end of July.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) saw a rather large jump of 15.4% in its short interest as the mid-August short interest rose to 12.505 million shares versus 10.84 million shares at the end of July.

Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL) saw another decent drop in its short interest as the bets against Macau are lightening up. The mid-August short interest was down 10.6% to 9.063 million shares versus 10.136 million shares at the end of July.

MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) saw a 4% rise in its short interest; mid-August's short interest was 31.152 million shares versus 29.962 million shares short at the end of July.

Penn National Gaming Inc. (NASDAQ: PENN) saw a drop of 3.7% to 3.976 million shares in mid-August, versus the short interest of 4.13 million shares at the end of July.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) saw a large gain of 15.8% in the short interest as that short interest grew to 5.341 million shares short in mid-August versus 4.611 million shares at the end of July.

International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT) saw a drop of 6.4% in its short interest as there were 14.74 million shares short in mid-August versus 15.754 million shares short at the end of July.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Casinos & Hotels, Short Interest Tagged: BYD, CZR, IGT, LVS, MGM, MPEL, PENN, WYNN