BUY OR SELL-Casino stocks: good bets or risky gambles?

* Las Vegas Sands, Wynn look good for Asian exposure

* MGM looks shaky on high debt load, small Macau business

* Macau gaming stocks hot for higher growth potential (For other Reuters BUY OR SELL items, click [BUYSELL/])

By Sui-Lee Wee

HONG KONG, June 1 (Reuters) - Casino stocks have had a recent winning streak, fuelled by hopes that some debt-heavy firms have staved off bankruptcy and a betting sector slump has hit bottom.

Among top global gaming stocks, Las Vegas Sands (LVS.N) has more than quadrupled since March, versus the Dow Jones industrial average's .DJI 19 percent gain, while MGM Mirage (MGM.N) has more than doubled and Wynn Resorts (WYNN.O) is up 74 percent.

But the shares still trade well below year-ago levels, and most analysts rate them a "hold" -- advising investors to take a wait-and-see approach before making any moves.

(For a global gaming sector package, click [ID:nHKG213363])

ASIAN JACKPOT

With more than half their operating profits earned in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau, Sands and Wynn are the preferred choice for investors who want exposure to Asia's more resilient gaming capital than to a volatile Las Vegas.

Pure Macau plays such as Galaxy Entertainment Group (0027.HK), Melco Crown Entertainment (MPEL.O) and SJM Holdings (0880.HK) have nearly doubled or more since March.

Macau, the world's biggest gaming market, is likely to return to a growth track by September, but the third quarter in Las Vegas is expected to remain weak, analysts said. [ID:nHKG261502]

Sands, which operates two casinos in Macau, opens Singapore's first mega-casino late this year or in early 2010.

"The Singapore casino looks like it'll be a slam dunk for them," said analyst Janet Brashear of Sanford Bernstein. "That stock has lots of upside potential, if they can get over their covenant issues. But it's a high-risk, high-reward situation."

For a safer bet, some analysts recommend Wynn, which has the strongest balance sheet among its peers and is slated to open a second Macau casino next May.

On a 2009 enterprise value to EBITDA ratio (EV/EBITDA), Wynn trades around 13.2 times, lower than Sands' 18.8 times, but above MGM's 8.1 times, according to UBS.