New Mutual Fund Bets on the House

The gambling industry -- which calls itself the "gaming" industry -- has always proven a great investment. As veteran gamblers like to say, you'll never meet a poor bookie.

But whether this is the time to push all your chips into the center of the table is another matter. The stocks seem as expensive as everything else these days -- Las Vegas Sands, for example, has doubled in a year to trade at 54 times likely earnings. It may be a great company, but those aren't great odds.

Yet on the bull side, the private-equity crowd is looking greedily at big casinos, with their fat cash flows and valuable real estate. They're already snapping up Station Casinos(STN Quote) and Harrah's (HET Quote), Ahrens' biggest single holding, and they may go for more.

It's always an interesting time for the gambling industry. This is a fund to watch.