Casino Winners: MGM, Las Vegas Sands

Also bolstering the MGM, Wynn and Las Vegas Sands shares were reports indicating that Macau gaming revenue increased 48% in December, a sign that perhaps the casino companies are gradually recovering from the economic downturn.

Moving beyond Las Vegas, Penn National Gaming(PENN) has inched up Tuesday by 0.6% to $27.90, on more than 260,000 shares -- boosted by the likely passage of a Pennsylvania table-games bill within the next day or two. The three-month average daily trading volume for Penn is 913,000.

That aforementioned bill could also help Las Vegas Sands: "Las Vegas Sands' Bethlehem property is about an hour closer than Atlantic City to the North New Jersey/New York City area, so the addition of table games could draw additional visitation from this area," writes Susquehanna Financial analyst Robert LaFleur, in a client note.

Boyd Gaming(BYD), for its part, has inched down by 0.4% to $8.60. In mid-Dec., Boyd approached its bankrupt competitor, Station Casinos, with a $2.45 billion in cash-and-debt offer for a controlling stake in the company, as they fight over business in Las Vegas amid their declining revenues. Station said it would look at the offer, after rejecting an earlier offer from Boyd.

Some 1.4 million shares of Boyd had changed hands by mid-afternoon. The three-month average daily trading volume for Boyd is 1.2 million.

-- Reported by Andrea Tse in New York >>See our new stock quote page.

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