Sin Stock
Categories: Investing
Tobacco. Gambling. Sex. (Phillip Morris. Las Vegas Sands. Playboy.) Or at least...those three used to be the three biggies in sin. Today, you'd probably want to add "little-sin" with big footprint, like McDonald's and other fast food places that foster obesity and other health ills which cost society a fortune.
The notion of "sin stocks" was that everyone likes to "sin" always, even in bad markets. So there used to be a reliance on sin stocks to do well "in all weather." But the modern era has proven that ethos to be false, as the tobacco industry was upended by various technology startups and the broad legalization of weed. The gambling industry has gone online now with myriad competitors: you don't have to just go to Vegas or Atlantic City anymore to lose money betting on the Mets. And Sex? Eh. It has gone primetime, and is more than easily findable, for free, everywhere on the internet.
So "sin" carries a whole new meaning today. Not nearly as profitable as it used to be to purvey it.
