The Las Vegas Sands (LVS) has a great chance to start a recovery and turn around before its competitors because of the Sands Asian projects. Asia is the main reason to be optimistic for LVS.

The economic downturn has changed the way consumers now spend on leisure: travel, eating out, and retail spending and gambling. In addition declining real estate prices in and around Las Vegas has hit the local economy hard. Gaming revenues have declined, and the occupancy rates at Sin City's massive hotels have dropped precipitously.

Las Vegas Sands is probably best-known for The Venetian resort. The Venetian certainly hasn't been immune to the carnage in the gaming business. The stock slipped from highs well over 100 in 2007 to less than 2 earlier this year. The most recent low from July was $6.32.

Las Vegas Sands carries a B- rating from Standard & Poor's, well into junk bond territory. As recently as February the company's debt traded at 35 cents on the dollar and offered a yield-to-maturity that exceeded 32%; at that rate, no company could afford to borrow money to invest profitably.

Recently the price of that bond has soared and the yield is now back below 10%, reflecting investors' renewed appetite for high-yield debt. In September Las Vegas Sands was able to amend its credit facility to reduce the risk that it would breach debt covenants this year. And LVS has also sold $600 million in new bonds and announced plans for an initial public offering (IPO) for a stake in its Macau operations to raise more cash.

LVS has strong prospects for an operational recovery. The Venetian has seen better occupancy metrics than its competitors thanks to the massive adjacent conference facility.

The key to the Sands turn around lays in Asia. The Sand's Asian properties which will ultimately account for more of the Sands earnings than Vegas, will help the Sand's turn things around faster then its competition.

LVS is one of the only six companies' that have been granted gaming concessions in the Chinese gambling destination of Macau. The firm already has three properties there; the Venetian Macau, Sands Macau and The Four Seasons.

The Sands controls additional plots on which it had begun construction of the new casinos, but these projects stopped amid the credit freeze last year. With new finance flowing, look for the company to resume the construction projects.

Gaming revenues in Macau are bouncing back, soaring 17% in August over year-ago levels to a new monthly record. The jump reflects an easing in visa restrictions for Chinese gamers and the quick snap-back in the Chinese economy.

Outside Macau, Sands is targeting other Asian destinations like Singapore; its Marina Sands development is due to open early next year. Singapore recently legalized gaming and promises to be a popular destination for Asian gamers with rapidly growing incomes. Las Vegas Sands is a long term buy. I would target a buy zone of $12.80-13; this area represents a 61.8% Fibonacci retracement of the September high of $20.73 to the July low of $6.32. I would set an intermediate term (12-18 months) price target of $30. Another option is to use a short-term (less then 6 months) trading price target of $17.50-18.