The State Worker: How sex, booze and gambling secure your retirement

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The State Worker

Chronicling civil-service life for California state workers

July 24, 2008

How sex, booze and gambling secure your retirement

Next month, the California State Teachers' Retirement System is likely to take up whether to start buying tobacco stocks eight years after it dumped them. The debate will pit those who think the fund's highest calling is making money for its members against those who think it's wrong to make money from products linked to disease and addiction.

But what about other "sin" stocks? As the table below shows, CalSTRS and the California Public Employees' Retirement System invest in companies that make beer, promote gambling, sell adult magazines and operate adult clubs.

What do you think? Should the funds stay out of tobacco? What about other "sin" stocks?

CalPERS	Company	Industry	No. shares	Value
	WYNN RESORTS LTD.	Gambling	411,220	$41.4 million
	PLAYBOY ENTERPRISES INC.	Adult Entertainment	32,300	$272,000
	RICKS CABARET INTL INC.	Adult Entertainment	35,100	$803,000
CalSTRS	ANHEUSER BUSCH COS INC.	Alcohol	1,172,637	$55.6 million
	MOLSON COORS BREWING CO.	Alcohol	191,052	$10 million
	MGM MIRAGE INC.	Gambling	194,054	$11.4 million

Click these links for the complete list of CalPERS' stock investments and CalSTRS' stock investments. Both lists reflect the funds' holdings as of Mar. 31 of this year.

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