VegasRy Profile: Steve Wynn

We are big fans of Steve Wynn here at VegasRy. Actually, we are big fans of his creations as we have never met the man. The Mirage, Bellagio and Wynn Las Vegas rank among our top 5 fav casinos. However, I don’t think there is a more polarizing figure in Las Vegas business and politics than Wynn, love him or hate him, there seems to be no middle ground.

On the one hand, he seems to be the embodiment to the ‘corporatization’ of Las Vegas. His Mirage ushered in the era when gambling took a backseat to restaurants, shows and other forms of entertainment. Properties seemed less like casinos with hotels attached, and more like resorts that happened to be casinos.

Conversely, these properties are spectacular. Each one progressively set a new standard in design and luxury. Bellagio obliterated all expectations when it was built, and Wynn Las Vegas, despite impossibly high expectations, is a gorgeous property as well. Wynn’s attention to detail and requirement of nothing but top-notch service also

Personally, Wynn is very controversial as well. He is the de-facto ‘king’ of Las Vegas, seemingly having his way with the legislature and other facets of government. It was this cavalier attitude that might have led to his downfall at Mirage Resorts. While he built the corporation into a Wall Street darling, many of his later decisions and their financial ramifications made the board and stockholders a little nervous. In 2000, with the stock price in decline, Kirk Kerkorian’s MGM completed a semi-hostile buyout of Mirage Resorts, and left Wynn on the outside looking at the company he built.

Wynn has never been media shy, with well publicized feuds with Donald Trump (the 2 are now friends), Sheldon Adelson (2nd richest man in America, Chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corp, and Wynn’s neighbor at the Venetian), and his defamation lawsuit regarding the John L. Smith unflattering biography (deserves it’s own post). With the opening of Wynn Las Vegas, Wynn was back in the spotlight, even appearing atop his own casino in an advertisement during the Super Bowl. There is also a very high-profile dealer lawsuit stemming from his controversial decision to cut the pit bosses and managers in on the dealer tip pool.



We’d like to introduce something that we call the Wynn-o-meter. His is a scale from 1 to 5 documenting a person or publications slant towards Wynn the person and company. (1 being Sheldon Adelson, and 5 being Elaine, Steve’s wife) This is in an effort to fully disclose the person’s or entity’s slant towards Steve Wynn. For example, the book Super Casino (reviewed here) is about a 2 on the Wynn-o-meter, as there are no outright digs at Wynn, but there is a certain bitterness reflected in his lack of cooperation in writing the book.

Personal and political feelings aside, the man can build a casino, and we here at VegasRy are anxiously looking forward to the opening of Encore, the new sister resort of Wynn Las Vegas. Some of the our best times have been had at properties that he created, and we hope that he will build many more in the years to come.

FYI, VegasRy is a Solid 4 on the Wynn-o-Meter

Wynn Las Vegas Home Page