In November 2019 Steve Wynn had been stripped of his license for gambling operation in Nevada. The “King” of Las Vegas turned into a blacklister. However, this does not diminish his contribution to one of the biggest gambling zones in the world.
Charges of harassment and consequences
At the beginning of 2018, Steve Wynn ended up in the center of very unpleasant events that forced him to leave the post of the US RNC financial director. The reason for this was a publication in The Wall Street Journal where the gambling tycoon, the owner of a casino network and a billionaire, was charged with sexual harassment in relation to his employees.
Talking to Politico, Wynn stated that everything had been faked by his ex-wife Elaine Wynn, who wanted to have the conditions of their marriage break up reviewed. It should also be noted that Steve Wynn’s wife is a cofounder of Mirage Resorts and Wynn Resorts.
The huge scandal was discussed between Ronna Romney McDaniel, the head of RNC, and the US President Donald Trump.
Since the American leader used to be the owner of a number of casinos, they were not just acquainted with Wynn before Trump’s appointment as a president but were regarded as competitors on the market.
A bit prior to the controversial article, the US president held a party to celebrate 1 year on the new post. Wynn was responsible for the event’s organization. Moreover, he was talking of Trump as of a president who would change the history and compared him with Lincoln and Reagan.
However, relations between these two famous personalities, especially in the casino world, in state issues depended not only on their opinions but also on the way they treated each other. It was politics that made Wynn resign since in a certain period of time Republicans severely criticized the scandal with sexual harassment in Hollywood. They even mentioned the Democrats’ connection with the defendants of this case.
Therefore, Steve’s efforts to justify himself did not stop political activists because the “Las Vegas King” was said to put pressure on his female colleagues and force them to have sex with him. According to the media resources, the case involved 150 women, one of whom had reportedly received $7,5 million from Wynn.
“Who is Steve Wynn?” Or “The youngest casino owner in Las Vegas”
The official website of Golden Nugget casino hotel does not contain any information about the fact that in the second half of the previous century it was Steve Wynn who saved the gambling establishment from collapse.
Founded in 1946, Golden Nugget states on its Facebook page that it is one of the best hotels in the center of Las Vegas. This is the very first casino hotel a young Steve Wynn decided to acquire. At that time he only started his financial path. According to the businessman’s official biography, after his father’s death, he had to quit studying and become the head of bingo clubs in order to pay out debts that amounted to $350,000. Steve coped with the task but that was in Utica.
The businessman was attracted by the prospects in Las Vegas. Steve Wynn’s house is also located there. Everything he did was for one reason – to move in the direction of the US gambling capital of the business environment. Having acquired Golden Nugget Steve became the youngest casino owner in Las Vegas of that time.
In 1980 gambling was legalized in Atlantic City, which stimulated the newly made businessman to look for investments and build one more Golden Nugget. The establishment became successful and some time later Steve sold it for $440m.
At the end of the 80s at the age of almost fifty Wynn was totally focused on a new direction for that time – huge entertainment complexes. With the help of a financial expert Michael Milken and two investors, Steve managed to bring to life his first project Mirage, which cost $630m.
The gambling establishment was opened in 1989. It was a luxury in its pure sense: gold-coated walls, huge artificial volcanos, and improvised tropical jungles. That was the first establishment where CCTV was used in gambling halls 24/7. Besides, the famous shows with white tigers started to be held in Mirage.
The Wynn created Treasure Island (approximately $450m) while Bellagio (construction works amounted to $1,6bn) became an unprecedented large-scale property: it included even an in-house conservatory, botanical garden and art gallery.
Failure is not a reason to stop
Success gave Wynn every reason to move on. In 1999 he opened a casino hotel Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Mississippi. However, the property did not bring any positive results and caused financial problems for the whole company. In order to save the day, in 2000 Steve sold Mirage Resorts to MGM Grand for $6,6bn (his own percentage from the deal amounted to just $500m). Wynn’s next step was the purchase of the Desert Inn hotel ($270m) and a few more neighboring buildings to build the Wynn Las-Vegas entertainment complex (opened in 2005). The total amount of investments to the new large-scale project was $2,7bn (a 45-story hotel, casino, restaurants, art gallery and a golf club, Ferrari and Maserati sales center as well as a huge waterfall.
Steve Wynn: net worth and nest career steps
After his success in the USA, Wynn decided to conquer the gambling zone of Macau. In 2006, he opened the Wynn Macau casino hotel with almost 400 slot machines, 375 gaming tables, restaurants, cafes, attractions, branded stores and numerous SPA-services. The property entered the top 10 of Asia. In the same year, Forbes named Wynn among the most influential people in the world. And it was not the end. After that he set up:
- One more hotel complex Wynn Las-Vegas – Encore (2006), which amounted to $2bn, with a minimum casino bet of $300;
- A similar Encore at Wynn Macau (2010);
- Wynn Palace, whose construction amounted to $4bn (2016).
However, the life of the “Las Vegas King” consisted not only of successful achievements. It includes lawsuits, rumors and income decrease due to the US-China crisis. According to Business Insider, more than 70% of Wynn’s income was from Macau but a more strict policy of Chinese authorities affected all the local establishments.
Nevertheless, according to official data, Steve Wynn’s current net worth is 3,1 billion dollars.
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