The Nevada Independent

Your state. Your news. Your voice.

The Nevada Independent

Wynn changed the Las Vegas image, and now his image has changed forever

John L. Smith
John L. Smith
Opinion
SHARE
A photo of Wynn Resorts in Las Vegas

Drive down the Strip and you can’t help wondering where Las Vegas would be without Steve Wynn.

The Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Wynn Las Vegas and Encore: They’re a cut above most of the competition. And the shimmering resorts tell only part of the bigger story of Wynn’s role as a gaming industry visionary.

His influence on casino development from the Las Vegas Boulevard to Macau is undeniable. Wynn’s image as “The Great Casino Salesman,” as Time magazine once breathlessly called him, has remained preeminent. Even when other companies generated higher profits, and his own reported corporate excesses caused him problems, he’s without doubt the casino industry’s biggest CEO celebrity.

That image changed forever last week when The Wall Street Journal published an article quoting sources who alleged Wynn had displayed a decades-long pattern of sexual harassment of his female employees. The descriptions of the boss pressuring the hired help into sexual favors were ugly. The WSJ’s report, swiftly followed by other press, included the allegation that in 2005 Wynn paid a $7.5 million settlement to a casino salon manicurist who alleged she’d been coerced into having sex with him. On Friday, Bloomberg News reported the settlement involved a paternity claim.

Wynn’s response: “The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous.”

Sounds like a man with nothing to hide. We’ll see.

The response to the news was swift and predictable. Wynn Resorts stock briefly plummeted before appearing to regain its footing. While a few gaming industry analysts appeared to express genuine surprise, others pleaded for patience. A couple analysts even scolded the messenger. A few, perhaps swayed by the company’s recent 8K filing, asked an intriguing question: Where would Wynn Resorts be without Steve Wynn?

Casino regulatory authorities including the Nevada Gaming Control Board, Massachusetts Gaming Commission and Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, acknowledged they’re now investigating. They also must officially be surprised and concerned.

And the Wynn Resorts board announced the creation of a special committee headed by its only female board member, Pat Mulroy, to investigate the accusations against Wynn. Will its members also express surprise at the nature of the allegations? That will be interesting to see.

The investigation shouldn’t take long. All the other sexual harassment allegations aside, it should be a simple matter to call for the unsealing of the $7.5 million settlement and conduct an on-the-record interview with Wynn to explain it.

After the story broke, Wynn gave up his position as national finance chairman of the Republican Party. Pussycat politicians left his lap long enough to announce they were returning his tainted contributions or giving them to charity.

Wynn has donated $2.4 million to the Republican Party—$5 million less than he gave to a manicurist. He gave plenty to the Democrats as well. But, as a general rule, when your money’s not good enough for politicians to touch, you’re having a bad week.

In another tarring of Wynn’s legacy, officials at the University of Pennsylvania decided to remove the “Wynn Commons” name and rescind his honorary degree for his suspected acts. Penn President Amy Gutmann and Board of Trustees Chair David Cohen wrote that the allegations were “inimical to the core values of our University.”

The university also announced it was stripping reputed serial rapist Bill Cosby’s honorary degree. Suffice to say that if your name’s mentioned in the same story with Cosby, you need some help in the image department. (Wynn’s name was also removed from an honored place at the University of Iowa’s Institute for Vision Research.)

In years past, Wynn might have taken his version of events to a wider audience via a TV interview king Charlie Rose, but his friend has been driven into the shadows by a sexual harassment scandal of his own. This time Wynn has mostly let his denial to the WSJ speak for itself. That includes his conclusion that “the instigation of these accusations is the continued work of my ex-wife Elaine Wynn, with whom I am involved in a terrible and nasty lawsuit in which she is seeking a revised divorce settlement.”

Although she’s locked in a fight over voting control of her 9 percent of the company, Elaine Wynn has denied a role in the story. But even if it were to be proven true, it doesn’t answer the repugnant allegations leveled at Steve Wynn.

Those questions deserve to be answered. Not because they’re shocking and surprising, but because they aren’t new.

I reported similar sexual harassment allegations in my 1995 book, “Running Scared: The Life and Treacherous Times of Las Vegas Casino King Steve Wynn.” It’s a story Wynn tried very hard to stop, then litigated, and then spent years attempting to discredit.

That was more than 22 years ago, and a lot has changed in that time—especially America, which is now focused on issues of sexual harassment. Las Vegas, I’m told, is changing, too.

Where would Las Vegas be without Steve Wynn?

It's hard to imagine, but we may soon find out.

Disclosure: Wynn Resorts has donated to The Nevada Independent. You can see a full list of donors here.

John L. Smith is a longtime Las Vegas journalist and author. Contact him at [email protected]. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith.

 

SHARE

Featured Videos

7455 Arroyo Crossing Pkwy Suite 220 Las Vegas, NV 89113
© 2024 THE NEVADA INDEPENDENT
Privacy PolicyRSSContactNewslettersSupport our Work
The Nevada Independent is a project of: Nevada News Bureau, Inc. | Federal Tax ID 27-3192716