Steve Wynn — BrandWiki

Steve Wynn

Overview

Steve Wynn

office	Finance Chair of the Republican National Committee
term start	January 30, 2017
term end	January 27, 2018
predecessor	Lew Eisenberg
successor	Todd Ricketts
birth name	Stephen Alan Weinberg
birth date	January 27, 1942
birth place	New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
occupation	Former CEO of Mirage Resorts (1973–2000) Former CEO of Wynn Resorts (2002–2018) Former Republican National Committee finance chairman (2017–2018)

Stephen Alan Wynn ( Weinberg; born January 27, 1942) is an American real estate developer and art collector. He was known for his involvement in the luxury casino and hotel industry, prior to being forced to step down in 2018.[2] Early in his career he oversaw the construction and operation of several Las Vegas and Atlantic City hotels, including the Golden Nugget, the Golden Nugget Atlantic City, The Mirage, Treasure Island, the Bellagio, and Beau Rivage in Mississippi, and he played a pivotal role in the development of the Las Vegas Strip in the 1990s.

In 2000, Wynn sold his company, Mirage Resorts, to MGM Grand Inc., resulting in the formation of MGM Mirage (now MGM Resorts International). Wynn later took his company Wynn Resorts public in an initial public offering and was Wynn Resorts' CEO and Chairman of the Board until February 6, 2018, when he announced his resignation. He is a prominent donor to the Republican Party and was the finance chair of the Republican National Committee from January 2017 to January 2018, when he resigned amid

citizenship	United States‡R1R‡

alma mater	University of Pennsylvania (BA)

spouse	Elaine Wynn (m. 1963-1986) (m. 1991-2010) Andrea Hissom (m. 2011)

children	2

website	steve-wynn.com/

Career

Frontier and the Golden Nugget (1967–1989)

In 1967, Wynn and his family moved to Las Vegas where he purchased a small stake in the Frontier Hotel and Casino. That year he met E. Parry Thomas, the president of the Bank of Las Vegas, which was the only bank at the time willing to extend loans to Las Vegas casinos, and Thomas helped finance several of Wynn's early land deals.

In 1971, Wynn bought a controlling interest in the Golden Nugget Las Vegas, one of the oldest casinos in the city.[8] His company stake increased so that, in 1973, he became the majority shareholder, and the youngest casino owner in Las Vegas.[9] In 1977 he opened the Golden Nugget's first hotel tower, followed by several others. Frank Sinatra was a periodic headliner at the Golden Nugget,[10] and Wynn has since maintained a relationship with the Sinatra family, even naming a restaurant at Encore "Sinatra".[11]

In 1980, Wynn began construction on the Golden Nugget Atlantic City in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was Atlantic City's first and only "locals casino" and the city's sixth casino after the city legalized gambling in 1976.[12] Joel Bergman, who designed Wynn's other resorts, designed the Golden Nugget. Though at its opening it was the second smallest casino in the city, by 1983 it was the city's top earning casino.[13] Wynn sold the Atlantic City Golden Nugget in 1987 for $440 million.

The Mirage and Treasure Island (1989–1997)

Wynn's first major casino on the Las Vegas Strip was The Mirage, which opened on November 22, 1989.[14] It was the first time Wynn was involved with the design and construction of a casino, and he financed the $630 million project largely with high-yield bonds issued by Michael Milken. Its construction is also considered noteworthy in that The Mirage was the first casino to use security cameras full-time on all table games.[15] The hotel became the main venue for the Siegfried & Roy show in 1990, and in 1993 the hotel hosted the Cirque du Soleil show Nouvelle Expérience.[16]

During this period, University of Michigan students Bobby Kotick and Howard Marks sought Wynn's funding for Arktronics, their start-up developing GUI-based integrated software. According to Kotick, he and Marks met Wynn at the Dallas “Cattle Baron’s Ball” in September 1983; Wynn invited them onto his private

Bellagio and Beau Rivage debuts (1998–1999)

On October 15, 1998, Wynn opened the even more opulent Bellagio, a $1.6 billion resort considered among the world's most spectacular hotels.[23] The architect was Jon Jerde of The Jerde Partnerships, and construction was undertaken by Wynn's company Mirage Resorts, Inc. When built, the Bellagio was the most expensive hotel in the world. In front of the hotel are the Fountains of Bellagio—shooting fountains choreographed to music that "dance" on the hotel's 8.5-acre man-made lake—which are now considered Las Vegas landmarks. The Bellagio is credited with starting a new spree of luxurious developments in Las Vegas. Among these developments include The Venetian, Mandalay Bay, and Paris Las Vegas.[24]

Wynn brought Mirage Resorts' style to Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1999, where he oversaw development of the 1,835-room Beau Rivage. Themed to blend Mediterranean beauty with Southern hospitality, the resort was part of a building boom that established Biloxi as a regional tourism center along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Beau Rivage was originally the name Wynn wanted to give the Bellagio, though he had decided on Bellagio after vacationing in the Italian region of the same name.[25]

Wynn Las Vegas and Macau (2000–2007)

Mirage Resorts was sold to MGM Grand Inc. for $6.6 billion ($21 per share) in June 2000 to form MGM Mirage. Five weeks before the deal was closed (April 27, 2000) Wynn purchased the Desert Inn for $270 million. He closed Desert Inn later that year.

Wynn took Wynn Resorts Limited public in 2002. Wynn became a billionaire in 2004, when his net worth doubled to $1.3 billion.[27] On April 28, 2005, he opened his most expensive resort at the time, the Wynn Las Vegas, on the site of the former Desert Inn. Built at a cost of $2.7 billion, it was the largest privately funded construction project in the nation as of 2005.[28]

Wynn successfully bid for one of three gaming concessions opened for tender in Macau.[29] This property, known as Wynn Macau, opened on September 5, 2006.

Encore hotels and other projects (2008–2018)

In the summer of 2008, hiring began for Encore Las Vegas, the newest in Wynn's collection of resorts. The tower of Encore is modeled after the Wynn Las Vegas tower, and they share the same "property" though they are separate hotels. After having started construction in 2006, the overall cost of the project equaled $2.3 billion.[30] Encore opened on December 22, 2008. As of December 31, 2012, Wynn and Encore Las Vegas employed approximately 9,000 full-time employees.[31] Encore at Wynn Macau, an expansion of Wynn Macau similar to the expansion of the Las Vegas property, opened on April 21, 2010.[32]

In 2016, Wynn opened the Wynn Palace in Cotai, Macao, PRC.[33] It was previously approved by the Macau government in 2012.[34]

Art collecting

Wynn is known for amassing a large collection of fine art, often placing the pieces in his various casinos and hotels. In 2004, Wynn purchased Vermeer's A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals at a Sotheby's auction for $30 million. With the purchase, he became the first art collector to purchase a Vermeer painting in over 80 years. Wynn later sold the painting to the Leiden Collection owned by Thomas Kaplan for the same price.[55]

In 2006, Wynn acquired J. M. W. Turner's Giudecca, La Donna Della Salute and San Giorgio for $35.8 million via an anonymous telephone auction. Although Wynn did not officially identify himself as the buyer, his identity was confirmed by two people acquainted with the transaction. Wynn purchased the painting from the St. Francis of Assisi Foundation, a White Plains-based nonprofit organization that supports Capuchin priests on their missionary trips.

Steve Wynn's private art collection with specific commentary about his paintings by Claude Monet are highlighted in the 2008 film Monet's Palate[56] with Meryl Streep and distributed by American Public Television. The collection was on display at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno while the Wynn Las Vegas was being constructed and was installed in the resort shortly before it was opened. The Wynn Las Vegas gallery, which had charged an entrance fee, closed shortly after the start of 2006.[57]

In 2009, he spent $33.2 million on Rembrandt's Man with His Arms Akimbo, the auction record for the artist.[58]

Under the direction of Steve Wynn, Wynn Resorts acquired Jeff Koons's Tulips at auction in November 2012 for approximately $33.6 million.[59] In May 2014, Wynn acquired Popeye, also by Koons, for over $28.165 million.

In February 2020, Wynn bought two Picasso paintings from Donald Marron's collection for $105 million: Woman with Beret and Collar and Jacqueline.[60]

Le Rêve is the Picasso portrait that was the working name of Wynn's resort project. Wynn purchased the painting from an anonymous collector in a private sale in 2001.[61] In 2006, he reportedly planned to sell the work to Steven A. Cohen for $139 million, which would at that time have been the highest price paid for any piece of art. However, Wynn put his elbow through the canvas while showing it to a group of guests.[62] This canceled the sale, and after a $90,000 repair, the painting was estimated to be worth $85 million. Wynn sued his insurance company over the $54 million difference with the virtual selling price. The case was settled out of court in April 2007.[63][64][65][66] In 2013, Wynn sold Le Rêve to Steven A. Cohen for $155 million.[67]

Legal issues

In 1991, Dennis Gomes, president of Wynn's Golden Nugget, left his position to join Donald Trump's Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey, receiving a $1 million bonus in lieu of equity. Wynn filed suit against Trump and Gomes for breach of contract, as Gomes was contracted to work at the Nugget until 1992. Gomes settled in 1994.

In 1997, Wynn sued Barricade Books for defamation over the catalog description of an unauthorized biography Running Scared by John L. Smith. Wynn was initially awarded $3.2 million, resulting in Barricade declaring bankruptcy. In 2001 the ruling was thrown out by the Supreme Court of Nevada. A retrial was scheduled for 2004. The issue was settled between Wynn and New York publisher Lyle Stuart in a confidential agreement, and the case dismissed.

In a legal battle over an attempt by Wynn-controlled Mirage to build a casino in Atlantic City, Donald Trump claimed in a lawsuit that Wynn used a private investigator as a double agent to secretly record conversations with Trump. The investigator, Louis Rodriguez, a former Los Angeles police officer and investigator for the IRS, claimed he had a change of heart because he felt that Trump used his efforts "in an immoral and unethical manner to cause financial harm" to Wynn and Mirage and thus turned "whistleblower." Wynn settled the lawsuit in 2000 and befriended Trump, who attended Wynn's wedding in 2011.

Beginning in 2008, Wynn engaged in a dispute with Girls Gone Wild producer Joe Francis. In 2011, a Nevada district attorney prosecuted Francis for writing a bad check to cover a $2 million gambling debt owed to Wynn, but the judge dismissed the case for falling outside the six-month statute of limitations. Wynn collected the debt in a separate civil case. In response to the collection, Francis alleged that Wynn threatened to kill him, prompting Wynn to file suit for defamation against Francis. In February 2012, Clark County, Nevada, judge Mark Denton ruled that Francis damaged the reputation of Wynn with the false claim and awarded Wynn $7.5 million in damages. In September 2012, after Francis repeated the alleged threat on television, Wynn added a second defamation claim, and a jury awarded Wynn $40 million in compensatory as well as punitive damages.

In January 2012, Wynn's former business partner Kazuo Okada filed suit to gain access to company documents related to Wynn's pledge to donate $135 million to the University of Macau Development Foundation. Wynn later accused Okada's company, Aruze, of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, leading to a Department of Justice probe into Aruze's gifts of hotel rooms and other expenses to Philippine, South Korean, and Japanese gaming officials. In a March 2013 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Wynn noted that while the Okada dispute could cut into Wynn's profits, beyond an "informal" SEC inquiry into the Macau donation, there was no formal investigation underway. In July 2013, the SEC announced that its investigation into the Macau donations was concluded and it would not pursue any enforcement action against Wynn or Wynn Resorts.

In 2014, Wynn sued hedge fund manager James Chanos for slander after Chanos, at a Berkeley event, allegedly said Wynn violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Wynn's lawsuit was dismissed, with U.S. District Judge William Orrick III ruling that Chanos's remark was constitutionally protected speech.[84] Wynn was also ordered to pay Chanos' legal fees.[85] Wynn's subsequent appeal was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.[85]

In March 2024, Wynn filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to overturn New York Times v. Sullivan, which on First Amendment freedom of speech grounds, limits the ability of a public official to sue for defamation.[86]

2018 Wynn Resorts departure

Wynn has dealt with several legal issues related to sexual misconduct allegations that were covered by The Wall Street Journal in 2018.[37][38][35] One accusation came from a manicurist whom Wynn later paid a $7.5 million settlement.[38][35] In February 2018, Nevada regulators fined Wynn's company $20 million for failing to respond to sexual misconduct claims.[87] In April 2019, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission fined Wynn Resorts $35 million due to the gaming authority's findings that former company executives did not disclose sexual misconduct allegations against Steve Wynn.

Steve Wynn

Early life and education

Career

Frontier and the Golden Nugget (1967–1989)

The Mirage and Treasure Island (1989–1997)

Bellagio and Beau Rivage debuts (1998–1999)

Wynn Las Vegas and Macau (2000–2007)

Encore hotels and other projects (2008–2018)

Political activities

Art collecting

Personal life

Honors and recognition

Legal issues

2018 Wynn Resorts departure

External links

References