Is The Steve Wynn Sex Scandal Just Another Chapter?

The current Steve Wynn sex scandal (there have been several) may have cost him his position as Finance Chair for the GOP, and might just require them to give back his donations (as they called upon Democrats to do after the Weinstein sex scandal) but with an amassed fortune of some $3.5 billion and an expansionist business plan is this the end for the boy from New Haven Connecticut or will this become just another chapter in the chequered Wynn history? We take a look.

It is easy to see where Steve Wynn got the reputation for success, he moved to Las Vegas in 1967 enjoying relatively minor success with his father’s business (bingo parlours) and over the next five decades rose to be one of the most influential men in the gaming industry with a vast personal fortune. His buying a small stake in the Frontier Hotel & Casino probably didn’t make any US gambling news headlines back in the sixties, unlike the Steve Wynn sex scandal plastered all over them these days.

He then acquired a controlling interest in The Golden Nugget with a rather convoluted land deal involving the infamous Howard Hughes and the already world famous Caesars Palace and it is unarguable that his renovation, and upgrading, of the property was hugely successful and by 1973 he was the youngest casino owner in Vegas with Frank Sinatra a regular headliner, but he was far from finished, and it’s perhaps that might just see this Steve Wynn sex scandal lamentably fall by the wayside.

Can The Chinese Ignore The Steve Wynn Sex Scandal?

If the Steve Wynn sex scandal points to some dissatisfaction with his life it may be entirely in keeping with the man who opened the first hotel tower at the Golden Nugget after four years and then constructed the Golden Nugget Atlantic City (which he sold after just 7 years for $440 million) and acquired – and then rebranded – the Laughlin, Nevada. By the end of the 1980s you could bet on sports in the US at his first casino on the Las Vegas Strip, The Mirage, which cost him a cool $630 million.

Wynn Macau

The Mirage was a luxury focused resort that at the time was seen by many as high risk, the fact it went on to be one of his most lucrative properties the sign perhaps that as a gambler himself he doesn’t fare too badly, and indeed the family friendly Treasure Island Hotel & Casino he built in the Mirage’s parking lot was another surprisingly rewarding investment. Boasting big name stage shows like Siegfried & Roy and Cirque du Soleil throughout the nineties they were the jewels in the Vegas crown.

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The opening of the Bellagio (a resort costing some $1.6 billion) however is credited with triggering his rapid expansion in the late nineties. The Venetian, Mandalay Bay, and Paris Las Vegas to name but a few, and by 2004 his personal wealth had doubled and he’d become a billionaire, mostly as a result of selling Mirage Resorts to MGM Grand Inc, and opened Wynn Las Vegas. This astonishing resort impressed everyone, including the Chinese, who are probably less impressed with the Steve Wynn sex scandal.

Opening the Wynn Macau probably seemed a no brainer at the time, Macau was hugely profitable and not subject to US gambling laws, but whilst the Steve Wynn sex scandal might vanish from the media’s fickle headlines when Donald Trump next tweets something ridiculous, the Chinese have far longer memories and will not like the embarrassment, and who knows what leverage they believe they have on the capitalist billionaire from Las Vegas who even now still expands his empire with Encore Las Vegas, the Wynn Palace and Wynn Boston Harbor projects.

Read more about Steve Wynn here