Born to Wynn

Las Vegas hotel and casino tycoon, Steve Wynn, has earned his reputation as a visionary in the industry

Feb. 20, 2007

By Patrick Crowley
Bodog Nation Contributing Writer

Even, or maybe especially, in Las Vegas there is no such thing as a sure thing - with the exception of Steve Wynn.

Wynn, the 65-year-old son of a back east bingo parlor operator who came to Vegas 40 years ago as a slot and keno manager, has left an indelible imprint on a city and industry where making a splash can be as hard as making a score. And he's not done yet.

Wynn does casinos and hotels like they were meant to be done in Las Vegas - big, glamorous, expensive, exploding, luxurious, colorful, expensive and unforgettable, from the pirate ship fights at Treasure Island to the Mirage's exploding volcano to the cascading water dance at the Bellagio's spectacular fountains.

"He has so much foresight," said Bill Yung, whose Kentucky-based and family-held Columbia Sussex Corp. is giving the Tropicana a $2 billion facelift. "He developed Las Vegas into what it is. Everything he has done is very fancy. He always tended to go after the high roller in everything he built, and everything is better than what he built before.

"I'm an operator," said Yung, who describes himself as an "admirer" of Wynn. "He's a visionary."

As a landmark developer and operator Wynn is already synonymous with the names of people who built Las Vegas into an international gaming, entertainment and resort mecca - Bugsy Siegel, Frank Sinatra, Howard Hughes, Elvis and Wayne Newton, men who with muscle, music, money, glamour and shtick laid the foundation for what Vegas has become.

"There are a lot of visionaries in the gaming industry," said Matthew Jacobs, an equity analyst with Majestic Research. "But [Wynn's] developments really forced a lot of the evolution of Vegas into what we have today."

Wynn's latest ventures are, true to character, his grandest yet.

Wynn Las Vegas opened in April of 2005 on the site of the old Desert Inn, one of the grand dames of Vegas gaming. Built for a stunning $2.7 billion, the luxury hotel and casino features more than 2,700 rooms, 111,000-square-foot casino, 223,000-square-feet of meeting space and 76,000-square-feet of retail space.

Visitors can play 18 holes of golf; shop at upscale stores featuring the finest names in retail, including: Dior, Cartier, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Oscar de la Renta, San Giorgio. They can dine on Italian, French, Japanese, Southeast Asian and classic American cuisine in one of the 22 restaurants, cafes and lounges. Or, if they choose, relax and unwind in spas and fitness centers. And if the gambling gods are smiling, pick up a Ferrari or Maserati at the onsite Wynn/Penske luxury auto dealership.

There is also top entertainment and over the top special effects at Wynn Las Vegas. The Lake of Dreams cops the similar Wynn motif of "oh shit" attractions - as in, "oh shit, did you see that!" - with a multi-media laser and light show set against a wall of water rising out of a man-made lake. And for entertainment Wynn is bringing Spamalot from Broadway to Vegas. The King Arthur spoof made famous by Monty Python, the English comedy troupe, opens in March.

Gaming analyst Bill Lerner says Wynn - his company Wynn Resorts Limited is publicly traded - simply gets it when it comes to making money on more than just casinos in Las Vegas.

"He's really fostered this notion of non-gaming growth, which now exceeds gaming revenue in the market," said Lerner, a managing director with Deutsche Bank Securities. "To some degree, he's accelerated that. Take a look at the resorts he's built - the Mirage and Treasure Island and ultimately the Bellagio and Wynn Las Vegas. Those are evidence of a new way of thinking about dining and amenities in this town."

Lerner said above all Wynn is a shrewd business man who knows how to make a buck. The amount of money he makes on gaming, hotel rooms and restaurant tabs - that is, the pure profit he is generating with every transaction - are tops on the industry.

"That's just indicative of how he operates properties," Lerner said. "He gets people to pay attention to the non-gaming side of the business because he knows he can make money doing it."

Time magazine called Wynn, who became a billionaire in 2004, "not only a great salesman of insane ideas and a clever real estate player but also the gaming industry's most brilliant designer."

About Steve Wynn

Wynn's life story sounds like an ad from the Vegas convention and visitors bureau - come out here and get rich, which is basically what Wynn did. Wynn was born Stephen Weinberg in 1942 and was raised in Utica, N.Y. His dad ran bingo parlors across the northeast. He graduated from a private high school in 1959 and then studied English literature at The University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1963.

After his father died the year he graduated from college Wynn took over the bingo operation and eventually invested in the Frontier Hotel and Casino. In 1967 he and his wife, Elaine, moved to Las Vegas and Wynn managed the casino's keno and slots operations. In 1971 Wynn got to do a deal with one of the men he would one day be compared to, the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes. Wynn worked a deal with Hughes and Caesar's Palace to buy a controlling interest in the Golden Nugget.

In what would be a pattern throughout his career Wynn invested heavily in renovating the Golden Nugget, increasing its foot traffic and profits and attracting a more upscale clientele. By 1980 he opened a second Golden Nugget in Atlantic City, only to sell it six years later and use the money to build the Mirage across from the Desert Inn. It opened in 1989 and one its major entertainment acts was Siegfried and Roy.

At 3,000 rooms and dripping with luxury and glitz, the Mirage was not only Wynn's first major casino development in Las Vegas; it was the first major property to be built on the strip in years.

Working with financer Michael Milken, the Mirage was financed with junk bonds. Though some speculated Wynn was taking too much of a risk for not only building the project but in the way he was paying for it, the Mirage became a fast hit, its outdoor volcano and indoor forest bringing lots of gawkers and plenty of bodies to fill hotel rooms, restaurants and the casino. The project also touched off a bit of a renaissance on the Strip as other players followed Wynn's lead and went upscale.

"The building of the Mirage ... stirred many others to build and renovate on the Strip," according to About.com. "The new MGM, the Excalibur, Mandalay Bay all went up. The Strip went through a major change in the 90s. Steve Wynn may have well been the major player in that change."

Revolutionizing Sin City

During the 1990s Wynn built two more lavish projects, Treasure Island and Bellagio.

Treasure Island was a heavily-themed casino that for a time helped make Vegas a family-friendly destination with its pirate ship fight staged right on the Strip in Buccaneer Bay, a man-made Caribbean lagoon.

Bellagio was more classic Wynn. Its artificial lake and stunning "dancing fountains" water show became a "must see" Vegas attraction while high rollers gravitated to the upscale restaurants and shops that Wynn brought in from around the world. He also began to display some of his personal art collection that features works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Andy Warhol and others. (Wynn is actually in talks now with insurer Lloyd's of London over a $54 million claim he filed after accidentally poking a hole in a Picasso painting.)

The consummate deal maker, Wynn sold his Mirage Resorts company to MGM Grand in 2000. He then began laying the ground work for Wynn Las Vegas, as well as his next and possibly most ambitious endeavor - Wynn Macau.

Wynn opened a $1.2 billion casino in China in September. According to a statement from Wynn Resorts Limited he is already considering an expansion that will add a hotel and second casino to Wynn Macau.

"He's always raising the bar," said equity analyst Jacobs. "He has shown that even if you build the most expensive property out there, if you do it right you can make a nice return for your investors. People haven't done very well betting against Steve Wynn."

PHOTO: Steve Wynn at the opening ceremony of his new hotel Wynn Macau. (AP Photo)

Patrick Crowley is a journalist who covers Kentucky politics for the Cincinnati Enquirer.