Steve Wynn
Stephen Alan Wynn 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. 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. 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 sexual misconduct allegations, which Wynn has denied. On February 6, 2018, Wynn stepped down as CEO of Wynn Resorts.
Through Wynn Resorts, he has overseen the construction and development of several luxury resorts, opening Wynn Las Vegas in 2005, Wynn Macau in 2006, Encore Las Vegas in 2008, Encore at Wynn Macau in 2010 and Wynn Palace in Macau in 2016, and Wynn Everett near Boston which opened in June 2019 under the name Encore Boston Harbor. In 2006, Wynn was inducted into the American Gaming Association Hall of Fame. As of April 2025, Wynn's net worth was estimated by Forbes at $3.7 billion. Steve Wynn collects fine art, including pieces by artists such as Picasso and Claude Monet.
Early life and education
Steve Wynn was born Stephen Alan Weinberg on January 27, 1942, in New Haven, Connecticut, to a Jewish family. His father, Michael, owned a chain of bingo parlors in the eastern United States. His mother Zelma, was from Maine. Wynn’s father changed the family's last name in 1946 from "Weinberg" to "Wynn" when Steve was 4 years old "to avoid anti-Jewish discrimination". Wynn was raised in Utica, New York, and graduated from The Manlius School, a private boys' school east of Syracuse, New York, in 1959.After high school, Wynn studied English literature at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. Wynn graduated in 1963 with a Bachelor of Arts. Shortly before graduation, his father died during heart surgery, leaving $350,000 in gambling debts. Wynn, who had been accepted into Yale Law School, relinquished his admission and instead took over his family's bingo parlor in Waysons Corner, Maryland.
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. His company stake increased so that, in 1973, he became the majority shareholder, and the youngest casino owner in Las Vegas. 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, and Wynn has since maintained a relationship with the Sinatra family, even naming a restaurant at Encore "Sinatra".
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. 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. 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. 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. 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.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 McDonnell Douglas DC-9 for the flight to Atlantic City and, upon their arrival, wrote a US $300 000 check in the Golden Nugget’s basement office to capitalise their start‑up.
Kotick added that Wynn initially took a “one‑third, one‑third, one‑third” equity split with the two students and told them “contracts schmantracts—you’re family now,” but he declined to invest further after their software venture stalled.
Wynn accepted their request, claiming that Thomas had financed his early land deals on the condition that Wynn someday mentor another entrepreneur. Aside from Wynn's $300,000 investment in Arktronics to fund the development of Jane, he later provided funding for a hostile takeover of Activision that ultimately allowed Kotick to become its CEO until Microsoft's 2023 acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.
Wynn's next project, Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, opened in the Mirage's old parking lot on October 27, 1993, at an overall cost of $450 million. The establishment was the home of the first permanent Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas.
In 1995, Wynn's company proposed to build the Le Jardin hotel-casino in the marina area if the state of New Jersey built a road that connected to the hotel-casino. The company had also agreed to allow Circus Circus Enterprises and Boyd Gaming to build casinos on the site but later reneged on the agreement. While the road, called the Atlantic City-Brigantine Connector, was eventually built, Le Jardin was cancelled after the company was acquired in 2000 by MGM Grand Inc., which later built the Borgata, in a joint venture with Boyd Gaming, on the site.
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. 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.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. Beau Rivage opened as the largest hotel-casino to be built outside Nevada. The casino was initially located on a series of floating barges, as local law confined all casinos to mobile marine vessels at the time. The hotel, restaurants, and associated facilities were constructed on land.
Wynn Las Vegas and Macau (2000–2007)
Mirage Resorts was sold to MGM Grand Inc. for $6.6 billion in June 2000 to form MGM Mirage. Five weeks before the deal was closed 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. 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.
Wynn successfully bid for one of three gaming concessions opened for tender in Macau. 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. Encore opened on December 22, 2008. As of December 31, 2012, Wynn and Encore Las Vegas employed approximately 9,000 full-time employees. Encore at Wynn Macau, an expansion of Wynn Macau similar to the expansion of the Las Vegas property, opened on April 21, 2010.In 2016, Wynn opened the Wynn Palace in Cotai, Macao, PRC. It was previously approved by the Macau government in 2012.
In September 2014, Wynn was awarded the license to build the Encore Boston Harbor casino in the eastern Massachusetts city of Everett, near downtown Boston.
In 2018, The ''Wall Street Journal'' reported that some people recounted a pattern of sexual misconduct by Wynn, including several former employees. On February 6, 2018, Wynn stepped down as CEO of Wynn Resorts, though he denied all allegations.