Update: Today, Wynn got into the act in the ongoing Big Bird charade. As Steve Sebelius points out, it’s meaningless posturing, nothing more.
Life’s been good to Steve Wynn. How good? Well, if you or I talked like a crazy conspiracy theorist broadcasting via ham radio from our Pahrump bomb shelter, people would avoid us in the street. But whenever Wynn throws a temper tantrum, Jon Ralston posts a blog entry about it, or better yet, earmarks an hour of TV time for Wynn’s hyperbolic rhetoric, of which a foretaste follows …
Come off it, Steve! You haven’t created a job in America since 2008, when you opened Encore. (OK, maybe a handful of cabaña boys at your new high-end pool, but 
that’s about it.) Sure, you feinted at Philadelphia and Atlantic City, played footsie with Massachusetts, but always cut and ran when the going got tough. When it comes to stateside investment, you may talk like a street tough but you throw like a girl (and that’s a libel on girls; my apologies, ladies). And if you’re going to resurrect the bedtime story that El-Ad Properties was going to hire you to build an arena and resort, and you didn’t do it because you’re “frightened” of the Evil Black Man in the White House* (a favored Wynn trope, freshly tinted with race-baiting … “anti-colonialist” being the new code for “uppity Negro”) … don’t piss on my head and tell me it’s raining. Although the complete interview isn’t yet available online, we get printed excerpts that also display Wynn’s misogyny in full, putrid flower. (Oh, the stories I could tell on that subject … )
First, whatever it cost to redevelop the New Frontier site would, by Wynn’s own telling, would have been passed on to El-Ad. So that’s not his problem. Second, El-Ad is writing down the acreage, effectively throwing in the towel, so this talking-point-of-last-resort is a pig in a poke. Third, there is no market for a $2 billion resort — a lowball figure, to be sure — now and there hasn’t been for five years. And Wynn knows that. He’s a smart guy, not some Gary Loveman type who can’t read the market.
So in other words: Steve Wynn, you’re full of crap. Besides, to listen to him mew about how the wonderful Communist Chinese (with their iron-fist economic policies and snail-paced bureaucracy) make him able to subsidize Wynncore just makes you want to puke. At times, he sounds more like Reps. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), all but calling for an audit of the Federal Reserve. Like that’s gonna happen under a new president. Dream on, sir.
That “anti-colonial” nonsense is an easy sell to someone predetermined to hate Obama. The fact that it makes no sense whatsoever is not important, apparently. I guess those terrorists who get vaporized by Drone attacks must be “colonial”.
You can criticize Steve Wynn all you want. If the day ever comes that you accomplish 1/2 of what he has – perhaps then you will be correct.
Let’s see if I am correct. Steve Wynn paid off his father’s gambling debts. Took a casino downtown where the roofs didn’t match, had no rooms, with saw-dust on the casino floor and created the Golden Nugget we all waited in line, to eat at the buffet. Then he built the ‘Mirage” after bankers laughed at him and refused to loan him a dime. Then came Treasure Island, Beau Rivage, Bellagio, Wynn, Encore along with Macau. And with his success many other casino’s were built in L.V. And you say he hasn’t created a new job since 2008. Wasn’t that the year the canidate promised to reduce the debt and re-distribute wealth? By the way am I close when I say he created 30,000 full-time jobs. Not counting construction. Or am I conservative? Of course there was also a golf-course. Does he have to create any more? As far as Macau – that is not a democracy. You work by their rules or you don’t work. Need I say more.
Mr. Birnbaum: Wynn has accomplished quite a bit, and at one time he commanded a lot of respect. Over time the man has made it clear that he loathes his workers, and wants to get rid of all unions to benefit himself greatly. Wynn, being the innovator that he is, introduced the policy of management sharing tips with dealers, or in the language we all know is true, stealing them. I tip dealers, but I don’t tip management, that is freaky. When someone like Wynn promotes racist attacks on the POTUS, he is using his media goodwill to further a crankpot fantasy that is highly offensive and above all else laughable. He has flushed his legacy down one of those fancy Wynncore toilets.
Mr. Birnbaum, if I were to apply your logic upon you, I would say that when you have half as many journalism awards as I do, then could you criticize my writing. And only people who’d been elected president could criticize other presidents, etc.
Steve Wynn’s pre-2009 accomplishments are not in dispute. However, if he is truly terrified of capital expenditures, what are we to make of him playing footsie with the New York City, Philadelphia, Boston and Miami markets — all of which have exponentially higher gaming-tax rates, among other levies? Or is it an elaborate series of charades to pump the stock price? Personally, I don’t think Wynn is that cynical.
In a most unusual situation. Your dealers are making more in tips than your pit-bosses are making in salary. The pit bosses come to you and tell you, they might as well go back to being dealers in order to make more money. They threaten to leave you without having pit-bosses. How will you be able to run your business? What do you do? Anything you decide will hurt someone and be “NO GOOD.” How about mentioning the time in Atlantic City when he surprised all in mid-management with a new car. Had to be AMERICAN. So what would you have told your pit bosses? Is it true — his was the first corporation to offer employees ‘pet insurance’?
Well … he could have given the pit bosses new cars.
But seriously, he *could* have raised pit-boss salaries. But that would have meant spending money, so he simply took from minimum-wage employees and gave to salaried ones. ‘Redistribution of wealth,’ you might call it. To their eternal credit, neither Las Vegas Sands nor MGM has gone down that road, even when their stock prices were at their lowest ebb.
TO: David McKee & Lebowsky. Perhaps dealers at L.V. Sands & MGM were not getting the big TIPS Wynn employees were enjoying. Please elaborate on Wynn’s racist attacks on POTUS. I have no idea where that came from. Also what you base your belief on – that he loathes his workers. Is it beyond his sharing of tips. When I was at Kokomo’s in the Mirage recently , the workers there – told me S.W. was the ‘BEST”. And they didn’t know who I was. I could have been an MGM VP.
I guess thats why they have chocolate and vanilla. It never occured to me to even fathom making up a supposed shortfall in management salary from the folks at the bottom. Is this trickle down or trickle up, or does that depend on what day it is? I have never had a pit boss assist me with my craps table bets and make sure I have taken my full odds, all I have seen these people do is make decisions on leaners and supposedly inspect the dice when they hit the floor. I won’t play in any casino that treats minimum wage employees this way.
Dick, you’re obviously not reading very carefully. Nowhere have I asserted that Wynn “loathes” his workers, not once in the 17 years I’ve been following him. As I wrote yesterday, “As you can see for yourself, Wynn likes to think of himself as a benevolent Great Father and no doubt sincerely believes he could take better care of his workforce all by his lonesome.” Also, if you talk to some of the dealers who worked for Wynn at the time of Big Tip Grab, a number of them really DO hate him, although it’s tinged with respect. For Wynn LV’s former president, Andrew Pascal, however, they only had contempt.
Mr. McKee. “LOATHES” his workers was written by LEBOWSKY. Not you. See his 10/12 5:58AM comment. Looks like you are not reading carefully. What dealer would agree with his BIG TIP GRAB. A very difficult decision. Still no answer on POTUS.
QUESTION. When S.W. built MIRAGE, TREASURE ISLAND, etc. How many people did he employ – that he took off the ‘Welfare Rolls’?????????
MR McKee. I LOVE THIS COUNTRY. The “know it all’s” can criticize the ‘accomplishers’. You know what was in S.W.’s mind when he played footsie (said:NO) to, ny, ma, phil and miami. How wonderfull. I’m amazed that you didn’t criticize what he did in order to get the tunnel approved in A.C. Additionally – may I say-Mr. McKee – You are at your best when you reveal the truth about the “Donald'”. As far as LEBOWSKY. I’m sure Wynn properties are in a decline since he refuses to gamble there.
Dick, we seem to be conducting a dialogue of the deaf, but …
Steve Wynn would not have taken people “off the welfare rolls” — at least not directly — when he opened The Mirage, etc.? He had his pick of the best casino employees in town. It’s the break-in joints, the grind houses that hire people who would otherwise be unemployed. Nobody starts at the top in this town. You pay your dues at Mermaid’s, someday somewhere down the road you might have a shot at a Wynncore job.
As for “saying no” to NYC, Philly, Miami, etc. — to coin a phrase, Wynn got in before he got out. And he never uttered one peep of complaint about the gaming-tax rates there; was quite willing to pay them, as far as we know. Then again, he’s far from the only casino CEO (see: Loveman, Gary) who wails about high taxes but is only too eager to 55% in Pennsylvania and 67% in Maryland. It’s a form of double-talk endemic to the industry.
Gee Mr. Birnbaum, you just might have a point there. El Steve can’t possibly LOATHE someone who is giving him a vehicle to rip off both management and the dealers! He DIGS them, not loathes them. Dudes an innovator, dreaming up new scams as we write. And it’s racist to even nod at Dinesh D’Souza’s abusrd and offensive assertation that Obama is “anti-colonial” because of a one time meeting with his real father, a Kenyan man, when he was eight years old. That kind of offensive drivel should be spewed out by charlatans, not CEO’s of public corporations and casino operators. D’Souza himself has admitted he has no evidence other than some “feeling” he has. African Americans will catch on to this, as will folks who don’t carry around hate, it’s a terrible way to run a business. Yup, El Steve is not getting dime one from me, I LOVE MY COUNTRY (and the people inside too!)…
Somebody should remind Steve Wynn that, were it not for “anti-colonialism,” there would be no United States of America. Dangerous people, those Founding Fathers.
TO: David McKee. When I said ‘off the welfare rolls”. I did not say-employ in the casino’s. Please re:read my comment. There are chambermaid’s, kitchen helpers, etc. I will have to go through my old annual reports to try to find the number. And LEBOWSKY. Still waiting for an explanation of: POTUS. Sounds like LEBOWSKY not only loates S.W. but also hides a lot of jealousy.
TO: LEBOWSKY. I forgot to add. In the last election S.W. voted for-OBAMA . Thinking he had the answers this country needed. Today when he BLAST’S OBAMA. Democrat’s say – what do you expect – he’s a REPUBLICAN . So it doesn’t matter – why try- he can never please everyone. Especially the likes of you. I’m reminded of this story – I heard. Years back – when he had ‘BELLAGIO”. He held an ’empolyee’ of the year award/dinner. The winner was a chambermaid. Two weeks first class to Hawaii. Husband & wife. At the dinner the award was handed to her by former President George Bush, SR.. I guess you will find something totally wrong with that. I see it as a tremendous moral picker/uper for all employees. But I guess he could have avoided all of that, and just pocketed the $$$$.
Ahh … “the likes of me” … Complicated issue. A few comments in a blog is but a tiny sliver of light. Jealous? Hardly. The only person allowed to wildly speculate about my feelings is Mrs. Lebowsky. Steve Wynn has jettisoned way too much of his public good will for me to wish I was in his shoes. I would rather be a poor or middle class guy if stealing tips and lying is the road to riches. As far as voting goes, it’s private. I don’t care who El Steve voted for, or who he will vote for. “Years back” maybe he was Mother Teresa, that’s fine. Right now he is a racist and crackpot for suggesting that Obama holds some sort of secret “anti-colonial” agenda, whatever that actually is.
TO: LEBOWSKY. You write & write. And I ask & ask. For the third time. What do you mean by:POTUS??????
My thoughts: Steve Wynn is one of my favorite people regardless of what anyone says about him. I respect him for all that he has accomplished, although I do agree that sharing dealer tips with pit bosses was just wrong. I believe that is not a current practice at Wynn. I disagree that “anti-colonialist” is the new code for “uppity Negro”. Each of those terms simply stand (or fall) on their own. It is true that Obama’s father was an anti-colonialist. Obama has written about his own beliefs in his books, such as “Dreams From My Father”, and his own words stand as they are written. One may infer, but not prove, that Obama’s beliefs are shaped by those in his formative years. One may disagree with Dinesh D’Souza’s inferences about Obama’s beliefs, but not with the many facts he presented. It would be difficult to believe that anyone whose formative years included the kinds of people with whom Obama was nurtured and educated would not be affected in some way by their thinking and beliefs.
Jerry, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but tip-confiscation was codified in the Wynn Resorts/TWU collective-bargaining agreement and will be in place at least through 2020:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/nov/02/wynn-las-vegas-dealers-ok-resorts-first-labor-cont/
Also, prospective dealers at Encore were required to agree to split their tips with management as a condition of hiring. That being said, if you’re dealing at a Caesars-owned property and have a chance to jump ship to Wynn or Las Vegas Sands, you’d be well advised to take it.
Jerry McEwen: I have found Dinesh d’Souza’s assertations about the POTUS being “anti-colonial” to be completely fact free. By all means, if you know something different, I’m all ears. Obama met his father one single time, when he was a small child. I’m no expert on “formative years”, but that sounds so implausible in light of what I have seen and experienced myself. Obama has a strong foreign policy, and regularly vaporizes terrorists all over the world with drones. He has essentially carried on Bush’s foreign policy, without the torture or bluster IMHO. This is simply another attempt by the right wing to “otherize” Obama, to try to make him sound scary or foreign.
When the book is written about those that achieved in Las Vegas, Steve Wynn will undoubtedly be written about in great detail. However one fact may be overlooked. He was able to convince Frank Sinatra to leave Caesars Palace to perform at the Golden Nugget (downtown). At a time when there was no Fremont Experience and nobody stayed or cared about downtown. And of course Caesars Palace was the epitome of where to be performing/staying.
It is my long-held belief that there are only three transformational figures in Las Vegas in the last 25 years: Steve Wynn, Sheldon Adelson and George Maloof. Now, with Maloof reduced to a Palms figurehead, there are but two. Of course, the debt junkies like Gary Loveman, Jim Murren and the Fertittas could be said to have effected a transformation (for the worse, economically) but that is not a pantheon in which one wishes to be included, IMO.
DAVID – I Agree. But you cannot disregard KERKORIAN. Adelson is truly amazing. Coming from nowhere. Incredible forsight. I doubt if any of these achievers ever sleep. Always planning.
I just read that Wynn sent all his employees, over twelve grand, a “voters guide” on this election. Unlike a lot of companies that are sending these out, there were several employees willing to say to reporters that they will now certainly support Obama. You reap what you sow. It’s the height of arrogance to literally steal tips from employees, then expect them to fall in line on your agenda. Not to even mention that this whole new insane wrinkle in our feckless election laws allow such trolling for votes.