The allegations go back to the days when Steve Wynn owned the Golden Nugget Las Vegas.
A new accuser has emerged against Steve Wynn, the founder and former CEO of Wynn Resorts — this time alleging he raped her 45 years ago. According to the Associated Press, two anonymous women have come forward with charges from the 1970s, including one woman who alleges the former casino mogul raped her several times in 1973.
The AP obtained police reports filed by two unidentified women involving allegations dating back 40-plus years.
One woman claims that Steve Wynn raped her at least 3 times in her Chicago apartment around 1973 or 1974. The unidentified woman claimed to Las Vegas police that she gave birth to a daughter after those rapes, implying she could prove there was some kind of intercourse.
The second unidentified woman told Las Vegas Police she had a consensual relationship with Wynn back in 1976, when she was a dealer at his Golden Nugget casino in Las Vegas. When she refused to have relations with him in the summer of 1976, she was abruptly fired.
Yahoo Finance Discusses Wynn Name Change
The allegations caused the Yahoo! Finance Midday Movers program to speculate whether Wynn Resorts eventually would need to change the corporate name. Stocks declined when the AP report surfaced.
Myles Udland of Yahoo Finance said, “The question for Wynn Resorts moving forward is ‘How do you distance yourself from someone who IS the company.'”
Since its founding in 2002, Wynn Resorts has been synonymous with the man who ushered in the modern age of casino-resort development in Las Vegas. Unlike the other Big Four casino companies on the Las Vegas Strip, one man’s name adorns all the company’s properties around the globe. An increasing number of gaming media outlets have begun to speculate whether Wynn Resorts can continue to make that so.
Udland Compares Wynn to Weinstein
In describing the dilemma for the Las Vegas casino company, Udland compared Wynn Resorts to the Weinstein Company and Steve Wynn to Harvey Weinstein — which in the current environment is a terrible sign.
Udland described Wynn Resorts as “the leading casino company”, he added, “They do it better than anybody else in terms of their products, their geographic diversity, so there are certainly a lot of questions for Wynn investors.”
Wynn Resorts’ Brand Identity
While Las Vegas Sands (which generates 3x the revenue) might dispute Myles Udland’s characterization of Wynn Resorts as the leading casino company, his point is well-taken. Whether in the United States or Macau, Wynn casinos cater to high-end customers and have cultivated a global reputation for high-dollar, high-value resorts.
Having your brand name tied to a man who — whatever his accomplishments and attention to detail — is now associated with sexual misconduct is troublesome for the company moving forward. Even company apologists who might argue Steve Wynn is being targeted have to face the fact that much of the world believes his accusers, because there are dozens of accusers spread over 5 decades and multiple US states.
Even those who might point to Steve Wynn’s role as the RNC’s Finance Chairman as a reason for political attacks on him have a hard case to make. The publication which first made allegations against Steve Wynn, the Wall Street Journal, is no liberal publication, but a conservative bastion. It is owned by the same casino mogul, Rupert Murdoch, who owns FoxNews, where Steve Wynn had been a commentator for the past few years. The newspaper which published 1998 allegations against him is owned by Sheldon Adelson, the biggest Republic donor of the past two presidential election cycles.
The Wall Street Journal’s headline on the latest scandal is symptomatic of the company’s dilemma. It says, “Crisis of the Week: Harassment Claims Cost Wynn Resorts its Leader”, a sign of the repeated hammer blows to the company’s reputation. Wynn Resorts is resilient, though; bouyed by a bull session on the NYSE, Wynn stock went up and not down on the day’s news.
Wynn Boston Harbor Criticism
Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission has opened an investigation into the $2.4 billion Wynn Boston Harbor’s casino license. Losing a license would be a huge blow to a company that’s invested billions in the project. Even if Wynn Resorts sold the casino to a competitor, it would likely do so at a loss.
Even worse, Boston-area groups have begun to question whether the “Wynn” name should be on the Everett casino at all. Probes in Nevada and Macau are underway, so if calls for Wynn Resorts to change the name of their casinos begin to multiply across the United States and around the globe, the board of directors might decide the company needs to change its name to avoid countless issues with gaming regulators, public groups, and customers.
