Steve Wynn Could Soon Be Banned From Wynn Resorts Casinos, CEO Matt Maddox Found Suitable in Nevada

Posted on: April 11, 2019, 10:09h. 

Last updated on: April 11, 2019, 10:09h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.

Should Steve Wynn try and step foot on a property owned by the casino empire he founded 17 years ago, he might be quickly escorted off the premises by security personnel.

Steve Wynn Resorts Matt Maddox Encore Boston
Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox is ready to ban his former mentor Steve Wynn from the company’s casinos. (Image: Philip Marcelo/AP)

Wynn Resorts tells the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) it’s willing to ban its billionaire founder and former CEO from accessing its properties in Nevada, China’s Macau, and its forthcoming $2.6 billion Encore Boston Harbor integrated casino resort. It’s part of the company’s pitch to try and convince state gaming regulators that it is a new era at Wynn Resorts following the disassociation with its disgraced visionary.

Mr. Wynn founded Wynn Resorts in 2002. The casino empire today has its two flagship properties on the Las Vegas Strip, and two in Macau. The company’s second IR in the world’s richest gambling hub – the $4.2 billion Wynn Palace – opened on the Cotai Strip in 2016.

Wynn Resorts employs more than 25,000 people and reported revenues of $6.72 billion last year. But Mr. Wynn, who resigned from the company in February 2018 and later sold off his entire stake in wake of numerous sexual misconduct allegations made against him, could soon be barred from the properties that bear his name.

Mass Appeal

Wynn Resorts offering to prohibit Mr. Wynn from entering its casinos shows its commitment to separating from the billionaire.

CEO Matt Maddox, a Wynn protégé who has been with the company since its beginning, replaced his longtime boss in February. He told the MGC that last year that “Steve Wynn is not Wynn Resorts. This company is not about a man. It hasn’t been about a man for 18 years.”

During last week’s hearings to discuss the state’s investigative findings into whether Wynn Resorts purposely withheld knowledge of Mr. Wynn’s alleged wrongdoings during its 2013 bidding for the Boston casino license, Maddox said he was left in the dark regarding the sexual harassment and misconduct claims.

The five-member MGC will determine if Wynn Resorts remains suitable to retain ownership of its gaming license. Encore Boston Harbor is scheduled to open June 23.

Maddox Suitable

Two recent op-eds published in The Boston Globe pressure the MGC to demand Maddox be forced out of Wynn Resorts in exchange for the company keeping its license.

The news outlet’s Deputy Managing Editor Larry Edelman said, “If he didn’t know anything, he should have, and his resignation would cement the company’s claim that it has cleaned house.” Maddox was president of Wynn Resorts before becoming its CEO.

In Nevada, however, the state’s Gaming Control Board told the company this week that the 42-year-old has been “found suitable as an officer of Wynn Resorts” and “remains in good standing with the Nevada Gaming Control Board.”

Bloomberg says the CEO received $17.1 million in total compensation during the 2018 fiscal year. Maddox told the MGC that his performance has been “quite strong,” and if the state were to ask character witnesses, they would say “Matt Maddox has been an extraordinary leader.”