GGRAsia – Nevada seeks end to S. Wynn gaming permit over sex claims

Nevada seeks end to S. Wynn gaming permit over sex claims

Oct 16, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

The Nevada Gaming Control Board in the United States is seeking to revoke the “suitability” status and gaming licence of former Wynn Resorts Ltd chairman Steve Wynn (pictured in a file photo).

Mr Wynn founded and led the casino business up to the time of his resignation in February 2018. His exit came amid allegations of multiple cases of sexual assault against female staff at the firm. Mr Wynn has denied any wrongdoing. Wynn Resorts is the parent of Macau casino operator Wynn Macau Ltd.

A document carrying Monday’s date and lodged with the website of the Gaming Control Board, said the body was filing a complaint against Mr Wynn to the Nevada Gaming Commission, seeking “disciplinary action” against him.

It alleges five counts of breaches of Gaming Commission regulations and also calls for Mr Wynn to be fined for the claimed breaches.

The document alleged – among other things – that Mr Wynn had failed to appear and testify at the Gaming Control Board’s offices in September last year, preventing it from carrying out its duty to “investigate a matter of this magnitude”.

The Gaming Control Board stated the Commission should “revoke Mr Wynn’s findings of suitability”, the term used in that state to say whether a company or individual is fit to be involved in licensed gaming business.

The Gaming Control Board added he had “repeatedly violated Nevada’s gaming statutes and regulations, bringing discredit” to the state “and its gaming industry”.

“He is unsuitable to be associated with a gaming enterprise or the gaming industry as a whole,” said the complaint.

In February this year the Gaming Commission fined Wynn Resorts US$20 million over the sex misconduct matters and the way they had been handled internally by the company. A supporting report at the time by the Gaming Commission said that Mr Wynn had reached in 2005 a “private, confidential settlement” with a person referred to as “Employee 1”, in which she and her husband were paid US$7.5 million through a separate legal entity funded personally by Mr Wynn.

In late September, Mr Wynn faced a raft of new legal complaints by women claiming they had been harassed or discriminated against in relation to allegations they made that the entrepreneur had either sexually assaulted or harassed them.