Some senior people working for Steve Wynn when he ran U.S.-based casino operator Wynn Resorts Ltd spent several years trying to keep secret some employee allegations of sexual misconduct against him.
That is according to a circa 200-page report – not yet made available online – compiled by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, to decide whether the firm is suitable to run a US$2.6-billion casino resort it is building in Boston. Hearings on the report began on Tuesday.
“Their efforts at secrecy made it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for gaming regulators to detect this potentially derogatory information through typical regulatory means,” the report said, according to several media outlets.
Mr Wynn left Wynn Resorts in February last year, and the group subsequently sought to distance itself from his reign, appointing new directors and even changing the name of its Boston project from “Wynn Boston Harbor” to “Encore Boston Harbor” .
This February in Nevada, where Wynn Resorts has its main United States business, the group was deemed – after an investigation into the sex misconduct allegations – suitable to keep its gaming licence, but slapped with a US$20-million fine.
According to media reports about the Massachusetts process, the state Gaming Commission’s report doesn’t make a recommendation about what should happen regarding Wynn Resorts’ gaming rights for Encore Boston Harbor.
But a Tuesday note from John DeCree, an analyst at Union Gaming Securities LLC, said regarding the Massachusetts process: “Based on the information available, we expect Wynn Resorts to maintain its licence but get hit with a substantial fine (greater than the US$20 million levied by the Nevada Gaming Control Board), and be subjected to regulatory probation and additional oversight.”
Wynn Resorts is the parent of Macau casino licensee Wynn Macau Ltd. The Wynn organisation has expressed interest in running a casino in Japan once casino gambling is legalised there.
