Winner Takes All
Page 33
Elaine Wynn, billionaire, company cofounder, and largest shareholder, did not find open arms at Wynn Resorts. She was frequently referred to in the media and by her detractors as the “ex-wife”—as though this was the best qualifier for her interest in the company. The Wynn board dodged and feinted, naming three women to the board as independent directors while rejecting Elaine Wynn’s motions, suggesting that she was motivated by personal animosity. Maddox told the press—in a move that sounded more like a taunt than an offer—that Elaine should give him a call.
One could argue this was the next logical outgrowth of the #TimesUp movement: Elaine Wynn was fighting the misogyny that had long been rampant both in Las Vegas and in corporate America, and she had the tools and the wealth to do battle.
Elaine won the initial battle handily. Hagenbuch, facing a likely failing bid to retain his seat, at the last moment opted not to run for reelection to the board. Shareholders at the annual meeting in May 2018 rejected the board’s compensation plan, which had made Steve Wynn one of the highest paid executives in America. The board, faced with shareholder insurrection, appointed its three independent female directors to the new compensation committee and promised a new era of corporate governance was in the making.
Steve Wynn left town. He moved his belongings—including many great works of art—out of the resort weeks before the June deadline, leaving behind, the company said, just a few random boxes. Marine records and his stepsons’ Instagram accounts show the Aquarius was busy in the months following Wynn’s resignation, sailing from Palm Beach to Nassau in the Bahamas and back again, and making stops in Bimini and Fort Lauderdale. The German shepherds—part guards, part guides, part pets—appeared on the boat’s sleek white deck as blue Caribbean waters glistened in the background. Wynn made a brief appearance while the yacht was moored at Nassau near Paradise Island, on Nick Hissom’s Instagram story. Videoed from behind, Wynn charged through a room that looked a lot like the casino at the Atlantis on Paradise Island, developed by Wynn’s friend Sol Kerzner. He walked like he owned the place.
Wynn was seventy-six—old enough to enjoy his remaining years with the lovely Andrea, who made him feel young again. Did Kirk retire from the action at seventy-six? Kerkorian was eighty-three when he wrested Mirage Resorts from Wynn. In fact, Wynn did pretty much what he’d done that time before, when he kept a low profile and nursed plans for the next stage of his career.
He placed three works of art—including Picasso’s 1943 self-portrait, Le Marin—for auction with Christie’s. A website quietly appeared in March, SierraFineArtLLC.com, with a virtual gallery of pieces from Wynn’s formidable art collection, which was pledged to be for sale online. Wynn, one of his attorneys announced, was going to be an art dealer now. This seems more likely an estate-planning tool than a new vocation, but if it was to be his career, it began inauspiciously. Before the auction, Le Marin was damaged, reportedly when a paint-roller extension fell and pierced the painting, requiring it to be pulled from the sale. The incident was particularly embarrassing because it recalled an earlier time when Wynn had accidentally put his elbow through another Picasso painting.
Is there a future for Wynn in gambling resorts? Jim Murren, who was in Macao when The Wall Street Journal story broke in January 2018, said officials in China at the moment didn’t share Americans’ outrage at reports of Wynn’s alleged sexual misconduct. There was a world out there looking for places to play, as Steve Wynn loved to say. Or maybe he would just play. In late May, the Aquarius set sail for Gibraltar, according to records with MarineTraffic.com. Steve and Andrea were photographed in New York while the yacht made its way across the Atlantic to Europe, where they would likely meet it.
It’s easy to imagine Wynn tanning on the deck of the Aquarius in some sun-blessed paradise, gnarled, fighting age with startling jet-black hair and brilliant teeth, lounging on a crisp white chaise with navy blue piping selected by his longtime designer Roger Thomas, with a phone at his ear and both his younger wife and a watchful dog at his side. Others around him might be quietly playing—he had so many wonderful toys. But Steve Wynn would most certainly be loud and hard at work.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Winner Takes All comes of the eight years I spent covering the business of gambling for The Wall Street Journal, from 1997 until 2005, and the additional two years that I spent researching and writing the book. Unless otherwise stated as taken from newspaper or magazine articles, the conversations quoted in this book took place during my interviews, in my presence, or, if noted as such, were relayed to me by the participants.
In addition to numerous books and newspaper and magazine accounts that I used to acquaint myself with times and places I hadn’t witnessed, my research benefited from many years of knowing and writing about the people who are described in these pages. Although they might not like what I’ve written over all these years—in fact, they often have not liked it at all—they became at the least accustomed to me. In many instances, they offered unusual access to meetings and strategic documents as well as their thoughts. For that, I am grateful.
So many people helped with this book by providing documents, sharing memories, and confirming facts that it is impossible for me to acknowledge them all. They include casino executives, employees, customers, investors, and vendors; gamblers and entertainers; government officials; Wall Street analysts and bankers; print and broadcast media; college faculty, staff, and students; a fair number of old chums, relatives, and neighbors of the people in this book; a couple of dolphin trainers; and at least one taxi driver. I hope these people, whether named in the book or not, will understand that I appreciate their generosity.
© Doug Piburn
Christina Binkley is a writer based in Los Angeles. As a longtime staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, she spent eight years covering Las Vegas and its casino moguls in all their glory, and otherwise.
Praise for
WINNER TAKES ALL
“The author has a novelist’s instinct for character development and taut, suspenseful storytelling, infusing the subject with all of the drama, verve, and what-happens-next imperative of a classic Scorsese epic.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Binkley offers plenty of nuggets mined from her years on the beat, producing a full, flashy tale of powerful men and their pride, vanity, envy, greed—and all the other cardinal no-no’s that earned Vegas the name ‘Sin City.’”
—Publishers Weekly
“Binkley vividly conveys the repulsiveness of the scene, but as with train wrecks, you just can’t stop looking. Or reading.”
—Washington Post Book World
“You won’t want to put down her tale of how Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman, and Steve Wynn got their start and made their fortunes in Sin City.”
—CNNMoney.com
“Winner Takes All is a solid piece of work, enlightening even as it entertains.”
—Rambles.net
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