LAS VEGAS — Casino mogul Steve Wynn has ended a yearslong legal fight with Nevada gambling regulators that started with claims of workplace sexual misconduct, agreeing to pay a $10 million fine and cut ties to the industry he helped shape in Las Vegas.
The Nevada Gaming Commission accepted a settlement Thursday to end the state’s look at allegations that led to Wynn’s resignation from his corporate empire in February 2018. Wynn admitted no wrongdoing.
Wynn signed a seven-page document with members of the investigatory Nevada Gaming Control Board on July 17 acknowledging that he had been accused of “failure to exercise discretion and sound judgment” to prevent actions that “reflected negatively on the reputation” of Nevada and its gambling industry.
Wynn is now 81 and lives in Florida. He did not attend the hearing held in the state capital, Carson City. His attorney, Colby Williams, called the case the final regulatory matter that Wynn faced stemming from the allegations five years ago.
Wynn “looks forward to moving on to other phases of his life,” Williams said.
Violating the seven-page agreement could lead to a finding of “unsuitability” for association with Nevada casinos and an additional fine.
Wynn is widely credited with starting a boom that grew Las Vegas Strip properties from gambling halls with all-you-can-eat buffets and showrooms into huge destination resorts featuring celebrity-chef restaurants, massive gambling floors, nightclubs and huge stage productions.
Wynn developed luxury properties including the Golden Nugget, Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Wynn and Encore in Las Vegas; Golden Nugget in Atlantic City, New Jersey; Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi; Wynn Macau in the Chinese gambling enclave; and Encore Boston Harbor in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts gambling regulators in 2019 fined Wynn Resorts Ltd. $35 million and then-company chief executive Matthew Maddox $500,000 for failing to disclose while applying for a license for the Boston-area resort that there had been sexual misconduct allegations against Wynn.