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Steve Wynn

Steve Wynn helped change Las Vegas from a city of gambling hotels into a destination built around elaborate resorts. His career links the Golden Nugget downtown with the Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio and Wynn Las Vegas, a sequence of projects that repeatedly changed the scale and appearance of the Strip.

Wynn came to Las Vegas in 1967 as an investor and executive at the Frontier. His earlier experience included his family's bingo business in Maryland and, later, a wine and liquor importing company. A profitable land transaction helped him acquire shares in the Golden Nugget. He took control of the company in 1973 and expanded a casino that had no hotel rooms into a resort aimed at a more affluent clientele. Its first hotel tower opened in 1977. Frank Sinatra subsequently performed there and appeared with Wynn in television advertisements, giving a downtown casino an unusually prominent national identity.

The Mirage carried that ambition onto the Strip in 1989. Financed in part through bonds arranged by Michael Milken's firm, it combined thousands of hotel rooms with a tropical setting, a volcano and entertainment that was itself a major reason to visit. The project helped establish a business model in which restaurants, accommodation and attractions could make substantial contributions alongside gambling. Treasure Island followed in 1993, while Bellagio opened in 1998 with a lake, conservatory, art gallery and expensive shops and restaurants. Each offered a distinct setting, but all treated the resort as a complete environment. The pedestrian outside the entrance was also an audience for the property.

MGM acquired Mirage Resorts in 2000, ending Wynn's leadership of that company. He then developed Wynn Las Vegas on the former Desert Inn site; it opened in 2005. These changes also explain why a property bearing his influence may have passed through several subsequent owners. Wynn resigned as chairman and chief executive of Wynn Resorts in February 2018. His historical importance lies in the sequence of resorts he developed and the commercial expectations they created: a Las Vegas hotel could compete through design, dining, spectacle and luxury as well as its casino. Following those properties through the city reveals several different phases of that transformation.

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