What Dreams Are Made Of
With Wynn Las Vegas and its follow-up, Encore, casino king
Steve Wynn has made the ultimate double-down play. Is it his
biggest gamble yet… or is anything “Wynn” a
sure thing? By Rob Wiser
Among the titans of the gaming industry, Steve Wynn remains
in a class of his own. His Midas touch—a combination
of artistry, exquisite taste, a passion for the extravagant
and a flair for good old-fashioned showmanship—has produced
a series of Las Vegas resorts that have reinvented the city
and revolutionized the gaming industry.
His impact on Las Vegas tourism has been so profound that
the city’s history can be divided into two eras: pre-
and post-Wynn. He was the first developer to envision Las
Vegas as a global attraction in which gambling was merely
one component. He saw the potential for Vegas to become an
international attraction for dreamers of all ages, offering
the finest dining, shopping, golfing, spas and theatrical
entertainment. And to achieve all of this, he would spare
no expense. Who else but Steve Wynn would spend hundreds of
millions of dollars to assemble an art collection for Bellagio—more
than the cost of some entire resorts—or, for that matter,
think such masterpieces belonged in a Vegas casino in the
first place?
But Wynn’s overarching mission has always been about
much more than gaming. Beyond their bustling casinos and hushed
high-roller salons, his resorts are designed as things of
beauty to be savored and treasured. Considering that this
is Las Vegas, for many still the land of cheap buffets and
schmaltzy lounge acts, Wynn’s level of opulence may seem
like overkill at times (one gets the sense that many of the
tank top–wearing tourists strolling through Bellagio
wouldn’t know a Caravaggio from a velvet painting of
dogs playing poker), but there is no denying that his first-class
formula works. Whether it’s a whale from Hong Kong who
bets an everyman’s annual salary on a hand of blackjack,
or a family of four who trek to Vegas twice a year in the
minivan, they all want to experience the power of Steve Wynn’s
dreams.
The Ultimate Gamble?
On April 28, the 63-year-old developer unveiled what will
likely be remembered as his ultimate creation: Wynn Las Vegas.
The copper-colored resort contains 2,700 rooms, 18 restaurants,
works of art from the Wynn Collection, multiple wedding chapels
and swimming pools, sprawling high-roller villas, multimillion-dollar
aquatic attractions and much more. There’s even a car
dealership located just steps from the casino floor, in which
rare Ferraris and Maseratis command prices into the millions.
(The cover charge just to view these vehicles is $10, one
of many indicators that Wynn Las Vegas is not designed for
the bargain-hunter crowd.)
The price tag for this exquisite monument? $2.7 billion. Even
in an industry where billion-dollar price tags have become
par for the course, that’s a whopping number. As Vanity
Fair pointed out in its June 2005 story on Wynn Las Vegas,
that figure is roughly $1 billion more than the cost of the
Freedom Tower, the 1,776-foot skyscraper being planned for
the site of the former World Trade Center.
Now that it has several months of operation under its belt—enough
time to work out some of the kinks, and allow the public to
vote with its patronage—has Wynn Las Vegas lived up to
the hype? Will it justify its staggering price tag? And even
if every square inch is downright miraculous, is there room
on the Las Vegas Strip for yet another colossal megaresort
to thrive? Especially a resort that seems priced beyond the
reach of middle-class tourists—the Strip’s bread
and butter?
Serious questions, indeed. The media has called this multibillion-dollar
Goliath Wynn’s “biggest gamble.” But for those
who are familiar with Steve Wynn’s life and times, it’s
clear whom the odds favor.
Rise of a Titan
Wynn was born in 1942 in New Haven, Connecticut, and grew
up in Utica, New York. His father was a bingo-hall operator.
When his father died in 1963, Wynn took control of the family
business and, along with his wife, Elaine, steered it to great
profitability. The couple moved to Las Vegas in 1967, where
Wynn convinced E. Parry Thomas, president of the Bank of Las
Vegas, to lend him $1.1 million to buy a small strip of land
next to Caesars Palace.
There was a slight catch: the land belonged to bizarro billionaire
Howard Hughes, who had refused to sell any of his Las Vegas
property since embarking on his epic buying spree around town.
Hughes, however, thought the land was nothing but a “parking
lot” and agreed to sell it to Wynn—who then sold
the land to Caesars Palace, less than a year later, for $2.25
million.
His next power move was to buy up shares in the Golden Nugget,
a famous but aging hotel-casino in the downtown district.
By the age of 31 he had taken it over.
In 1978 Wynn trained his sights on Atlantic City, which had
just legalized gambling. With the help of junk-bond financier
Michael Milken, he raised enough money to build an Atlantic
City version of the Golden Nugget. In 1987 Wynn sold it for
$440 million, clearing an enormous profit.
Dawn of the Mega Resorts
Now Wynn had the money, and the clout, to make his grandest
visions come true on the Vegas Strip. In 1989 he opened the
Mirage, the blockbuster property that single-handedly revolutionized
the way Las Vegas casinos were designed and viewed by the
world.
As unbelievable as it may sound now, the consensus at the
time was that the Mirage would be a colossal failure. It was
the first hotel-casino in 16 years to be built in Las Vegas
from scratch. At the time, its cost ($700 million) and size
(more than 3,000 hotel rooms) seemed insane; experts predicted
that in order to break even, it would need to generate an
astronomical $1 million a day. On top of that, Vegas was in
a slump. The days of the Rat Pack seemed a million light-years
ago; Sin City had become passÈ, a gaudy relic that
hadn’t been hip since the mob left town. It wasn’t
the only game around anymore, either. East Coast players now
had the casinos of Atlantic City, and in 1988 President Reagan
had signed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which gave Native
American tribes the right to open casinos on reservation lands.
Nearly 150 tribal-owned casinos—exempt from taxation—opened
almost immediately. Their booming profits made state legislators
envious, and soon states were passing their own “limited”
gambling laws so that they, too, could share in the wealth
that gaming generated. More casinos sprouted up in states
including Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi and Missouri.
With casinos becoming commonplace,
the popular wisdom was that Las Vegas’s draw was diminishing.
But Steve Wynn understood Vegas in a way that his doubters
didn’t. He knew the proliferation of legalized casinos
across the country would only increase Las Vegas’s allure
as the mecca of gambling. As the American mainstream was learning
to play the table games and slots, Vegas remained the Main
Attraction—the ultimate jackpot. As for the Mirage’s
vast number of hotel rooms, Wynn pointed to the fact that
his Golden Nugget was turning away hundreds of customers every
night because it didn’t have enough rooms. Wynn knew
the public’s appetite for Vegas was far greater than
anyone realized.
And so Steve Wynn built the Mirage on an unprecedented scale.
He installed Siegfried and Roy in a custom-made showroom.
To make sure passing pedestrians took notice, he erected a
volcano between the hotel entrance and the sidewalk that emitted
fiery eruptions every 15 minutes. One year later, the Mirage,
with its unimaginable number of hotel rooms, had reported
more than $200 million in profits. Wynn was proclaiming it
“the biggest success in the history of the world.”
Thus began the era of the megaresort. Other developers raced
to emulate Wynn’s formula, and the new gaming resorts
grew ever bigger, flashier, and more extravagant. Over the
next decade, a series of immense hotel-casinos—some of
the most expensive and imaginative structures on the planet—multiplied
along the Strip as the city’s number of tourists nearly
doubled. By the early 1990s, Las Vegas had surpassed Walt
Disney World in Orlando as the country’s most popular
tourist destination. It was also America’s fastest-growing
and most prosperous city; it had become a highly desirable
place to live and work.
Wynn followed the Mirage with Treasure Island in 1993. His
genius was to see beyond the gambling and envision his resorts
as attractions, places not unlike Disney theme parks that
could entertain whole families and generate revenue in scores
of different ways. Wynn’s resorts were packed with restaurants,
attractions and entertainment, in addition to the games; there
was virtually no reason to leave the premises until it was
time to check out. In today’s Las Vegas megaresorts,
as a result of Wynn’s influence, less than the half the
revenues come from gambling.
In 1998 Wynn opened Bellagio at the jaw-dropping cost of $1.6
billion. Additionally he spent hundreds of millions of dollars
to amass an art collection for the resort, filled with some
of the world’s most coveted paintings. Inspired by Wynn’s
love of Europe and named after a town in Italy, everything
about Bellagio was immaculate. Its retail stores featured
names such as Gucci, Tiffany & Co. and Prada; the gourmet
restaurants boasted internationally renowned chefs.
While Bellagio pampered high rollers with the most rarefied
luxuries, the tourist hordes with their Bermuda shorts and
camcorders came to ogle the elegance and gamble within a stone’s
throw of the whales huddled in their high-limit salons. All
were welcome. Sure, there might be Picassos on the walls,
but the slots were still a quarter and the buffet had a heck
of a spread.
Today Bellagio remains the most profitable hotel-casino in
the city. Ironically it is now Steve Wynn’s greatest
rival—the one resort that the public, and the industry,
inevitably measure Wynn Las Vegas against.
Devising the Dream
Five years ago, Wynn’s company, Mirage Resorts, was bought
out by financier Kirk Kerkorian for $6.4 billion. (Wynn personally
netted over $500 million in the transaction.) He then spent
$270 million to purchase the historic Desert Inn and proceeded
to level the entire site. Legendary for his perfectionism,
Wynn oversaw every detail.
Wynn Las Vegas opened on April 28 of this year, coinciding
with his wife Elaine’s birthday. In interviews he gave
around the time of the resort’s opening, Wynn described
his creation in wondrous terms—referring to locations
throughout the property as “moments” or “emotional
experiences.” He spoke of the importance of “mystery”
and equated Wynn Las Vegas with the allure of a beautiful
woman; something that mesmerizes and taunts you, inviting
you to explore further.
For Bellagio, Wynn had devised a signature attraction to cause
passersby to stop and gawk: the $40 million man-made Lake
Bellagio, filled with 1,400 computerized water fountains that
dance in breathtaking displays choreographed to music. For
Wynn Las Vegas he created “The Lake of Dreams.”
Spanning three acres, this body of water lies at the foot
of a 140-foot-high mountain that forms a barrier between the
resort and the Strip. Surrounding this mountain is a forest
of soaring pine trees.
The lake shimmers with 4,000 lights that intermittently change
color; throughout the evening, it comes alive to present a
series of “dream sequences,” such as the giant,
holographic head of a woman rising from the deep to sing along
with music. Unlike Lake Bellagio, the mountain and forests
that surround the Lake of Dreams shield it from the Strip
so that it can only be experienced from within.
Across from the casino floor, giant windows look down upon
the lake. While tourists crowd this area in the evenings to
catch a glimpse of the show, diners inside the gourmet restaurants
below have first-row seats to the aquatic spectacles. The
decision to hide it from the public did strike me as curious,
since Lake Bellagio—where the dancing fountains are a
far more beautiful and memorable attraction—has become
Bellagio’s most identifiable element.
Rooms with a View, and Luxurious Links
Guests can choose from a selection of different rooms and
suites. Even standard rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows
and offer one of three possible views, including one of the
water show. They average an impressive 640 square feet and
come with seating areas, dining tables and chairs, and multiple
flat-screen LCD televisions. Superbly equipped for business
travelers, they feature cordless phones, speakerphones, computer
printers/faxes and high-speed Internet access. The bathrooms
are huge, boasting soaking tubs as well as spacious glass-enclosed
showers, private toilets and his-and-her sinks.
On the Sunday night of Memorial Day weekend, I was able to
score a room for a surprisingly reasonable $179. On the 59th
floor (out of a possible 60), it came with the “Panorama”
view overlooking the Strip. Without question, it was the nicest
and most technologically sophisticated standard room I’ve
stayed in in Las Vegas. I also liked the personalized touches;
the LCD displays on your phone and your television welcome
you by name.
A key ingredient of Steve Wynn’s success has always been
the special attention he lavishes upon his high-end gamblers.
When he built the Mirage he spent around $40 million to create
the casino world’s first world-class VIP golf course,
Shadow Creek. It was the ultimate comp, a perk Wynn could
offer his most important guests that no other casino could.
For Wynn Las Vegas, he again turned to renowned golf course
designer Tom Fazio to craft a stunningly original 18-hole
course. Over 800,000 cubic yards of earth were moved to allow
for its elevation changes, and many of its towering trees
(roughly 1,200) were salvaged from the former Desert Inn golf
course to create the feel of a tranquil, private getaway.
Entertainment, Wynn Style
As Steve Wynn intones on the Wynn Las Vegas website (he personally
recorded the narration), the Le Reve theater “represents
the soul of the resort.” The show was created by Franco
Dragone, who was one of the masterminds behind theatrical
juggernaut Cirque du Soleil for more than a decade. Among
his creations were the shows O, MystËre and A New Day
(starring Celine Dion), all of which continue to play to packed
houses at Bellagio, TI and Caesars Palace, respectively. Le
Reve, a surrealist aquatic spectacle described by Steve Wynn
as a “collection of imperfect dreams,” is performed
in a domed theater in the round. Front-row seats are only
four feet from the edge of the pool; the farthest seat is
only 42 feet away; and because of the theater’s circular
design, every seat is essentially “center stage.”
The show has been described as dark in tone and highly avant-garde,
while the production and the theater design are said to be
astonishing.
Labor Day weekend will mark the arrival of a second show,
Avenue Q, a Tony Award–winning musical imported from
Broadway. Though it’s been a major hit with New York
audiences and critics, bringing this show to Las Vegas looks
like a gamble. Although the cast contains puppets, this is
edgy comedy for adults; its musical numbers cleverly satirize
children’s shows like Sesame Street while exploring topics
such as sexuality and racism. Between Le Reve and Avenue Q,
Wynn is delivering something other than the “feel-good
entertainment” you’ll find at other Vegas resorts.
Whether this approach will go over with Las Vegas audiences…
we’ll have to wait and see.
Spas, of course, are another mandatory element of the modern
Strip resort. The facilities of Wynn Las Vegas are extraordinary.
Pony up $25 for a day pass and you can work out in a beautiful
state-of-the-art fitness area (each treadmill has its own
plasma screen, so you can slip on headphones and watch TV
while you exercise). Then head for the separate his-and-her
spa areas and complete the circuit of steam rooms, whirlpools
and for good measure, a fantastically awesome “rain shower,”
where the water stream pours down so hard on your back that
it has the effect of a hard-core massage. Afterward, hang
out in your comfy Japanese-style bathrobe and slippers, sip
some complimentary drinks and watch some sports in the lounge
area.
As crowded and frenetic as the casino was, I found the spa
to be a sanctuary of Zen tranquility. It also contains a hair
salon and 45 treatment rooms for massages, body treatments,
facials and hydrotherapy, with separate facilities for men
and women. While I’m sure it would have been phenomenal,
I had to pass on the deep-tissue massage when I was informed
that it cost $145 (without tip) for approximately 50 minutes.
Clubbing and Shopping
Nowadays, as the demographics that casinos desire are skewing
younger and hipper, every megaresort on the Strip dedicates
serious resources to its nightclubs. Wynn Las Vegas has thrown
its hat into the ring with La BÍte, French for “The
Beast.” This airy, elegantly appointed room overlooks
a waterfall splashing down into a lagoon. In the center of
the lagoon, surrounded by swirls of fog, is a huge statue
of a dragon that changes color. Sipping drinks on the outdoor
patio, with the resort’s forest of trees and giant mountain
looming overhead, it’s easy to forget that you’re
so close to the Vegas Strip. Naturally, the club is outfitted
with plush booths and expensive bottle service for VIPs.
It’s too early to tell how heavily the resort will publicize
La BÍte. It isn’t known whether Wynn intends for
the nightclub to compete seriously with red-hot megaclubs
such as Body English (the Hard Rock), Rain (the Palms) and
Pure (Caesars Palace)—which would require it to start
holding weekly events to draw the young, local crowd—or
whether it will maintain a more private feel, servicing mainly
hotel guests. Currently it’s open Thursday–Saturday
nights from 10 p.m.–4 a.m.
Another option is Lure, an upscale ultralounge decorated with
candles, mirrors and gauzy white fabrics. The rear of the
club features an outdoor patio, fire pit and reserved tables.
Lure is an ideal spot for intimate cocktails and conversation.
The Wynn Esplanade is the resort’s high-end shopping
district, boasting names such as Chanel, Manolo Blahnik, Dior,
Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Gaultier and Oscar de la Renta. If
you’re looking for cheap souvenirs to buy for the folks
back home, look elsewhere; in these stores if you sweat the
price tags, you shouldn’t be shopping there in the first
place.
Your Key to the Casino
While the casino is unquestionably magnificent (and not unlike
Bellagio in its rich textures), the colors and lighting lend
it a subdued, low-key ambience. And the Red Card, which savvy
players will use when they gamble, was one of my favorite
concepts about Wynn Las Vegas. Upon checking into the hotel,
the room key you’re given is a dramatic shade of red
and has your first name and last initial printed on it. This
key doubles as your players club card. You can use it to get
rated when you play table games (including poker) or insert
it into slot machines; it can also be used to reserve golf
course tee times or secure reservations at the resort’s
restaurants and shows. And you don’t have to be a hotel
guest to get one. You can sign up for a card in the casino
at the specially designated Red Card desk, or present your
driver’s license or passport to a dealer and have them
output one for you.
The casino offers the full array of table games. Blackjack
players will find a mix of double-deck and six-deck games
where dealers stand on all 17s, as well as some six-deck shoes
and continual shuffle games where the dealers hit soft 17s.
An attractive and very busy poker room contains 27 tables;
games include hold’em, Omaha, Omaha hi/lo and seven-card
stud hi/lo. Limits generally range from $3/$6 up to $100/$200,
with higher limits often available for bigger players. At
the craps tables, you’ll find 3–5-times odds.
With all of its table games, the casino uses Radio Frequency
Identification chips, the industry state-of-the-art. This
allows the casino to track your action with far greater accuracy
than the traditional “eyeball” method, in which
the floor supervisor rates you according to what he actually
sees you betting. If you tend to vary the size of your bets,
you’ll no longer need to worry about whether the supervisor
is noticing when you bet big. But if you count cards, or try
to sneakily improve your rating by raising your bets when
the supervisor is watching, these high-tech chips won’t
help your cause.
There are over 1,900 slots, with tons of popular reel spinners,
video reel and video poker games in all the denominations
you could want, ranging from pennies all the way up to $5,000.
The slot mix contains a number of entertaining gems, including
a one-of-a-kind Wynn Megabucks penny slot machine that boasts
a top prize of over $10 million. Bonus Bingo, meanwhile, is
a free bingo game offered to anyone who is actively playing
on a machine with his card inserted. At random intervals,
a casino-wide bingo game is launched and one player wins up
to $10,000.
A number of popular slot titles have been rebranded with the
Wynn name. They include a custom-crafted line of Blazing 7s
machines dubbed the Wynn Signature Series, featuring high-hit
frequencies and jackpots up to $1,000. There’s Wynn Cash
for Life, granting its jackpot winners a lifetime’s worth
of payments, and Wynn Monte Carlo, an update on the popular
title.
Gourmet Heaven
In the dining department, Wynn sought to top the assortment
of world-class restaurants he assembled for Bellagio. The
A-list restaurants at Wynn Las Vegas are stellar, but as expected,
very pricey. For delicious Italian fare at midrange prices
(lunch for two will still run you about $70), try Corsa Cucina,
where chef Stephen Kalt’s rustic Mediterranean cooking
includes delicious wood-fired grilled pizzas.
If only the finest will do—and if you’re a guest
at Wynn Las Vegas, your tastes presumably run toward the more
refined—you’re sure to be impressed with Okada,
where the ambience and exotic menu create an authentic Japanese
dining experience. Chef Takashi Yagahashi provides teppanyanki
and robata-style cooking, superb sushi and various signature
delicacies. The restaurant offers indoor and outdoor seating,
where tables are surrounded by lush Japanese gardens and overlook
a pond filled with koi fish.
At Alex, one of the resort’s most highly touted restaurants,
chef Allesandro Stratta brings the experience of dining on
the French Riviera to Las Vegas. At SW Steakhouse, chef Eric
Klein combines the classic American steakhouse concept with
the colorful flavors of Alsace, France. You can dine indoors,
or enjoy outdoor patio dining with a view of the resort’s
cascading waterfall.
Other outstanding options include Bartolotta Ristorante Di
Mare, where chef Paul Bartolotta celebrates Italian cuisine
in a setting that also allows for indoor and outdoor cabana
dining. For more exotic fare try Wing Lei, described as “a
twist on early French-influenced Shanghai.” Here, executive
chef Richard Chen blends Cantonese, Shanghai and Szechwan
flavors.
Wynn’s all-star team of gourmet restaurants also includes
Tableau, where chef Mark LoRusso serves American cuisine for
guests of the Tower Suites, and Daniel Boulud Brassiere, which
has the most dramatic backdrop of them all; the restaurant
boasts front-row seats to the Lake of Dreams, as well as views
of its mountain, forests and waterfall. Its menu of sublime
French fare is brought to life by chef Daniel Boulud and executive
chef Philippe Rispoli.
For a more casual meal, Wynn Las Vegas offers a similarly
long list of options. Among them is a masterfully prepared
buffet, with 17 live-action cooking stations; Zoocrackers,
serving New York–style deli fare; the Southeast Asian
cuisine of Red 8; and the Terrace Pointe CafÈ, with
seating that overlooks the resort’s lushly landscaped
gardens and pools.
The Odds on Wynn
So after the initial surge of excitement and curiosity, will
Wynn Las Vegas be the new gold standard on the Vegas Strip?
The smart money—and that of Wall Street—remains
on its visionary creator. Wall Street valued Wynn Las Vegas
at $7 billion before the casino had even accepted its first
wager.
The resort reported that in its first 34 days of operation
it generated gambling revenue of $64.3 million. This exceeded
the expectations of some analysts. Gross nongambling revenue
during this period was $76.6 million. The average daily room
rate was $308, with occupancy averaging 91 percent.
If you visited the property over Memorial Day weekend as I
did, you’d think it was doing even bigger numbers. During
the day, virtually every restaurant had long lines of people
queued up outside waiting for a seat. In the vast pool area,
which consists of multiple swimming pools surrounded by gardens
and connected by walkways, it took a good half-hour to locate
an open chair. And in the casino, the tables were crowded,
giddy players were lined up at the slots, and high rollers
appeared to be in abundance—tossing around $1,000 chips
as if they were Tic Tacs.
The property is so busy, in fact, that on weekends you may
have difficulty driving in and out of the resort. At the present
time there is no dedicated street leading into the entrance
of Wynn Las Vegas. Over Memorial Day weekend, police officers
had to stand in the middle of the Strip directing traffic
trying to get into the parking garage—but once inside
the garage, there were no spaces to be found.
Already, plans are already underway for massive expansions.
Before Wynn Las Vegas even opened, plans were announced for
Encore, a second, full-scale hotel-casino adjacent to the
new property situated on a remaining plot of former Desert
Inn land. Initial plans called for Encore to cost $900 million
and contain 1,500 rooms. These projections quickly soared
to $1.4 billion and 2,000 suites (each of which will be over
1,000 square feet with 230-square-foot bathrooms). Encore
will also contain a full casino, restaurants, convention and
meeting space, retail shops, a spa-salon and entertainment
facilities. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal,
Wynn said he is designing Encore to be more luxurious than
Bellagio. It’s slated to open during the first half of
2008.
In the meantime, Steve and Elaine Wynn, now married for 44
years, are the closest thing Las Vegas has to royalty. From
rank-and-file casino employees to the city’s social elite,
there is a tremendous sense of gratitude for what the Wynns
have done for the city.
But this third act of his career is not without a tragic twist.
The man often described as his industry’s greatest visionary
is now nearly bereft of his vision. At age 29 Wynn was diagnosed
with an incurable genetic disease, retinitis pigmentosa, which
has gradually robbed him of his sight.
Yet Wynn, and the power of his dreams, remains unstoppable.
Next year he will open a $700 million casino in the Chinese
territory of Macau, which analysts say is the most lucrative
gaming market in the world. While that project is a presumed
slam-dunk, Wynn Las Vegas, judging from the early reactions,
may be the resort that defines the very best of Vegas moving
forward. To find out, you’ll have to experience his dreams
for yourself.
To read Casino Player in its entirety CLICK
HERE to subscribe.
