Overview

Gender

male

Investor Type

Angel

Investor Stage

Seed

Steve Wynn is an American real estate developer and the founder of Wynn Fine Art. He is best known for having successfully developed the Las Vegas Strip with luxury resorts and casinos, most recently as the Chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts. Wynn resigned from Wynn Resorts in February 2018.

Steve Wynn was born on January 27, 1942. Wynn attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 1963 with a bachelor’s degree in English literature. Before his graduation, Wynn’s father Michael passed away, leaving the family bingo parlor business. Soon after taking over, Wynn expanded the business and made it profitable. He took these profits and moved to Las Vegas in 1967.

Wynn aspired to be a developer. He began his career in Las Vegas at The Frontier, when he purchased a portion of the company with the money made from his father’s bingo parlors. During this time he also dabbled in liquor sales, which earned him industry connections. One of these contacts was Howard Hughes, a famous businessman in the area, who sold Wynn the plot of land on the corner next to Caesars Palace. Hughes’ deal with him caught the attention of Caesars, which bought the land from Wynn for $2.2 million 10 months later. Wynn made a profit of over $600,000 off of the deal.

In 1971, Wynn took this profit and invested in the Golden Nugget to gain a 10% share, making him the majority shareholder. He completely renovated the historic casino and transformed it into a resort hotel. After the success of the Golden Nugget, Wynn broke ground on the Golden Nugget Atlantic City in 1980, a new hotel and casino in Atlantic City, NJ. Wynn sold the Golden Nugget Atlantic City less than a decade later in 1987 for $440 million.

In 1989, Wynn opened his largest development project to date: The Mirage. Opened on November 22, 1989, and cost $630 million to build, this Polynesian themed resort had 3,000 rooms, an artificial volcano, and an impressive lineup of attractions, like the Siegfried & Roy show and the Cirque du Soleil show Nouvelle Expérience. In 1993, Wynn began the construction of Treasure Island, a $450 million pirate-themed resort aimed at families. This resort was built next to The Mirage and housed a pirate ship and man-made lagoon.

In 1998, Wynn built the Bellagio luxury resort, which was the most expensive hotel in the world at the time, costing $1.6 billion. The Bellagio boasted 100,000 square feet of gaming space, a conservatory and botanical gardens, and the renowned Fountains of Bellagio, a water show that took place on the 8-acre lake out front of the resort. The Bellagio also housed the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, where Wynn showcased his personal collection of famous modern and contemporary artists, like Picasso and Renoir.

Wynn’s properties were owned under his company Mirage Resorts, which he sold to MGM Grand for $4.4 billion in 2000. Soon after the sale, Wynn purchased the Desert Inn and founded Wynn Resorts, which he eventually took public. In 2005, he opened the Wynn Las Vegas, which cost $2.7 billion to build. Soon after, Wynn began building the Encore Las Vegas, which opened in 2008 and was attached to the Wynn Las Vegas. The two luxury hotels offered high-class amenities, including a golf course, country club, and theater. Between these two resorts, Wynn also took his hotel development internationally. In 2006, he opened Wynn Macau in China. He would also open the Encore tower at Wynn Macau in 2010. He next developed the Wynn Palace on the Cotai Strip in Macau, which opened in 2016, and Encore Boston Harbor, which opened in 2019.

After a nearly five-decade career transforming Las Vegas into a global destination, Wynn turned his attention to his love of collecting fine art. In 2018, he founded Wynn Fine Art, which features a collection of high-end fine art across galleries in Beverly Hills, California, and Palm Beach, Florida. They showcase famous artists including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Andy Warhol.