The Nevada Gaming Control Board on Monday lodged a complaint with the state Gaming Board, seeking to have businessman Steve Wynn formally declared unfit to hold a gaming license from state regulators.
The complaint was the latest of a series of troubles to be unleashed upon the embattled businessman after last year’s publication of a Wall Street Journal report that detailed a decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Wynn.
The gaming board’s complaint reads that the businessman is “not a person of good character, honesty, and/or integrity” and is “unsuitable to be associated with a gaming enterprise or the gaming industry as a whole.”
Mr. Wynn was among the casino entrepreneurs responsible for shaping modern-day Las Vegas. However, the publication of the WSJ report unlocked one of the biggest #MeToo scandals.
Multiple former and current employees of Wynn Resorts, the casino and hospitality company Mr. Wynn founded in the early 2000s, alleged that the disgraced businessman had for decades subjected them to unwanted sexual advances and had used his power to force them into performing sexual acts on him.
Mr. Wynn has fervently denied those allegations, but stepped down as CEO and Chairman of his company in February 2018 and moved out of his elaborate villa duplex at Wynn Las Vegas that he had occupied for over a decade as Wynn Resorts was looking to cut ties from its founder in the aftermath of the sexual misconduct scandal.
The Gaming Board’s Complaint
In its Monday complaint, the Nevada Gaming Control Board asked the state Gaming Commission to revoke Mr. Wynn’s gaming license and to impose a monetary fine on the business mogul on five different counts of breach of his license and of Nevada gaming regulations.
The complaint reads that “Mr. Wynn has repeatedly violated Nevada’s gaming statutes and regulations” and has brought “discredit upon the state of Nevada and its gaming industry.” The Gaming Control Board’s musings go on that Mr. Wynn’s conduct and the broad media coverage that followed “damaged the public confidence and trust in an industry that is vitally important to the economy of the State of Nevada and the general welfare of its inhabitants.”
Even though Mr. Wynn is no longer involved in Wynn Resorts’ operations, some company employees claim that sexual hostility continues at their workplace. Last month, a massage therapist at Wynn Resorts’ Las Vegas properties filed a class action lawsuit, claiming that Wynn Resorts executives continue to “mentally abuse” her and other female employees and that they appear “to blame victims for the discriminatory environment that permeates workplace atmosphere to this day.”
The massage therapist was allegedly coerced to have sex with Mr. Wynn. When trying to report the businessman’s misconduct, her attempts were met with resistance, according to the recently filed lawsuit.
She also said that Wynn Resorts executives “continued to outwardly support” Mr. Wynn, despite the company’s repeated media claims that it is “deeply committed to a fair, supportive, and open work environment.”
Following the publication of the WSJ report and an investigation by Nevada gambling regulators, Wynn Resorts was slapped with a record $20 million fine for failing to address the sexual misconduct and harassment allegations in due manner. A similar investigation of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, from which Wynn Resorts holds a license to operate the recently launched Encore Boston Harbor casino resort, resulted in a $35 million fine for the casino operator.
Source: Regulators seek to ban Wynn from casino industry over sexual misconduct allegations, say he ‘is not a person of good character’, TheNevadaIndependent.com
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