Word: wynn
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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What Las Vegas has instead is Steve Wynn, a casino king who is the son of a compulsive gambler and has an eye disease that could make him blind; who in his late 30s took up steer roping, wind surfing, rock climbing, motocrossing, jet skiing and body building; who once called Donald Trump "twinkle toes"; who let Frank Sinatra pinch his cheek in a commercial for his casinos; who divorced his wife, never moved out and remarried her five years later; and who shot off his index finger two years ago while handling a pistol in his office...
...that is not what makes Wynn interesting. He is on a mission to gentrify gambling in America, cleansing it of its associations with high life and low life while delivering it to a suburb near yours as the innocuous extension of the middle-class weekend outing. Wynn's gambling has neither neon, push-up bras nor black-tie croupiers from the French Riviera. In fact it is not even called gambling. "I'm in the recreation business," he insists...
...many ways, Wynn represents the new face of gambling in America, ingratiating and scrubbed, ready to join with Reagan's "Morning in America" adman to soften resistance to what once was considered a slightly sinful indulgence. Partly because of salesmen like him, gambling is spreading so quickly and quietly across the country these days, says David Johnston, the author of Temples of Chance, that "few people realize Minnesota has more casinos than Atlantic City." The business has exploded in just over a decade, with casino revenues going from $2 billion a year in 1978 to nearly $10 billion today...
...eight years after opening on Las Vegas' neon-lit Strip, the famed Dunes Hotel has closed for good. The Dunes casino helped nurture Las Vegas' popularity -- and notoriety as a magnet for sharp-dressed mobsters. Its arching marquee became a relic in an age of larger resorts. Owner Steven Wynn plans to raze it and erect a new $400 million casino and family park...
...issues today are really more class issues,and they are harder for people to get hold of,"says Patricia A. Wynn '67, an associate judge withthe Superior Court of the District of Columbia...