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Steve Wynn has signed a settlement with the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) and will pay a $10m fine that will bring to an end a sexual harassment complaint the control board had filed against him almost four years ago.
The Nevada Gaming Commission still needs to approve settlement at its July 27 meeting.
Under the terms of the seven-page settlement released Wednesday (July 19), Wynn did not admit or deny the allegations set forth in the 23-page compliant issued on October 14, 2019. He also voluntarily waived his right to a public hearing on the charges and allegations in the complaint.
Wynn also agreed to never serve as an “officer, director, committee member, employee or advisor” for any Nevada gaming company, but was not barred from having any “direct or indirect passive ownership” of less than 5 percent of any licensed gaming company.
Wynn will remain entirely removed from any direct or indirect affiliation, financing, consultation, promotional advertising in any form of media or licensing agreement in the Nevada gaming industry.
He also agreed that the commission retains exclusive jurisdiction over this case. Wynn had claimed in 2019 that gaming regulators no longer had any jurisdiction over him because he had already left the company and had no financial interest in it.
Wynn signed the agreement on Monday (July 17). J. Colby Williams, who represented Wynn, did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
The settlement was also signed by chairman Kirk Hendrick and board member George Assad but member Brittnie Watkins recused herself from the matter because a law firm were she worked before joining the control board represented Wynn, the NGCB confirmed Wednesday.
The control board has been involved in a regulatory and legal dispute over seeking to revoke his status as a person suitable to hold a gaming license over allegations of workplace sexual harassment.
Wynn, along with Japanese businessman Kazuo Okada, founded Wynn Resorts in 2002. Currently, the publicly traded gaming company operates Wynn Resorts and Encore in Las Vegas, Encore Boston Harbor, Wynn Macau, and Wynn Palace Cotai.
Wynn resigned as chairman and CEO of the company and renounced his gaming license on February 6, 2018, about a week after the Wall Street Journal published allegations of his misconduct against company employees over decades.
That article claimed the Las Vegas-based casino owner had paid a $7.5m settlement to a manicurist with whom he allegedly had forcible sex in his office in 2005.
He sold all his shares in the company a month later.
Before co-founding Wynn Resorts, he oversaw the construction and operation of the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas, the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City, The Mirage Treasure Island and the Bellagio.
Wynn, 81, lives in Florida and has long denied the allegations. In February 2019, Wynn Resorts agreed to pay a $20m fine, the largest ever in Nevada history, to settle a ten-count complaint.
The complaint detailed more than a decade of failures by company executives to report and investigate allegations of sexual harassment by Wynn.
Before announcing his proposed $20m fine, former NGC chairman Tony Alamo, Jr. said the amount “needs to set a precedent” and make it clear to all Nevada gaming licensees that failure to address issues of sexual harassment is unacceptable.
“The fine needs to move the needle here,” and resonate beyond Nevada, Alamo said.
Wynn Resorts also paid a $35m fine to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in April 2019 over the misconduct claims.
