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Wynn graduated from
The Manlius School,
a private boys'
school in upstate
New York, in 1959.
Wynn's father,
Michael Weinberg,
ran a string of
bingo parlors in the
eastern United
States, and died
shortly before Wynn
graduated from the
University of
Pennsylvania in 1963
where he became an
active brother of
the Sigma Alpha Mu
fraternity. Wynn
took over running
the family's bingo
operation in
Maryland. He did
well enough at it to
accumulate the money
to buy a small stake
in the Frontier
Hotel and Casino in
Las Vegas, where he
and his wife,
Elaine, moved in
1967.
Wynn managed to
parlay his profits
from a land deal in
the early 1970s (the
deal involved two
established titans
of the Las Vegas
casino business,
Howard Hughes and
Caesars Palace) into
a controlling
interest in a dusty
downtown casino, the
Golden Nugget Las
Vegas (he also owned
The Golden Nugget in
Atlantic City). Wynn
renovated, revamped
and expanded the
Golden Nugget with
enormous success, in
the process
attracting a new
upscale clientele to
downtown Las Vegas.
Wynn had previously
acquired interests
in various existing
casinos. His first
major Strip casino,
The Mirage, set a
new standard for
size and lavishness,
with construction
costs to match. The
Mirage featured an
indoor forest and an
outdoor "volcano,"
and with
high-quality room
appointments and an
emphasis on service,
the Mirage was
another great
success. The Mirage
was the first
project in which he
was involved in the
design and
construction of a
casino. Financed
largely with junk
bonds issued by
Michael Milken it
was considered a
risky venture by the
standards then
prevailing in Las
Vegas because of its
high cost and
emphasis on luxury.
It proved to be
enormously
successful and made
Wynn a major part of
Las Vegas history.
Wynn expanded
further on his
concept of the
luxury casino in the
later Bellagio
resort, including an
artificial lake,
indoor conservatory,
and an art gallery
in which Wynn
displayed
museum-quality
artworks, and
branches of high-end
boutiques and
restaurants located
in Paris, San
Francisco or New
York. The Bellagio
is credited with
starting a new spree
of luxurious
developments in Las
Vegas. Among these
developments include
The Venetian,
Mandalay Bay, and
Paris Las Vegas.
Mirage
Resorts
was
sold
to
MGM
Grand
Inc.
in
2000,
to
form
MGM
Mirage.
With
the
money
he
made
on
that
deal,
and
with
his
ability
to
secure
ever-greater
financing,
Wynn
built
a
new
resort,
his
most
expensive
yet,
the
Wynn
Las
Vegas,
which
opened
on
the
former
site
of
the
Desert
Inn
on
April
28,
2005.
Wynn
is
building
a
casino
in
Macau,
a
Special
Administrative
Region
(SAR)
of
China.
This
property,
known
as
Wynn
Macau,
is
scheduled
to
open
in
September
2006.
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