Steve Wynn Resigns As CEO Of Resort Empire Amid Sexual Misconduct Scandal

Steve Wynn in September 2014. Image by Getty

By Ari Feldman February 7, 2018

Steve Wynn resigned as CEO of Wynn Resorts, his Las Vegas casino empire, amid multiple newspaper reports that he sexually harassed employees and led a sexually exploitative workplace culture, the New York Times reported.

“In the last couple of weeks, I have found myself the focus of an avalanche of negative publicity,” Wynn said in a statement. He added that the reports had created an environment “in which the rush to judgment takes precedent over everything else, including the facts.”

Reports in the Wall Street Journal detailed how Wynn forced women to massage him naked and masturbate him. At the Mirage, where he was chairman in the 1990s, Wynn forced female waitresses to have sex in exchange for money with the casino’s VIP clientele. The female staff was also expected to ignore groping and other sexual harassment from casino guests.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal recently revealed that the newspaper killed a story nearly twenty years ago about rampant sexual misconduct under Wynn at the Mirage. The report also contained details from a federal lawsuit filed by 11 Mirage employees against the casino charging sexual harassment from Wynn and guests. The Mirage settled the last complaint in 2003.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO