Two Major Players Emerging to Buy It
By Josh Resnek
Defrocked casino magnate Steve Wynn is apparently in negotiations with two major casino owners to sell the company he founded and brought to prominence in the past two decades.
Wynn’s alleged effort to sell his company comes as a result of his impending unsuitability to own a casino license in Massachusetts, a result of dozens of allegations of sexual misconduct and rape made against him by more than two-dozen women.
Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, the sixth richest man in the world with a personal fortune estimated at almost $40 billion, is said to be one of the principals wishing to purchase Wynn Resorts, according to a local source, himself a billionaire, with strong ties to the casino gambling and hotel industry.
Genting Group, a Malaysian conglomerate headquartered in Kuala Lampur, with huge holdings in the international casino industry is also negotiating quietly with Wynn to purchase his company – or at least all of the stock except for a 5% share he would be allowed to own despite his unsuitability to be an owner-operator in Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has not yet released the findings of its investigation into Wynn Resorts and allegations that Steve Wynn, and the new president of the company, Matthew Maddox, among others inside the leadership group for the company, were aware of the $7.5 million payout made to a woman to hide a paternity suit against Wynn among other omissions of fact and truth.
Sources told the Leader Herald last week that the Gaming Commission will find Wynn Resorts unsuitable to own the casino license when it makes it findings public.
This will set off a race to buy the company from Wynn, and most likely, to buy it at a sharply reduced price.
Adelson grew-up in Dorchester.
He is the founder and chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Company which owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and is the parent company of The Venetian Macao Limited which owns the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center.
Genting Group was founded in 1965. It employs almost 60,000 people worldwide.
Genting Group owns 47 casinos in Great Britain alone.