I don’t think Steve Wynn (amazing Wikipedia bio) cares that much about the web other than ways to book rooms at his hotel and tickets for his shows. The web will never do his products justice.
After this weekend, my kids seem to be more impressed with Steve Wynn than Steve Jobs.
When I was in college he built The Mirage. Everyone stayed there, even white tigers. I loved being able to shoot ‘dice’ with Dennis Rodman on any given day. He was more dangerous than the tigers (for a while).
Steve one upped himself with The Bellagio. I still think this is his best work.
Steve sold The Bellagio to MGM and built ‘The Wynn’ and ‘Encore’ hotels. They are magnificent hotels/experiences.
He believed in China and went after Macau.
Steve does not just build great products, he creates shareholder value. The year 2008 was a nightmare for everyone, but if you bet on Steve Wynn you won and won big.
He is an under appreciated visionary and you have to own him on weakness. I am not a Vegas or gambling fan, but my kids had more fun in Vegas than Disneyland and never placed a bet. I did too (even though I placed some bets and lost).
Update – I don’t have the urge to own this unless there is extreme weakness because they don’t seem to have any pricing power in this market full of supply. We paid $150 night and had $100 in free food as well. The restaurants are ridiculously overpriced and too much competition for even their best food.
Disclosure – No Position.
Great points, though I’ll take the Wynn over the Bellagio any day… The only strip hotel with a golf course!
He was willing to give up that incredibly valuable real-estate to improve the experience and separate itself from every other Vegas hotel… With his golf course, like Jobs, attention to detail is amazing — for example, only a few holes will put the sun in the golfer’s eye.
Unfortunately, I’ve never quite got the hang of what drives these stocks, but betting on this jockey would have paid nicely!
i learned a lot by just reading his wikipeddia page….I have avoided investing in vegas but its a cyclical play and he is the industry visionary so you follow his lead
Howard, Wynn may be more interested in online gaming than we think. Some of these Casino billionaires are forming partnerships with online sites such as PokerStars and 888 Holdings, betting that poker, at least, may be legalized in the future. We’ll see. Great quote from the movie Casino: “The town will never be the same. After the Tangiers, the big corporations took it all over. Today it looks like Disneyland. And while the kids play cardboard pirates, Mommy and Daddy drop the house payments and Junior’s college money on the poker slots.”
no doubt he has to make that investment but to me his product stands out always and if not for him Vegas would truly be f&*^*ked
at 2007 high @ 150 a share Steve Wynn did a huge secondary, on the call idiot analysts were grilling him why he needed to raise so much cash, he kept saying because our stock is too expensive now,,, at 150, no one took him seriously,,,, moron anal-lysts the company then bought these shares back 2009 more than 50 percent lower…