Encore Boston Harbor
Members of the state Gaming Commission have turned their attention to deciding whether Wynn Resorts – in light of its “significant” and “repetitive” failures related to sexual misconduct allegations against founder Steve Wynn and the changes it’s made in the year since he left – remains suitable to hold the lone Boston-area resort casino license.
“The commission can make determinations on suitability which include: suitable, not suitable, or suitable with some type of conditions or something like that,” Gaming Commission Executive Director Edward Bedrosian told reporters last week.
“We will take our time in making a decision,” Chairwoman Cathy Judd-Stein said at the conclusion of the commission’s hearing on the Wynn matter Thursday.
The commissioners will weigh the report from its Investigations and Enforcement Bureau, which found that “a limited group of executives and employees in positions of authority at the company, including in the legal divisions, were aware of certain allegations of sexual misconduct against Mr. Wynn involving employees, but they disregarded company policies when it came to handling those allegations.”
Wynn Resorts did not contest the findings of the report.
Commissioners will also consider the hours of testimony from CEO Matt Maddox, members of the company’s “refreshed” board of directors and from company co-founder Elaine Wynn, the ex-wife of Steve Wynn who remains the company’s largest single shareholder. Over the three days of testimony at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Maddox and other Wynn officials detailed the changes at Wynn Resorts in the roughly 14 months since Steve Wynn resigned and sold off his ownership stake. The company laid out the changes in a detailed white paper and on a website unveiled this week to respond to things that arose in the hearing.
“Although there is nothing the company can do to erase the past, there has been a great deal done to change the future,” Nosal said in the company’s closing statement.
Whether the five commissioners think that the steps Wynn Resorts has taken in the last year are sufficient for the company to maintain its suitability is an open question.
As the licensee, Wynn Resorts bears the burden of proof and must show the commission “by clear and convincing evidence both its affirmative qualification for licensure and the absence of any disqualification for licensure,” per state gaming regulations. The commission’s decision is final and Wynn Resorts is not entitled to “any further review from the commission’s determination of suitability” but the decision “may be reviewed by the appropriate court,” the regulations allow.
