TLDR
- Steve Wynn spoke to a sold-out crowd of 600 at the Golden Nugget on Oct. 22 at a Neon Museum event.
- It was his first major Las Vegas speaking event since he left the gaming industry in 2018.
- Wynn said The Mirage, which cost $630 million, was profitable within its first hour after opening in 1989.
- He described how he convinced 91-year-old Grace Hayes to sell the last private home on the Strip.
- Wynn is barred from Nevada’s gaming industry, but his settlement allows public appearances.
Steve Wynn, the former head of Wynn Resorts, returned to a Las Vegas stage on Oct. 22 to talk about building The Mirage. It was his first major speaking event in the city since he left the gaming industry in 2018.
A sold-out crowd of 600 people filled the Golden Nugget showroom for the event. The Neon Museum hosted the talk, called “Reflections of The Mirage: A Conversation with Steve Wynn,” as part of its yearly Duck Duck Shed celebration.
The location had a link to Wynn’s past. He controlled the Golden Nugget from 1973 until 1989 before he turned his focus to the Strip.
Wynn is now 84 and legally blind from an eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa. He spoke for nearly two hours about the resort.
The Mirage cost $630 million to build, a huge sum at the time. Wynn said many casino leaders believed it would fail because of its high daily operating costs.
He recalled a Forbes story about the project that ran under the headline “Snake Eyes for Steve.” Wynn said he had shared his research with the reporter, but the magazine was not convinced.
The Mirage opened on Nov. 22, 1989. Wynn said 50,000 to 60,000 people came on the first day. “The place was profitable in the first 60 minutes it existed,” he told the audience.
Wynn said land values on the Strip roughly doubled within 36 hours of the opening. The 3,044-room resort is widely credited with starting a building boom on the Strip in the 1990s.
How The Mirage Got Its Volcano
Wynn said his biggest obstacle was not money. It was a small house owned by Grace Hayes, a 91-year-old former vaudeville performer and actress.
Hayes had turned down offers from many developers, including Howard Hughes. Her home was the last privately owned house on the Las Vegas Strip.
The resort’s first plan called for a waterfall on that land. Lighting designer David Hersey told Wynn a waterfall could not be lit well, so the idea became a volcano.
Wynn said Hayes agreed to sell after he showed her a scale model of the project. He paid $2 million for the house and the land next to it, and let her live in a suite at the Golden Nugget.
Hayes died in 1989 at age 93, the same year The Mirage opened. Wynn also spoke about signing Siegfried & Roy and building a dolphin habitat at the resort.
Criticism Over Wynn’s Return
Some critics questioned the Neon Museum’s choice to host Wynn. His career ended after a 2018 Wall Street Journal investigation reported sexual misconduct allegations against him.
Wynn resigned as chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts in February 2018. He has denied the allegations and was never criminally charged.
Nevada gaming regulators fined Wynn Resorts $20 million in 2019 over how it handled misconduct complaints. The company later changed its leadership and added women to its board.
Under a settlement with regulators, Wynn is barred from Nevada’s gaming industry. The settlement does not stop him from making public appearances or entering casinos, which allowed the Oct. 22 event to go ahead.
