AG: Lose the ‘Wynn’
Healey says toxic mogul’s name must go, questions company keeping state license
Attorney General Maura Healey is questioning whether Wynn Resorts should be allowed to keep its Boston-area casino license in the wake of new rape and sexual harassment allegations against gaming mogul Steve Wynn.
At a minimum, Healey and Gov. Charlie Baker said yesterday, state gaming officials should demand the $2.4 billion casino now under construction in Everett not use the Wynn name. The gambling palace — set to open its doors in June 2019 — is called Wynn Boston Harbor.
“It’s clear to me, if what’s being alleged is true, that the casino cannot bear Wynn’s name,” Healey said in a statement. “I’m not convinced the company should have a license at all.”
Baker said of a name change, “I certainly think that’s one of the things that should be on the table. Obviously, the allegations from the beginning, all of them, have been horrifying and incredibly disturbing.”
Earlier this week, The Associated Press reported two women have spoken to police about incidents in the 1970s.
One woman said Wynn raped her at least three separate times in her Chicago apartment. Another woman said she was forced to resign from her job as a card dealer in one of Wynn’s casinos after refusing to have sex with him. Wynn stepped down as CEO of the gaming empire he founded last month following numerous allegations of sexual harassment and a $7.5 million settlement in one case.
The state Gaming Commission is investigating how the pre-licensing scrub of Wynn’s background and character came back clean, and whether the company was aware of the accusations. The commission has been flooded with dozens of unsolicited calls for the Wynn name to be dropped from the Everett casino, and a women’s sexual violence survivors group has said the name must change.
In a statement, commission spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said the panel is noting the demands.
“Currently all options are on the table,” Drsicoll said. “We must first complete our investigation and have a full accounting of the facts before we pre-determine outcomes or speculate about next steps.”
Wynn Resorts has said it has no plans to change the casino’s or company’s name, saying the decision would have global brand implications.
Also yesterday, Wynn firmly denied the new allegations.
“It’s revolting that the media repeated such inflammatory claims from events that supposedly occurred four decades ago without the slightest bit of fact-checking or skepticism,” a spokesman for Wynn said in a statement. “This is not journalism, it is the peddling of smut and it is atrociously unfair to Mr. Wynn, his family and friends. Mr. Wynn is left to ask this simple question: when did we abandon such fundamental fairness, due process and decency?”
Wynn has also vigorously denied the previous harassment allegations.