Mass. OKS redaction of Wynn name
Founder to be dropped as qualifier on Boston license at meeting’s end
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has agreed to drop Steve Wynn’s name from Wynn Resorts Ltd.’s Boston gaming license.
Wynn will be excluded from the list of qualified individuals upon conclusion of the casino operator’s annual shareholder meeting May 16, the commission said
Monday in a statement. The annual shareholder meeting includes a board director election, and regulators want to make sure he doesn’t vote his shares to influence the board’s composition.
Lawyers for Wynn first asked the commission in March to consider removing his name after the 76-year-old took steps to sever all ties to the company he founded.
“The five-member commission concludes that
Mr. Wynn will no longer be considered a qualifier to Wynn Resorts upon the written verification that he did not exercise voting rights at the 2018 Wynn Resorts shareholders’ meeting,” the regulator said in a statement.
Wynn stepped down from his post as CEO and chairman on Feb. 6 and sold all of his nearly 12 percent stake at the end of March following allegations he sexually harassed female employees over decades.
However, he still has the right to vote those shares, as the sale took place following the cutoff date for this month’s annual shareholders’ meeting. John Hagenbuch, a friend of Wynn’s, is running for re-election to the board. Wynn Resorts CEO Matt
WYNN
Maddox told the Massachusetts Gaming Commission last month that Wynn did not plan to vote his shares.
The commission continues to investigate the company for its handling of allegations that Wynn sexually harassed female employees. The commission is expected to publish its findings this summer.
Wynn Resorts plans to open its $2.5 billion casino outside Boston in June 2019. Massachusetts regulators, though, could recommend that Wynn Resorts’ gaming license be withdrawn.
Maddox told Massachusetts regulators last month that the company had decided to remove the word Wynn from the name of its Boston project to satisfy local demands. The project is now called Encore Boston Harbor.
Contact Todd Prince at 702-3830386 or tprince@reviewjournal.com. Follow @toddprincetv on Twitter.