Wynn Las Vegas Want to find out about what Las Vegas is? You only need to study the mastermind of modern Las Vegas: Steve Wynn!

Early life, Frontier and the Golden Nugget

Wynn graduated from The Manlius School, a private boys' school in upstate New York, in 1959. Wynn's father, Michael Weinberg, ran a string of bingo parlors in the eastern US and died shortly before Wynn graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1963 where he became an active brother of the Sigma Alphi Mu fraternity. Wynn took over running the family's bingo operation in Maryland. He did well enough at it to accumulate the money to buy a small stake in the Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where he and his wife, Elaine, moved in 1967.

Wynn managed to parlay his profits from a land deal in the early 1970 (the deal involved two established titans of the Las Vegas casino business, Howard Hughes & Caesars Palace, into a controlling interest in a dusty downtown casino, the Golden Nugget Las Vegas. He also owned the Goldewn Nugget in Alantic City.

Wynn renovated, revamped and expanded the Golden Nugget with enormous success, in the process attracting a new upscale clientele to downtown Las Vegas.

Wynn managed to parlay his profits from a land deal in the early 1970s (the deal involved two established titans of the Las Vegas casino business, Howard Hughes and Caesars Palace) into a controlling interest in a dusty downtown casino, the Golden Nugget Las Vegas (he also owned The Golden Nugget in Atlantic City). Wynn renovated, revamped and expanded the Golden Nugget with enormous success, in the process attracting a new upscale clientele to downtown Las Vegas.

The Mirage and Bellagio

Wynn had previously acquired interests in various existing casinos. His first major Strip casino, The Mirage, set a new standard for size and lavishness, with construction costs to match. The Mirage featured an indoor forest and an outdoor "volcano," and with high-quality room appointments and an emphasis on service, the Mirage was another great success. The Mirage was the first project in which he was involved in the design and construction of a casino. Financed largely with junk bonds issued by Michael Milkin it was considered a risky venture by the standards then prevailing in Las Vegas because of its high cost and emphasis on luxury. It proved to be enormously successful and made Wynn a major part of Las Vegas history.

Wynn expanded further on his concept of the luxury casino in the later Bellagio resort, including an artificial lake, indoor conservatory, and an art gallery in which Wynn displayed museum-quality artworks, and branches of high-end boutiques and restaurants located in Paris, San Francisco, & New York. The Bellagio is credited with starting a new spree of luxurious developments in Las Vegas. Among these developments include The Venitian, Mandalay, & Paris Las Vegas.

Currently living with his wife in a suite at Wynn Los Vegas, Wynn owns an impressive art collection, which has at various times been on display to the public in his casinos. It includes paintings by Picasso, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Warhol, & Matisse. Most recently he spent a record price for a painting by J. M. W. Turner -- $35.8 million for Turner's Giudecca, La Donna Della Salute and San Giorgio..