Betting to Wynn

Stephen Wynn, casino magnate, is on a roll — again. Wynn, who resembles Dustin Hoffman in one of his pushier roles, is largely responsible for transforming Las Vegas from a seedy playground to a glitzy attraction. These days he's focused on Macau, China's up-and-coming waterfront haven for gamblers. Strong gains both there and at his Las Vegas properties have sent shares in Wynn Resorts soaring, with $4 billion added to the company's market value this year alone. Revenue in the first half of the year more than doubled from the prior year, and earnings are also on a roll. Wynn, whose stake in Wynn Resorts is valued at $3.4 billion, keeps pressing on, a man on a long winning streak, unwilling to walk away from the table.

At 65, his climb to the top is as long as the odds at his casinos. His father died at 47 in 1963, leaving 21-year-old Steve with the family's Maryland bingo business and $200,000 in debt. From that rocky start, Wynn used his knack for deal making, creative flair and sheer will to turn the bingo parlors profitable. He moved to Las Vegas in 1967, doubled his money by buying land from Howard Hughes and selling it to Caesars, and took over the Golden Nugget in the 1970s. By 1989 Wynn had created The Mirage, and soon added properties such as Treasure Island, with its sinking pirate ship and theatrical, Disney-like architecture, and the upscale Bellagio, with its high-end restaurants and designer shops, faux Tuscan architecture and, of course, its famous fountains.

Wynn sold his entire company, Mirage Resorts, to MGM Grand in 2000 and started over with Wynn Resorts in 2002, opening the shimmering Wynn Las Vegas in 2005 and Wynn Macau in 2006. Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at The Corporate Library, says Wynn gets a poor grade for myriad related-party transactions, excessive executive pay and a nominally independent board. But Wall Street is focused on the bottom line. "Governance issues are not a concern," says analyst Bill Lerner of Deutsche Bank, "because Wynn operates aboveboard and continues to overdeliver."

Wynn's office, hidden in the Wynn Las Vegas, is a sumptuous inner sanctum of cream and chocolate brown that's oddly quiet for being steps away from the casino. On the wall is Le Rêve by Picasso, a painting he was planning to sell in 2006 but damaged when he accidentally stuck his elbow through it. (He had it patched.) When he sat down with senior writer Dyan Machan, Wynn wouldn't discuss his record in corporate governance — going as far as threatening to end the interview at the first question, regarding how he's paying for a yacht he's building in Holland. (He's paying for it with his own — not corporate — funds.) But he was more than willing to describe business in Macau, how he wants to be remembered and how he hates mushy pizza.