Bellagio and its fountains at night on the Las Vegas Strip

An independent editorial tribute

The Wynn Legacy

Steve Wynn and the reinvention of Las Vegas

“I want this to be something no one has ever seen before.”

— Steve Wynn, as recalled by his designer Roger Thomas5

An independent, non-commercial tribute. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Steve Wynn, Wynn Resorts or Wynn Fine Art.

Chapter I

The Man

Before the marquees, before the fountains, before the Strip learned a new grammar, there was a boy in Utica, New York, whose father ran bingo parlors up and down the East Coast.

He was born Stephen Alan Weinberg in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1942. His father later changed the family name to Wynn, to escape the anti-Jewish prejudice of the time.1 In 1952, aged ten, Steve saw Las Vegas for the first time, when his father tried — and within weeks failed — to run a bingo game at the Silver Slipper.1

In 1963, as Steve was finishing at the University of Pennsylvania, his father died. Steve took over the family’s bingo business in Maryland.1 Two years later he put $45,000 into a three per cent stake in the Frontier on the Las Vegas Strip. He was twenty-three. In 1967 he moved to Las Vegas for good.1

Watching gamblers lose, he later said, “showed me at a very early age that if you wanted to make money in a casino, the answer was to own one.”1

Chapter II

The Properties

A career told through the buildings he gave a city.

The Golden Nugget, downtown Las Vegas, at night

1973

Golden Nugget

Wynn took control of downtown’s landmark casino and was elected its chairman at thirty-one.1 Under him it became the finest hotel in downtown Las Vegas — the first proof of what attention to detail could do.

The Mirage resort on the Las Vegas Strip at night

1989

The Mirage

A resort built for a then-Strip-record of more than six hundred million dollars, financed partly with high-yield bonds.1 A volcano at the door, a rainforest under glass: the first of the modern megaresorts, and the start of a new Strip.

Treasure Island hotel tower lit at night

1993

Treasure Island

Built beside The Mirage, with a pirate battle staged out front on Las Vegas Boulevard.1 The street itself became part of the show.

Bellagio hotel and its lake in daylight

1998

Bellagio

Raised on the site of the old Dunes at a then-record cost of $1.6 billion,1 with a lake, fountains choreographed to music, and the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art — fine art as a reason to visit the Strip.1

The bronze curved tower of Wynn Las Vegas

2005

Wynn Las Vegas

His name on the building for the first time. To his designer Roger Thomas he said: “I want this to be something no one has ever seen before.” Thomas’s answer included chandeliers above the gaming tables — and a word for the whole approach, evocatecture: architecture that evokes emotion.5

Butterfly mosaic decoration inside Encore Las Vegas

2008

Encore

Next door, an all-suite sequel filled with natural light, gardens, red and gold — and butterflies everywhere.1

Beyond Las Vegas: the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City (1980), Beau Rivage in Mississippi (1999), Wynn Macau (2006), Wynn Palace in Cotai (2016) and Encore Boston Harbor (2019).13

The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign at dusk

Chapter III

The Era

When Wynn set out to build on the Strip, nothing new had been built there, as he later told 60 Minutes, since 1973. “In the valley of the blind,” he said, “the one-eyed man is king.”4

Then came The Mirage. And Bellagio. And Wynn. Much of the city the world flies in to see today follows the standard those buildings set: the lake, the lobby, the garden, the gallery, the theatre of arrival.

Frank Sinatra in a studio portrait, about 1947

Frank Sinatra

Wynn signed Sinatra to perform at the Golden Nuggets in Las Vegas and Atlantic City,1 and the two appeared together in the Golden Nugget’s television commercials of the 1980s.

Frank Sinatra, c. 1947. Photograph: William P. Gottlieb.

Chapter IV

A Life in Dates

From a bingo hall in Maryland to the skyline of Macau.

  1. 1942

    Born Stephen Alan Weinberg on 27 January in New Haven, Connecticut. His father later changes the family name to Wynn; Steve grows up in Utica, New York.1

  2. 1952

    First sight of Las Vegas, aged ten, when his father briefly runs a bingo game at the Silver Slipper.1

  3. 1963

    His father dies. Steve, finishing at the University of Pennsylvania, takes over the family bingo business in Maryland.1

  4. 1965

    Puts $45,000 into a three per cent stake in the Frontier on the Las Vegas Strip, aged twenty-three.1

  5. 1967

    Moves to Las Vegas; becomes the Frontier’s slot and keno manager.1

  6. 1973

    Takes control of the Golden Nugget and is elected chairman at thirty-one.1

  7. 1980

    Opens the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City1 and launches the Golden Nugget Scholarship.2

  8. 1989

    The Mirage opens on 22 November.1

  9. 1993

    Treasure Island opens; on 27 October the old Dunes is imploded before some 200,000 spectators.18

  10. 1998

    Bellagio opens on the Dunes site, with the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art.1

  11. 1999

    Beau Rivage opens in Biloxi, Mississippi.1

  12. 2000

    Mirage Resorts is acquired by MGM Grand; Wynn buys the Desert Inn and founds Wynn Resorts.1

  13. 2005

    Wynn Las Vegas opens on the former Desert Inn site.1

  14. 2006

    Wynn Macau opens.1

  15. 2008

    Encore opens beside Wynn Las Vegas.1

  16. 2011

    Marries Andrea Wynn.3

  17. 2016

    Wynn Palace opens in Cotai, Macau.3

  18. 2019

    Encore Boston Harbor, planned under his leadership, opens in Massachusetts.3

  19. 2020

    Founds the Wynn Family Foundation with Andrea.2

  20. 2021

    The foundation gives $50 million to the Mohawk Valley Health System in Utica.15

  21. 2023

    The Wynn Hospital opens in downtown Utica on 29 October.17

  22. 2024

    Wynn Fine Art opens a gallery in Aspen, Colorado, in December.13

  23. 2025

    With Andrea, receives the Palm Tree Award (January)21 and amfAR’s Philanthropic Leadership Award (March).20

Chapter V

Moments

The volcano in front of The Mirage erupting at night

22 November 1989

The Volcano

The Mirage opens. Out front, over a lagoon on Las Vegas Boulevard, a man-made volcano erupts after dark. Nothing like it had stood on the Strip, and the crowds came simply to watch.1

The Dunes hotel tower and sign in 1983

27 October 1993

The Dunes

The night after Treasure Island opens, a cannon shot from its pirate ship signals the implosion of the old Dunes hotel. Some 200,000 people watch from the Strip.18 On the site, five years later, rises Bellagio.1

The Dunes in 1983.

Flowers and trees in the indoor garden at Wynn Las Vegas

October 2006

Le Rêve

Wynn has just agreed to sell Picasso’s Le Rêve (1932), and invites a few friends, among them Nora Ephron, to see it one last time. Telling them its story, he raises his hand — and his elbow goes back through the canvas.

“Oh shit. Look what I’ve done.” … “Thank God it was me.”

— as recounted by Nora Ephron7

He kept the painting and had it restored. In March 2013 he sold it to the collector who had first agreed to buy it, Steven A. Cohen, for a reported $155 million.8

Chapter VI

Art as Architecture

For Wynn, art was never decoration. It was part of the emotional architecture.

When Bellagio opened in 1998, it brought a fine-art gallery to the Strip.1 Over the years his collection reached from the Dutch Golden Age to Pop. The four paintings below are documented works that passed through his hands.

Vermeer’s Young Woman Seated at a Virginal: a young woman in a yellow shawl at a keyboard, looking at the viewer

Johannes Vermeer

Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, c. 1670–72

Bought by Wynn at Sotheby’s, London, in July 2004; sold in 2008 to the collector Thomas S. Kaplan. Today in The Leiden Collection.9

Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes: the young painter in a dark beret, within a painted oval

Rembrandt van Rijn

Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes, 1634

Formerly in Wynn’s collection; acquired in 2008 by The Leiden Collection, together with the Vermeer.10

Van Gogh’s Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat: a woman in a blue dress before a field of wheat

Vincent van Gogh

Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat, 1890

In Wynn’s collection until 2005, when it was sold, with Gauguin’s Bathers, to Steven A. Cohen.11

Turner’s Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio: a luminous view of the Venetian lagoon

J. M. W. Turner

Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio, 1841

Bought by Wynn at Christie’s, New York, in April 2006 for $35.8 million, then a record for the artist.12

Pablo Picasso

Le Rêve, 1932

The painting of the elbow story; restored, and sold in 2013 to Steven A. Cohen.8

Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art

From 1998

According to his former official website, works shown there included pieces by Monet, Van Gogh, Munch and Warhol.3

Wynn Fine Art

Aspen, December 2024

The new gallery opened with works by Basquiat, Warhol and Lichtenstein from the Steve Wynn collection.13 Wynn Fine Art also lists galleries in Palm Beach and Beverly Hills.14

Twentieth-century works are still protected by copyright and are described here, not reproduced. The paintings shown are public-domain reproductions.

Chapter VII

Words

“In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”

Steve Wynn, on the Las Vegas he found, 60 Minutes, 20094

“Luxury is having thousands of choices made for you — all done correctly.”

Roger Thomas, who designed for Wynn for four decades5

“Think like the guest.”

Wynn’s brief to his designers, as recalled by Roger Thomas5

Chapter VIII

The Circle Closes

In 2020 Steve and Andrea Wynn founded the Wynn Family Foundation.2 In March 2021 it gave $50 million to the Mohawk Valley Health System for its new hospital in downtown Utica, New York.15

The hospital carries his name. It stands across the street from where his father once ran a bingo parlor.16 The Wynn Hospital opened on 29 October 2023.17

The young man who bet $45,000 on a Las Vegas hotel came back, nearly six decades later, with a hospital.

Causes he has supported

As described on his former official website.2

  • Cleveland Clinic — eye and brain-health research. Wynn was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa in his twenties.
  • Golden Nugget Scholarship — launched in 1980; a 1986 recipient, Garrett Reisman, became a NASA astronaut.
  • Prostate Cancer Foundation — a long-time supporter; a 2021 gala at the Wynns’ Palm Beach home.
  • Boston Children’s Hospital — paediatric care and cancer research.
  • Las Vegas community — The Shade Tree, the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, Three Square Food Bank and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada.
  • Palm Beach Police & Fire Foundation — supporter; Palm Tree Award, 2025.21

Chapter IX

In the Public Record

Recognition

  • Horatio Alger Award · Class of 200919
  • Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Awards · under his leadership, Wynn Resorts earned more than any other independent hotel company, according to his former official website3
  • The Wynn Hospital, Utica · named in recognition of the family’s 2021 gift15
  • amfAR Philanthropic Leadership Award · with Andrea Wynn, 202520
  • Palm Tree Award, Palm Beach Police & Fire Foundation · with Andrea Wynn, 202521

Featured in

  • 60 Minutes · CBS, profile by Charlie Rose, 20094
  • Cigar Aficionado · “The Biggest Bet in Vegas”, 20036
  • The New York Times · art-market reporting, 2005–20061112
  • HuffPost · Nora Ephron, “My Weekend in Vegas”, 20067
  • Las Vegas Review-Journal · Roger Thomas on designing for Wynn, 20245
  • The Aspen Times · Wynn Fine Art in Aspen, 202413
The Bellagio fountains in full display in front of the hotel

The Legacy

The next time the lights of Las Vegas rise above the desert,
the next time a fountain climbs to music over a man-made lake,
the next time a lobby smells of fresh flowers thirty floors below your room —

remember the man who taught Las Vegas to feel like this.

A note from the author

This tribute was created from a simple observation: the most extraordinary places do not only impress us while we are there. They return to us later — in memory, in atmosphere, in the desire to go back.

Las Vegas is difficult to explain to someone who has never felt it at its best. While you are there, the rest of the world quietly disappears. Only when you land back home do you understand how deeply the city entered you.

Steve Wynn helped make that feeling possible. This site is a quiet thank-you to the man who gave so many strangers something unforgettable to remember.

Dr. Carlos Fernández Ramos

Sources

Every factual statement on this page is linked to a published source. Where sources disagree, the claim has been left out.

  1. Jeff Burbank, “Steve Wynn”, Online Nevada Encyclopedia (Nevada Humanities), 2010. www.onlinenevada.org
  2. Steve Wynn’s former official website, “Philanthropy” page (archived by the Internet Archive, March 2026). web.archive.org
  3. Steve Wynn’s former official website, home and “The Arts” pages (archived, March 2026). web.archive.org
  4. CBS News, 60 Minutes: “Casino Mogul Steve Wynn’s Midas Touch”, interview by Charlie Rose, April 2009. www.cbsnews.com
  5. Las Vegas Review-Journal, interview with designer Roger Thomas on the design of Wynn Resorts, 9 May 2024. www.reviewjournal.com
  6. Michael Kaplan, “The Biggest Bet in Vegas”, Cigar Aficionado, 2003. www.cigaraficionado.com
  7. Nora Ephron, “My Weekend in Vegas”, HuffPost, October 2006. www.huffpost.com
  8. NPR, “Years After The Elbow Incident, Steve Wynn Sells Picasso’s ‘Le Rêve’ For $155 Million”, 26 March 2013. www.npr.org
  9. The Leiden Collection, Johannes Vermeer, Young Woman Seated at a Virginal — catalogue entry and provenance. www.theleidencollection.com
  10. The Leiden Collection, Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes — catalogue entry and provenance. www.theleidencollection.com
  11. The New York Times, “A Gauguin and a van Gogh Change Hands”, 7 October 2005. www.nytimes.com
  12. The New York Times, “Who Paid $35.8 Million for J. M. W. Turner’s View of Venice?”, 8 April 2006. www.nytimes.com
  13. The Aspen Times, “Wynn Fine Art will open on Friday in Aspen”, December 2024. www.aspentimes.com
  14. Wynn Fine Art, official website. wynnfineart.com
  15. Mohawk Valley Health System, “MVHS Receives $50 Million Gift from the Wynn Family Foundation”, March 2021. www.mvhealthsystem.org
  16. Syracuse.com, “Casino mogul Steve Wynn, who grew up in CNY, donates $50M for new Utica hospital”, March 2021. www.syracuse.com
  17. Mohawk Valley Health System, “Important Public Information for Wynn Hospital Opening”, October 2023. www.mvhealthsystem.org
  18. Los Angeles Times, “Vegas Has a Blast as 200,000 Watch Demolition of Dunes”, 29 October 1993. www.latimes.com
  19. Horatio Alger Association, member profile: Stephen A. Wynn (Class of 2009). horatioalger.org
  20. amfAR, “Andrea and Steve Wynn” — 2025 Palm Beach honorees. www.amfar.org
  21. Palm Beach society coverage of the 2025 Police & Fire Rescue Ball and the Palm Tree Award. palmerpb.com

Image credits

One photograph (Encore) is by the author; all others are credited below. Images marked CC BY-SA were cropped and colour-graded, and these adapted versions are shared under the same licence.