Coming Back A Wynner

Visionary Vegas Tycoon Steve Wynn turns the spotlight back on himself with his latest grand scale casino.

Credited with imbuing Vegas with new energy when he first opened the Mirage and the Bellagio, cool headed casino mogul Steve Wynn is back in the limelight.

His latest $2.6 billion venture was shrouded in secrecy before it was opened on April 28th last year. But now the shimmering 50 storey Wynn Las Vegas is bringing a new element to the strip - one of intrigue and understated excitement.

The resort also marks Wynn's grand return to the playground. In 2000, the 63 year old suffered a setback when another Vegas luminary, Kirk Kirklorian, swooped in on Wynn's then ailing casinos and staged a coup.

Wynn is first to admit his new resort, one of the most expensive in the world, is a complete about-turn from his earlier, showy ventures. After all, unlike the predictable, carnivalesque sidewalk spectacles that define the entrances of most megacasinos on the strip, the Wynn Las Vegas is a sleek monolith of art, good taste and golf.

Explaining his bold new concept, Wynn says "People come to Vegas for excitement. That is no secret. So the resort has to be exciting - but not in a noisy or clangy way. Not with a lot of strobe lights. It has to be exciting in a deeper way. The goal with the Wynn Las Vegas is to give people an experience." The key word here is experience and not look.

Some believe it's Wynn's ultimate payback time as the Wynn Las Vegas lures thousands away from the casinos he once owned. He has put everything into showing he can still make some of the greatest resorts in the world and is currently building a casino in Macau. This property, known as Wynn Macau, is scheduled to open in September 2006 and, Wynn no doubt hopes, will firmly reestablish him as a force to be reckoned with.