| Steve Wynn is the latest powerful man to be caught up in the wave of sexual harassment allegations sweeping the nation, leaving the Massachusetts Gambling Commission in an uncomfortable position.
(Although it should be noted that the commission’s position isn’t nearly as uncomfortable as those of the masseuses, manicurists and hair stylists allegedly abused by Wynn over the past three decades.)
The CEO of Wynn Resorts famously won the Boston-area bid for a casino license and the $2.4 billion gambling palace is now under construction in Everett. Wynn Boston Harbor is expected to open in 2019.
However, character, reputation and integrity are all components of the “suitability” requirements to hold a casino license in Massachusetts, and the state gambling commission has opened an investigation into the Wynn allegations following the Wall Street Journal’s exposé published last month. MassLive recently reported that during the casino application process, Wynn actively concealed from the commission the $7.5 million settlement paid to one of his alleged victims, which is not an auspicious start to the investigation. (Read Scott Van Voorhis’ take on the situation.)
This is a very fine line for the commission in the #metoo era, where the legal concept of innocent until proven guilty is colliding with a newfound societal enthusiasm for giving victims the benefit of the doubt, resulting in a messy but necessary nationwide conversation (which will not be undertaken in this editorial).
The commission can have the best of both worlds, though it’s a bit of a cop-out and they may take a PR hit for it: take Steve Wynn, the man, out of the conversation entirely.
Wynn Resorts is bigger than one man, even if it does bear his name and the board is reportedly in his pocket. It’s a $4.5 billion, publicly traded company that employs more than 24,000 people. Just so The Weinstein Cos., the eponymous production company of Harvey Weinstein, who started this landslide of sexual assault and harassment allegations, is bigger than Harvey.
For his part, Wynn has hotly denied all allegations, saying in a statement that “the idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous. We find ourselves in a world where people can make allegations, regardless of the truth, and a person is left with the choice of weathering insulting publicity or engaging in multi-year lawsuits.”
That’s a position with which Wynn should be familiar, given how many suits were filed against him in the early stages of this project.
If the allegations against these men are true – and hopefully that will be conclusively proven in a court of law so the word “alleged” can be removed from the conversation, though the burden of proof is exceedingly high – then they are indeed monsters who deserve their falls from grace (and a lot of jail time).
A falling star can scorch a lot of people on its way down. The army of subcontractors currently working on the Everett casino and the thousands of people who will eventually work there don’t deserve to be burned by what Wynn has (allegedly) done.
