Photo by Steve Adams | Banker & Tradesman Staff

After agreeing to pay a $35 million fine for misleading state regulators, and just five weeks before a grand opening, Wynn Resorts is in talks to sell its $2.6 billion Encore Boston Harbor casino in Everett.

Wynn Resorts and MGM Resorts said they are in “preliminary” conversations about a deal, according to a statement issued by the companies in response to Boston Globe inquiries.

“They are very preliminary and of the nature that publicly traded corporations like ours often engage in, and in fact when opportunities such as this are presented, we are required to explore,” the two firms said in a joint statement.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission picked Wynn Resorts’ plan for the Everett casino as the recipient of the Greater Boston casino license in 2014, over the proposed Mohegan Sun-sponsored plan for a casino at Suffolk Downs on the East Boston-Revere border.

After CEO Steve Wynn resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct, the gaming commission launched an investigation into whether the company had mishandled complaints and covered up Wynn’s alleged misconduct.

Under Massachusetts law, casino operators are forbidden from owning more than one property in Massachusetts. It’s unclear how MGM and Wynn could circumvent that prohibition, given that MGM developed and operates the MGM Springfield casino which won the western Massachusetts casino license and opened last year.

A sale of the Everett property also would require the approval of the gaming commission.

The Globe reports that Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox and MGM CEO Jim Murren met in Las Vegas this month after the commission opted not to revoke the license, settling instead for a fine that represents less than two days of the company’s revenues.