STEVE WYNN AT IT AGAIN

A tear still comes to my eyes whenever I pass the corner of Las Vegas Blvd. and Flamingo, twice a day I grab for the Kleenex (It's getting expensive, I've gone to toilet paper now) I can't help but remembering the Dunes with it's Arabian arch shaped huge orange sign with the diamond on top standing in the desert night. (Like the Stardust sign, the sign was lit from bottom to top to signify the atomic cloud, which could often be seen from the roof of the old Dunes where the genie stood guard over the strip.)

At home I have an uncut sheet of Dunes playing cards framed on the wall, and a post card of the original building to help me remember. (Of course it's for sale!) I also can't help but remembering the blast that brought the famous old casino back to it's original beginnings...dust. I can't tell you who built the Dunes, but I can tell you who blew it up, we'll never forget Steve Wynn for the great party he threw to celebrate the destruction of the Las Vegas of the past. And although I hated the fact that he imploded the old place, I had to admit, the guy knows how to throw a party. (And I wasn't too sad to see the "Oasis" go) And now he's announced the implosion of the Desert Inn and a new beginning for Las Vegas.

I kept a skeptical eye on the bulldozers and cranes and construction workers as they dug the hole that is now called The Bellagio, we laughed as he dug the lake, even keeping in mind the beauty and success of the Mirage complete with lake and volcano, we couldn't believe this guy was going to dedicate all that expensive Strip property to a toilet for fishes, still we gave him the benefit of the doubt, and he didn't let Las Vegas down when he turned on the faucet for the water show; and the new Las Vegas was born.

The Bellagio set the new standard for class in Las Vegas. It made everyone else nervous not because they had to compete with the place, but because if anyone wanted to build on the strip again, they'd first be compared to the Bellagio then put on the list below them. Let's see what's happened since the Bellagio opened, the Mandalay Bay, Venetian, Paris, and Aladdin, all of which have scrambled to spend the multi-millions to compete with The Bellagio. Sheldon Adelson was actually able to outspend the Bellagio by a few million, but hasn't quite lived up to the standard set by Wynn. So...here we go again. Wynn outdoing Wynn.

The Desert Inn was bought and paid for by Steve Wynn after he sold off the Mirage properties, and when you buy and pay for something, it's pretty much up to you whatever you want to do with it, and with that in mind, we can't complain too much when he closed the old D.I. it was his money, he can do what he wants with it, but what does he want? Well now he's given us a little idea, not much of an idea, but when Steve Wynn calls a news conference, he's not there to chat about the weather. He's talking about spending money, lots of money. We all knew he would, it was just a matter of time. He could only stand back so long and watch Las Vegas go on without him. Like Wayne Newton, he just won't go away, and people still like him and believe in him, so he keeps coming back, and I'm glad he does. I can't stand Wayne Newton, but I'm glad he's still playing Vegas, it's one of our only links to the past like him or not.

As the downtown casinos sat stagnant, glad to be nickel and diming it's customers to death without giving them anything more than cheap booze and cheaper food, where 99cent shrimp cocktails are still considered dinner, Wynn came along and tore apart the old Golden Nugget. Anyone remember the old Judge Roy Bean bar in front that had wood floors with sawdust on it and 50cent shots? The Nugget was one of the dingier of the downtown joints, and when he was done with it out popped the New Golden Nugget, the jewel of Fremont St. and still the only place that doesn't smell of cigar smoke and whatever that other smell is, (someone scratched off the yellow bio hazard stickers years ago.)

When they tore down the Castaways and built the Mirage, they all thought he was nuts. He said there was a million dollar a day nut to crack, something totally impossible, no other casino had generated that kind of income on a daily basis ever, but the stockholders put a leash on him and waited for him to choke himself, and in the first month he had paid back over $60 million of the $90 million loan. We all strolled past the lake and volcano, we walked through the jungle setting in astonishment and finally understood what only a few other casino designers tried to tell us, that class is better than no class. That money wisely spent will come back only to the wisest of the spenders. The idea that the carpet should be so bad that your eyes go to the ceiling and the ceiling should be so bad that all you want to look at is the slot machines was gone forever on the strip.

So when he announced the Bellagio we couldn't help but cheer him on. Now we're called on to wait the year and a half or so to see what he's going to do with the Desert Inn. All he's said so far is a plan for an all suite hotel/casino that will be unlike anything we've seen in Las Vegas or in the world. It's the line he's used for every property he's opened, and hasn't let us down yet. Do we dare doubt him now? I can imagine right now Kirk Kerkorian and the MGM/Mirage boys along with Sheldon Adelson and the Venetian boys (who should worry the most since the new property will be right across the street from the Venetian), not to mention the Park Place and Harrah's boys and girls all scattering for cover trying to protect their properties and their jobs when Steve Wynn announced that he's back.

They all knew the day was coming and now that it's begun we'll see corporate heads roll as the new Desert Inn (not the new name I'm sure) is built and his dream is realized and profits start rolling down the strip to his hotel and the other casinos scramble to keep up and these guys don't have a lot of patients when money is at stake. What happened in 1990 with the opening of the Mirage was the beginning of the gap between Wynn and everyone else (with the obvious exception of Caesar's Palace) and now the gap begins again. Wynn's not in this to make money, he's in this to make Las Vegas and therefore stake his claim to history.

How will anyone compete with Wynn's insight and intellect? Now don't get me wrong, this isn't rocket science. Many designers have come up with plenty of great ideas for building outrageous casinos, especially since the ideas that have gone over only in Las Vegas seem to get more outrageous and continue to keep Las Vegas the most popular vacation destination in the world. But what Wynn puts on the table is new ideas turning into money, what the other casinos put on the table is the heads of the company as they scratch to keep up. That's the reason they bought Wynn out in the first place, because they couldn't compete with him, their great mistake will be in not making him the head of the MGM Corporation. I doubt that he would have taken it anyway.

Everyone swears up and down that any property north of the Treasure Island is doomed to failure with anything more than a $20 room and $1.25 beer, and that the $3.95 prime rib dinner better be available 24 hours or else. Sure we have endless examples that that idea is true. Looking at the Landmark, the endless failures at the "Debbie Reynolds" hotel (formerly the Paddlewheel, now the WWF which bought it to be built up as a WWF theme hotel has it on the selling block for months now with no takers, the failing Riviera, Westward Ho, Slots-A-Fun, Sahara, all in the rears.

But I can tell you Steve Wynn doesn't cash in on trends, he starts them, and rather than pulling for him to fail as many Las Vegas casino owners will be doing, let's pull for him to succeed, his successes are our successes, he's proven that time and time. And so another chapter in the new history of Las Vegas is begun. All I can say is "Watch out, Wynn's back."

P.S. Dear Steve, if you read this, I NEED A JOB!!!
-Ken Pearlman