Since Steve Wynn left the Golden Nugget, everything he's touched has turned to gold. The Mirage was one of the most successful hotels ever in their first-year profits. Although the Treasure Island didn't do as well, it was still a winner. Casino owners scrambled to keep up with Wynn but the only way they could compete in reality was to tear their entire casino down and start over from scratch. But now Steve Wynn for the first time is on the east side of the Strip, and as I once said in a column, the casinos on the west side (Caesars Palace side) seemed to do much better. I can't explain why, but it just seems that way. Sheldon Addelson saw to that with the Venetian which gets all the walk in traffic from the Barbary Coast and the $1 beer O'Sheas which means lots of gawking but not much spending. Since most of the visitors these days or kids under the age of 30, they aren't going to spend much money in the Venetian or Wynn LV.

When I first arrived, I was signaled to the parking garage which tells you how many spaces are open on that level. I walked around the front rather than go in the side - I was expecting something special, something spectacular - as is Steve Wynn's touch on all his casinos. But walking past the front I just had to hope the place just wasn't finished yet, because in front there are some nice flowers and trees; not many, but some flowers. The drive up main entrance is very simple looking, nothing looked very expensive. OK, so it didn't have a volcano or dancing waters outside but I just figured he spent it all inside. So I walked in with child-like expectations.

Opening the front door even thought there was a door opener I guess I wasn't dressed good enough to get my door opened for me. Walking in smacked of the atrium at the Bellagio, rows of different colored flowers arranged very neatly. YAWN. Then I started walking around the casino, beginning at the retail stores area and worked my way into the casino. There's one nice place where you can walk downstairs to the SW restaurant (imagine what SW stands for), which looks like a steak house, where there's a huge window so you can see a part of a lake. Around the perimeter are all the upscale fashion stores: Gucci, Louis Vuitton, all those guys where most people just look, check the price and walk away. It was a short walk.

Then I walked into the casino area, which was about 85% slot machines and smaller pits than I'd expect of the hotel. The poker room's full, but packed in the back and hard to find. The restaurants are few and the bars are small except for a piano lounge a.k.a. Bellagio, and Mirage.

Nothing about the place impressed me. The lighting is eclectic and plenty of expensive looking art and vases around, but there's just no heart, no soul to the place. There are no special areas, nothing romantic, nothing that sets it apart from any of the other casinos, except some of the decorating seems to have been taken from the Palms, Bellagio, and Mirage, which you'd think would be something special, but I walked around the casino, looked in some of the window displays and then in 15 minutes I was back where I started.

The table games were pretty full but I didn't see a sign under $15 on BJ and most were $25 and $100 with a $10,000 limit, nothing special there. The dealers were straight and boring. Of course most are Asian and don't talk to the players, but the rest of the dealers don't talk either.

I like Steve Wynn. He was an innovator and a risk taker and was the golden goose as far as bringing Las Vegas back to life, but when you see Wynn LV you're going to ask like me, where the fuck did they spend almost $2 billion dollars? Maybe the rooms are all suites. Sure, it's the tallest hotel in town and they must have spent their money on something, but I don't know what.

But don't expect anything cheap, the buffet is $25 and steaks start at $32. The other eclectic restaurants are no bargain either, but what surprised me is how small the casino and first floor area is. Most is set aside for convention area. I walked the casino twice just to make sure I didn't miss anything and sure enough, 15 minutes and you've seen the whole casino. The ceilings are low and look just like the Bellagio ceiling. The colors are mostly wood and brown and nothing very colorful, certainly no Chahuley in the lobby, in fact the lobby and registration are pretty unimpressive. In this town you can get fired just because you didn't smile or call someone m'am or sir and since there's a 90-day probation period, everyone's trying to be nice but they couldn't tell me anything I couldn't see in 15 minutes.

There are some interesting chandeliers, very artsy but so what? I admired Steve for his guts to take the Golden Nugget, another scummy downtown casino and make it a showpiece as far as downtown goes. Then he raised $611 million to build the Mirage thanks to junk bond king Michael Milken. Milken was ecstatic since he was paid back in half the time they set. But this isn't going to be so easy. It's not really close to the other casinos, so foot traffic in the summer could hurt. The limits could also hurt since most people don't play more than $10 a hand, but they enjoy their $5 breakfasts, which they ain't gonna find at Wynn LV. Now I'm sure they're not completely done, but the casino is what I was interested in and that is complete and with the tables jammed together where it's hard to sit in the end seats since the person on the next table is probably blocking that seat.

Plenty of new-fangled slots, most are theme slots and not the preferred double or triple diamond machines. I asked a lady if any big jackpots had hit yet and she just said "nope." You usually like to hear that a new casino would loosen their machines to establish a reputation for good slots, but on the other hand, they need to pay for the casino so they tighten up the machines instead. And with the ticket in and out machines there were no sounds of coins hitting the bucket; in fact I didn't even see a bucket near the machines.

So I'm not sure what else to say. Every new casino deserves looking at since they're all mega-casinos and there must be something besides just slot machines when they spend $2 billion bucks. Yet the Wynn LV just seems like they put the casino together as quick as they could. I'm sure the hotel rooms are nice for that kind of money, but if you believe in Feng Shui you'll get that cold feeling I got walking in. Nothing impressive, nothing that makes you want to stay and spend much time there.

Whoever designed the place spent damn little time on the hotel since it's just a crescent-shaped building with a curve on the roof. The color's nice but they didn't spend any time with the casino. They must have taken pictures of other casinos and added a piece of this and a piece of that.

I wish there was something positive I could say. The one appealing thing is the waterfall in the back that is hard to see with all the crowds, but there's not much more than that. No, I didn't see a room that I could write about with the pride of a new casino and Steve Wynn coming back to Vegas to compete with MGM by building his own corridor in the area. There is a rumor that the New Frontier might have a huge expansion depending on the foot traffic Wynn LV brings in, but in the heat of summer, it's either going to be a taxi ride or bus ride if you're anything more than a mile away. If you're staying at the Flamingo and Tropicana Avenues area, you'll need transportation to get there. Just make sure you get a round trip ticket, because after 30 minutes you'll be ready to leave.

I was expecting so much and got so little from the experience I have to tell you to see it once because it's new, but don't expect dancing waters or volcanoes or character. There is no heart to the casino, no feeling of warmth, just another couple of billion dollars spent to house 7,000 people and expensive everything-else. Well, at least the Fashion Show mall is across the street if you want more practical shopping and lots of room to move, since Wynn LV seems so big on the outside and small inside. But I do have one good thing to say: the color of the purple windows is cool at sunset. Does that help?

I hate to say it, but unless there are plans in the works to build larger casinos near Wynn's resort to bring in walk-in traffic and make it a major area like Flamingo and Tropicana Ave. did, it's going to be difficult for Wynn to cover his nut every month. If he does half as good as the Mirage did, he'll be alright, but this isn't $611 million, it's $2 billion. And of course, all the crossroaders love new casinos to prey on the break-in dealers and floor people and instead of rocking the boat they're all on board for the next three months, because they can get away with everything. New casinos are reluctant to make scenes, so most small mistakes are just paid to the player. So, with three pits they can do it as many as nine times a day. For Wynn's protection, I hope they have some good surveillance, especially since neither the dealers nor the floor people want to cause trouble. The crooks trade off in teams and new casinos don't have the background the others do. And, I hate to say it but Steve Wynn isn't the most popular figure amongst the casino owners in Las Vegas.

We'll watch closely in the near future to see if anything's improved, but by the looks of the casino once you've walked all that way you'll see what I mean; it's a mixture of the Palms and the Bellagio and neither have anything to do with the other in the sense of design, so you probably won't know what to make of it except it has not heart, no soul... sure wish James Brown would build a casino.

-Ken Pearlman