Steve Wynn, I Call BS!
Hey Steve Wynn, I call BS on you teasing New York with your potential involvment in bringing a racino to Aqueduct raceway. Nobody with your kind of ego wants to be in Long Island playing at a minor league level with a racino.
Casino impresario Steve Wynn yesterday said he’s champing at the bit to build and run a planned big video-lottery complex at the legendary — but fading — Aqueduct racetrack in Queens.
” ‘Racinos’ have never been my thing,” Wynn said, using the term for slots or video-lottery machines at horse tracks. “But New York is New York.”
“This is the most exciting place in the world,” he told The Post. “And I want to be in New York.”
Wynn, 67, said his company had the right track record for building a site at the “Big A” that would be attractive and enjoyable and keep customers coming back — which would make state officials happy, because Albany would collect a 70 percent tax on gross gaming revenue there.
“The places that we’ve built have outperformed the competition,” said Wynn, noting that his gaming palace in the Chinese territory of Macau has annual revenues of $2.5 billion, compared to just $1 billion at the MGM casino right next door.
“Companies that have done a good job in the past are likely to do a good job in the future,” said Wynn, known for his upscale Las Vegas casinos and hotels such as The Mirage, The Bellagio and Treasure Island, in addition to his current Wynn Las Vegas and Encore properties.
Wynn’s comments come as state officials — who will allow 4,500 video-lottery machines at Aqueduct — are set this week to meet with his gaming company and five other bidders to discuss their sealed proposals for building and operating the facility under a 30-year lease.
I’m not sure of his angle here, but the end game is not a Wynn Racino in New York. While the business might be a smart move for someone that does business on a lower level I don’t see Wynn’s brand being a match for a Long Island racino.
Maybe this is a ploy to get New Jersey to help make Bader Field a home for Wynn in the future. He was poking around Bader Field before the recession hit last year. I’ll do some more digging to see if I can find any more information.
