It’s hard to say for sure whey Donald Trump never opened a casino in Las Vegas. Only he knows the real reason.
However, Trump has never applied for a full casino license in Nevada. In February 2004, he was licensed as a 10% shareholder of the Riviera, after buying 358,000 shares in the company. Trump explained that he was testing the licensing waters; he also wanted to shorten the time it took for the lengthy and intrusive investigation that the state Gaming Control Board conducts into the lives of all Nevada casino-license applicants. Of course, his investment in the Riviera might have also had something to do with its profit potential: As soon as Trump was approved as a minority shareholder, he sold the stock, netting $900,000 on his original $2.7 million investment.
On the other hand, during the process, Gaming Control made it clear that their determination didn't guarantee Trump future licensure as the owner and operator of a Las Vegas casino. In light of his past bankruptcies, he'd no doubt face a lot of probing questions before receiving a full license.
There is, as well, the matter of the long-time feud between Trump and Steve Wynn that you ask about. Here, it's not hard to say how much is hype and how much is true bad blood: For the past 20 years, the two names have rarely appeared in print together without the accompanying term "archrivals." In fact, researching this question, we came across the following quote about Trump and Wynn from a casino analyst: "They hate each other's guts. It's like poison."
Trump and Wynn have been bad-mouthing each other in print and, reportedly, in private since the mid-1980s, and the skirmishes have gotten pretty personal at times. A story published in New York magazine more than ten years ago, for example, reported, "For most of the war, the fighting has been long-distance and sporadic. Trump, from his Fifth Avenue headquarters, would occasionally poach one of Wynn’s executives; Wynn, from behind his fake volcano in the desert, would mock Ivana’s accent and occasionally sic a squadron of lawyers on Trump."
The feud originally flared around 1985, when Wynn made a bid to buy Hilton Corp., which refused to sell to him. That offer morphed into a bid to buy the Atlantic City Hilton for $344 million, which Hilton also refused, then quickly accepted an offer from Donald Trump for $325 million.
Soon after, Wynn sold his Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City to protest New Jersey’s extremely tight reins on the casino business there. Wynn was selling just as Trump was buying. At the time, Trump ridiculed Wynn for "running like a little rabbit out of town." Of course, Wynn used the $440 million he earned on the sale to make a pretty big splash in Las Vegas. He also took a shot later, saying that Trump "was the young man from the real estate business in New York. He didn't have a clue about our business. I'm not sure he still does."
Trump returned the favor when, in 1987, he challenged Wynn for control of the Las Vegas Golden Nugget, claiming, "I've always wanted Stephen Wynn to work for me."
The two continued to compete in New York and Atlantic City. For example, Wynn proposed to build a luxury condo tower next to Trump's International Hotel & Tower at Columbus Circle in Manhattan. Trump, meanwhile, hired Dennis Gomes out from under Wynn; Gomes, the CEO of Wynn’s Golden Nugget, became the CEO of the Trump Taj Mahal, but Wynn accused him of breaking his contract to do so.
Another reported dispute arose over a planned 1990 heavyweight boxing event that Wynn hosted at the Mirage. Allegedly, it interfered with a contract between Trump and promoter Don King, who held the rights to then-champion James "Buster" Douglas.
But the big brouhaha began in 1995, after Wynn beat out Trump for development rights to property in the Marina in Atlantic City; he planned to build a $1 billion megaresort called Le Jardin. Those plans were opposed by Trump, and the feu
