Question of the Day - 30 May 2024

Yesterday, we covered the Mirage's opening and, contrary to the expert prognostications and competitor hopes, its instantaneous success. Today, we continue with the specific and direct changes that Steve Wynn wrought in Las Vegas and around the country, which weren't limited to architecture, spectacle, entertainment, and service.

To begin with, in the words of casino historian and observer Oliver Lovat, the Mirage "optimized the emotional aspects, deliberately stimulating senses as a strategy. This was the first property to use scent, the first to study the effect of lighting on guest behavior, the first to inculcate intimacy between guest and employee, the first to measure service distances in relation to timing. The Mirage was the first customer-centric, experience-driven, integrated resort."

Indeed, the Mirage's interior designer described it as “evocatecture.” Lovat again: "This property was the first to deliberately implement the psychology of the customer experience and drive loyalty through emotion."

In addition, Wynn, 47 years old when the Mirage opened, also managed to assemble the greatest team of hotel-casino management ever. And why not? Everyone wanted to be part of this phenomenon. 

First, the team had to hire and train thousands of employees all at once; when the Mirage opened, it boasted a staff of 6,400. Wynn was careful to establish a strong working relationship with the unions; he even took the negotiators to school by offering more benefits than they ever dreamed of asking for. Employees and managers were rigorously groomed with a service mentality. They were well paid and well fed and could advance often quickly, in their careers. Many of the Mirage's top executives -- finance, marketing, publicity and promotion, human resources, food and beverage, casino -- have gone on to even greater positions in the casino industry. 

Another part of Wynn's genius and strategy was to cater to high rollers. He recognized the pent-up demand for the world's wealthiest wagerers to visit, stay in, and play at the kind of resorts they were used to in other places of the world. The high-limit pit was among the most extravagant anywhere. Of the 3,049 rooms, nearly 10% were state-of-the-art luxury accommodations. Wynn raided other casinos to scoop up the top hosts around Las Vegas and as far away as Atlantic City; he spelled out the specific terms of their employment in contracts (host contracts didn't exist prior to the Mirage). 

Fine dining goes hand in hand with the one percenters and the Mirage opened with several exclusive restaurants, including Ristorante Riva for Italian, Kokomo's Continental room, and Moongate, which replicated a Chinese village square; it also drew the middle tier with the Caribe Cafe and Bermuda Buffet. All the restaurants were served by a single central 29,000-square-foot kitchen, another first for Las Vegas.  

For entertainment, the Mirage poached the biggest draw of the day, Siegfried and Roy, from the New Frontier, built them a 1,500-seat theater (huge at the time), funded the new show to the tune of $30 million (huge at the time), charged double the closest ticket prices, and sold out every show over the next 13 years. 

Cirque du Soleil also got its start in Las Vegas at the Mirage. Its touring show, Nouvelle Expérience, made stops around North America for a few years before landing in a tent at the Mirage in November 1992, where it remained for a full year. When Wynn opened Treasure Island next door to the Mirage in 1993, the new show Mystere opened with it. It's still there, 31 years later.  

In addition, the impact the Mirage had on corporate America is incalculable. In the words of Oliver Lovat, "Mirage Resorts was the first to borrow and build on such scale and to do so in full view of Wall Street and other investors. The combination of the experienced and credible leadership team, quality of development, and prompt return on investment made Las Vegas casinos an investable asset class and lenders lined up to finance 'the next' Mirage."

Finally, the Mirage changed the casino industry forever. Steve Wynn's volcano-erupting, white-tiger-exhibiting, high-roller-vacuuming, four-star megaresort manifested an immediate national public interest in casinos, giving rise to riverboats in Iowa, gambling halls in historic mining towns in Colorado and South Dakota, hotel-casino strips on the Gulf Coast and Tunica in Mississippi, two huge Native American casinos in Connecticut, a dozen major tribal operations in California, and hundreds of small ones around the country, not to mention a relentless mushrooming of giant new joints in Las Vegas -- all following the Mirage's lead in the 1990s. 

Part 3: The Long Slow Decline