More than the trouble (and cost) it takes to replace it, experts conclude. Another reason for keeping the founder’s name on Wynn Resorts is one that he would not find 
flattering: “I think the impact on Wynn Resorts will be short-lived, in part because I doubt most people link these resorts with Steve Wynn or are even aware of him,” opined Stanford University marketing professor Itamar Simonson. Ouch! Even if people had no idea of who Steve Wynn is, his casinos still had brand equity. Donald Trump‘s hotels have performed well despite his numerous peccadillos — although the name “Trump” was the kiss of death for an Atlantic City casino going back at least 10 years. There it meant a third-rate, shabby gaming experience. College of Southern Nevada Women’s Alliance Co-chair Sondra Cosgrove argues that keeping the Wynn name won’t resound well with Millennials, who gravitate to properties with value systems familiar to their own. Even so, it’s going to take a lot more than skywriting by UltraViolet to convince Wynn Resorts’ board that their company’s name is tainted.
UltraViolet might not want to place too much hope in the younger generation, whose reactions to the hypothetical question renaming Wynncore were surprisingly callous. Tourist Ronnie Harris shrugged it all off, saying, “When you start going back 20 years on people … you can’t kill a man if someone said something years ago. There’s not a woman in America that hasn’t been harassed in some way. Sure, we’ve got to do better at it, I 
guess, but I just don’t get going back so many years.” Yeah, what’s a traumatic event that’s scarred a person for life? An unidentified woman said Wynn should be presumed innocent until proven guilty, as though he were going on trial. I’ve got a hot flash for you, lady: He’s not. As Nevada gubernatorial candidate Chris Giunchigliani said, “[Wynn] must believe that the women have been truthful” to have stepped down so precipitously.
Politicians are running away from Wynn or going into hiding, as reader Howard Park said it, at warp speed. First and foremost was Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who donated $15,000 Wynnbucks to the Shade Tree Shelter for battered 
women as soon as the accusations emerged, making him our Man of the Week. Quoth Sisolak, “I thought it was better spent there than on some TV commercials.” Even the the Trump administration, normally a bunch of chatty Cathies, is keep mum about Wynn.
“The [Wynn] brand is powerful and associated with the ultimate in luxury and opulence in Vegas,” says Las Vegas Advisor Publisher Anthony Curtis. And outside Vegas? There’s mounting pressure in the Boston media to take the name off Wynn Boston Harbor (which sounds like a shipping facility anyway). Perhaps new CEO Matt Maddox can reach back into Steve Wynn’s playbook and rename it Le Reve (the initial moniker of Wynn Las Vegas). The name of Wynn Boulevard might also get wiped off the Las Vegas map, if Alison Perris‘ petition drive is successful. “Why,” she asked, “should Las Vegas honor a man who is a serial misogynist with multiple accusers and more coming every day by continuing to have a street named after him?”
Figuring out how much it would cost to change out all the branded gaming chips takes a distant second place at Wynncore to shareholder lawsuits. At least one has been filed, by the Norfolk County Retirement System of Massachusetts. It charges Steve 
Wynn and his board of directors with “disregarding a sustained pattern of sexual
harassment and egregious misconduct … Mr. Wynn’s reported decades of sustained egregious misconduct involving the company in his position and the board’s and general counsel’s intentional disregard of the misconduct, as alleged herein, has caused substantial losses and injury to the company, the value of the business and expansion projects and the continued operation and licensure of the company’s core business.”
The board is also accused of such laissez-faire conduct as leasing Steve Wynns private art collection for $1 a year — a sweetheart deal if ever there was one. And as for the hidden payment of $7.5 million to settle a paternity suit, “The board knew of allegations of egregious misconduct by Mr. Wynn, yet did nothing to address the existential risks posed to the company or to prevent defendant Wynn from continuing with egregious misconduct.”
As for the rest of the industry, it’s back to fumbling around for its car keys, not having Wynn to show them the way. “The industry is going to need more visionaries and 
leaders to step up,” said University of Nevada-Las Vegas professor David G. Schwartz, as though such visionaries were thick on the ground. News flash: They’re not. As Denstone Group CEO Oliver Lovat told reporters, engaging in wishful thinking, “I was hoping the allegations were not proved to be true. I think nobody’s happy about this or takes joy in this. It is very sad for Las Vegas and the industry in general.” Wanna bet, Oliver? I can think of some cocktail waitresses, manicurists and masseurs who are probably very happy.
As Wynn victim Cynthia Simmons put it, “I took more heat than he did for all those years, and now he can’t take it for a few days? He’s got the money and power to ride this stuff out, and he couldn’t even take it for a week. He’s getting a taste of his own medicine.” “I know the struggles that a lot of those girls went through. They would 
always come over to my house and talk to my mom,” added Raylene Cottrill, daughter of Earlene Wiggins, the grandmother Wynn allegedly forced to service him because he’d “never had a grandmother before.”
Warned Eilers & Krejcik Managing Director Chris Grove, “It is more likely than not that this is not the last chapter for the gaming industry.” Wynn’s resignation isn’t the end of his troubles, either. Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairwoman Becky Harris announced that the investigation would continue, raising the distinct — if distant — possibility that Steve Wynn could lose his gaming license or the likelier outcome in which Wynn Resorts is fined for its lax corporate governance.
Wall Street analysts mused upon a post-Steve era, without coming to any hard conclusions. Wynn West and Wynn Paradise Park are like the chicken and the pig in a egg-and-ham breakfast. The chicken has an interest but the pig is committed. Maybe some of the frills get pruned from Paradise Park (like that tacky giant ape) but Wynn Resorts is too far down that road to pull back now. As for Wynn West, does the company want to wait and see how Resorts World Las Vegas performs, plunge in or stockpile capital in anticipation of a Japan casino?
To put a bow on all this, we finally have confirmation that the meeting that sparked an 
11-plaintiff lawsuit against Steve Wynn was one and the same as the famous “fat ass” meeting, in which Wynn called a group of generally older waitresses on the carpet. He supposedly told them how great Bellagio was going to be “and none of your fat asses are going over there.” As plaintiff Charlotte Arrowsmith said, “The only righteous thing to happen to him is if they pull his gaming license. I’m praying that happens. It won’t hurt his company — he has all the money he ever needs — but it will hurt his ego.”
That’s where it will hurt him the most.
