Black man frightens Steve Wynn, Part Two; MGM: Time to forget Harmon?

As Yahoo‘s Jeff Macke cuttingly puts it, he “found a real, live businessman who creates jobs,” thereby providing a Steve Wynn-to-sanity translation, courtesy of CIO Advisors‘ Hugh Johnson. If Wynn were truly being honest, he’d cut to the quick: He’s scared witless that his high-income customers who play at Wynn Las Vegas and Encore, and the trust-fund babies who fill his night spots and Encore Beach Club (right), will have less discretionary dough to fling upon the green felt or into $500 bottle service. That’s a perfectly understandable concern but, self-righteousness being its own reward, Wynn can’t bring himself to tell the truth. “I’m watching my employees’ living standard go through the floor,” crocodile-weeps the man who confiscated Wynn LV dealers’ tips in order that pit bosses could live larger.

Both executives are more than slightly disingenuous by conveniently failing to mention the “fiscal cliff,” upon which our rudderless, impotent Congress has perched the American economy. We will either be pushed over that cliff — and into a double-dip recession — or have it extended into Sometime Next Year (Maybe) during the lame-duck session, a situation in which neither an outgoing or an incoming president is going to have leverage. Either Wynn and Johnson naively subscribe to the Great Man Theory of history (or to what our German friends call the Führerprinzip), investing presidents with godlike powers, or they’re B.S.-ing us for reasons best known to themselves.

However … they’d be well advised to direct their ire toward the 535 decision-makers [sic] on Capitol Hill rather than deifying or demonizing one inhabitant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Speaking of being disingenuous, if Wynn’s favored presidential candidate “reached across the aisle” on Beacon Hill, it was more by necessity than choice. Nice stab at revisionist history, Steve, but you’ve missed the mark.

Besides, if El Steve wants to yammer about people “spending money they don’t have,” the casino industry is the pot calling the kettle black. Ya wanna talk about the Station Casinos bankruptcy? Or maybe the $30 billion-plus in debt carried between MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment, neither of whom can restrain their compulsion to spend? Or Fontainebleau … The Cosmopolitan … Columbia Sussex … Triple Five … Colony Capital … Morgans Hotel Group … Credit Suisse … Morgan Stanley … Goldman Sachs … ?

Got the stomach for that, Steven? Nah, I didn’t think so.

* — As someone who was vilified in anti-Semitic Philadelphia Inquirer editorial-page jihad, you’d think Wynn would know better than to play the race card, sounding how Donald Trump would, if only Trump had a brain.

Wynn’s doubly lucky that, thanks to the laxity and ineptitude of the Louisiana Municipal Police Employees Retirement System, a lawsuit over the possible misuse of its money in a Macao “juice job” has been dismissed. Since Wynn’s former ‘bromantic’ partner, Kazuo Okada, has been ousted by the court system and Wynn Resorts alike, it looks like smooth sailing on the legal seas for Cap’n Steve.

What I really what to know is how come Chairman Wynn’s hair gets darker every year while mine gets grayer? Somewhere up in the Wynncore attic there must be a painting of El Steve that looks like 90 miles of bad road.

MGM has been less fortunate in its Perini Tutor litigation over CityCenter construction defects. While Perini is certain to keep after the $191 million it says MGM owes, the latter has new incentive to call off its own legal beagles. Judge Elizabeth Gonzales has nixed CityCenter CEO Bobby Baldwin‘s preferred “extrapolation” method of proving Perini’s work was defective won’t fly as court evidence. And if Her Honor severs the CityCenter lawsuits, a jury trial regarding the botched Harmon could be years away, by which point Baldwin’s Bump will have been reduced to a pile of barkdust. So MGM execs have good reason to wonder how much more money they should pour down that particular rat hole.

Up in No-Man’s Land (otherwise known as North Las Vegas) the private equity owners of hard-luck Aliante Station are quietly purging the property of Station Casinos’ influence. Former Station exec Terry Downey will be their point man and his early moves include a housecleaning of the sports book. However, the importation of Stadium Technologies betting software lays the groundwork for an eventual outsourcing of sports-wagering to the Borg, er, Cantor Gaming, whose hegemony over Vegas sports books grows by the week.