{"id":6549,"date":"2011-05-03T09:54:14","date_gmt":"2011-05-03T17:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=6549"},"modified":"2011-05-03T13:16:06","modified_gmt":"2011-05-03T21:16:06","slug":"steve-steve-what-gives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/steve-steve-what-gives\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve, Steve, what gives?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Steve Wynn<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n

No this really isn’t about that truly unfortunate (to put it gently) wedding video that Wynn Las Vegas<\/strong> put on YouTube<\/strong> last Monday. Although, as Hunter Hillegas<\/strong> posted on Twitter<\/strong>, “That video kinda freaks me out. Also, 2005 called and it wants it’s iMovie<\/strong> effects back<\/em>.” And, Steve, when you’re losing Hillegas, you’re losing Middle America.<\/p>\n

What I’m worried about isn’t something that happened in Vegas and should have stayed there. It’s that you’re starting to sound like your role model (Not!<\/em>) Donald Trump*<\/strong>: explaining “policy” by stringing together a bunch of non-sequiturs<\/a>. In Sunday’s Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> interview with Chris Sieroty<\/strong>, you said that you were a skeptic about the opportunities for entry into the online-casino biz and its financial significance to the casino industry (despite being impressed by the fact that the average salary at PokerStars<\/strong> is $110,000\/year), although …<\/p>\n

… you had entered a deal with PokerStars, despite …<\/p>\n

… thinking the Internet<\/strong> nearly impossible to regulate and the federal government would tax it to the hilt because its thirst for revenue can’t be slaked (unlike that of yourself and your shareholders, who have surely taken vows of poverty). And yet …<\/p>\n

… when old friend Dick Gephardt<\/strong> asked you to sit down with PokerStars founder Isai Sheinberg<\/strong>, you obliged. In fact, you liked what you saw so much, finding the company as clean as a hound’s tooth, that you and Sheinberg formed a joint venture (PokerStarsWynn.com<\/a>). That’s before you dropped Sheinberg like a hot brick on Pokergeddon<\/strong> (4\/15\/11, a date which will live in infamy). Despite …<\/p>\n

… your previously stated opposition to federal oversight, you say Internet gambling “cries out” for regulation, likening the status quo to Sharron Angle<\/strong>‘s favorite period of American history, Prohibition<\/strong>. (I agree — with you, that is.) Your PokerStars pals were pushing legislation — they did tell you about this, didn’t they? — that would have forced a confrontation with the feds by legalizing interstate online poker in Nevada<\/strong>. Although you say …<\/p>\n

… that Uncle Sam<\/strong> can’t be trusted to oversee online poker, the — for want of a better name — “Sheinberg-Wynn Bill” was subsequently amended to be contingent upon<\/em> federal approval of Internet poker, even though …<\/p>\n

… you claim to believe that Republicans on Capitol Hill<\/strong> will thwart any such legalization and that Sen. Jon Kyl<\/strong> (R-AZ) is totally intransigent on the matter. By this point in the story, my head was spinning around like Linda Blair<\/strong> in The Exorcist<\/em>, trying to follow your rhetorical switchbacks. To recap: If you say Internet poker can’t be federally recognized or regulated and there’s not much money in it (despite those six-figure average salaries at PokerStars), but you took a flier into it … why<\/em>, exactly?<\/p>\n

I’m not going to get all up in your Kool-Aid (as Gladys Knight<\/strong> would say) regarding your “China<\/strong> gr8, America<\/strong> sux” meme, thrice-familiar boilerplate that Sieroty buried at the bottom of the story. But I did see that you called whoever was in charge of CityCenter<\/strong> “an imbecile and a moron.” It’s heartwarming to know that you and Bobby Baldwin<\/strong> have buried the hatchet — even if you interred it in Baldwin’s skull.<\/p>\n

Enjoy your honeymoon. And if you’re tempted to post photos of it on Flickr<\/strong>, that’s sweet of you … but don’t.<\/p>\n

Congratulations<\/em>,<\/p>\n

David McKee<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

P.S.<\/em>: I apologize for quoting you sparingly but they’re lawsuit-happy over at the R-J<\/em>, a legacy of that anachronistic wackdoodle Sherman Frederick<\/strong>. He’s actually 10 years your junior, Steve, but doesn’t act a day older than Methusaleh<\/strong>. I hear they used to hit the links together.<\/p>\n

*P.P.S<\/em>.: The Donald, I see from Norm(!) Clarke<\/strong>‘s column that he skipped your wedding, despite claiming he’d be in attendance. Nah, I didn’t believe him either. Just between us, he’s always been kind of a douche.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Steve Wynn: No this really isn’t about that truly unfortunate (to put it gently) wedding video that Wynn Las Vegas put on YouTube last Monday. Although, as Hunter Hillegas posted on Twitter, “That video kinda freaks me out. Also, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56,133,42,134,14,4,140,37,62,11,150,33,25,32,31,8,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6549"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6549"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6552,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6549\/revisions\/6552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}