Wynn loses big-time

Since the Wall Street Journal broke the cone of silence around Steve Wynn‘s sex life, shares of WYNN have fallen 19%. That means that the Wynn Resorts CEO is $463 million the poorer, being so heavily invested in his own company (12,230,334 share as of last month). At present, a share that would have cost you $201.30 on Jan. 26 now goes for $163.48. The stock is also taking a battering on the Hong Kong bourse. Things could get worse, Macao having joined the queue of jurisdictions lining up to investigate the mogul. On the plus side, an initial geyser of Republican lawmakers seeking to divest themselves of Wynn-tainted cash has slowed to a trickle, if that, although Sen. Dean Heller (R) broke radio silence long enough to say he was giving $5,400 in Wynnbucks to charity.

The Republican Governors Association is cutting Wynn loose, returning $100,000 of Wynn lucre and banning any future contributions from Wynn or his company. Worse still from a Wynn Resorts perspective, the RGA is scrapping a 2020 conference booking at Wynncore. As for the $2.5 million that Wynn gave the RGA over the past 18 years, well, that money’s all spent, the organization says.

Wynn’s Massachusetts frontier is rapidly crumbling. Gov. Charlie Baker (R) has called Wynn’s alleged sexual predation “appalling and disgraceful,” demanding rapid Massachusetts Gaming Commission action. If Wynn is found deficient in character, he could be forced to sell $2.4 billion Wynn Boston Harbor. Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi has compiled a litany of times Wynn’s Everett venture came skated the edge of impropriety and calls for the MGC to kick him out of the state.

Steve Wynn may not be the only Wynn Resorts figure in hot water. The board of directors faces potential liability. “Allowing someone, which is the assertion being made, to engage in an ongoing pattern and practice of behavior which subjects the company to liability raises the specter of legal liability for those who have oversight of that CEO,” explained attorney Darren Robbins. Since the company was privy to a $7.5 million settlement for sexual misconduct on Wynn’s part, it can hardly claim to have been taken by surprise by the Wall Street Journal exposé.

USC Gould School of Law boffin Michael Chasalow thinks the board may throw Wynn to the sharks, saying, “It is likely that the board could come up with the answer this is going to do damage to the firm on a long-term basis because, in many ways, Steve Wynn is the brand … If you have an officer who is engaging in bad behavior that can result in liability for the company, then you still have an obligation to act.”

Finally, in case anyone really thinks Elaine Wynn masterminded the WSJ story, her attorney Mark Ferrario said, “They’re just trying to take the focus off of what is really going on.”

* What do you do if you’ve become a household name? Why, take your act to Las Vegas, of course! Stormy Daniels, discarded paramour of Donald Trump, made a personal appearance at Little Darlings strip club. Daniels, who signed autographs for fans, was making Vegas the second stop on a “Make America Horny Again 2018” tour that kicked off in the heart of the Bible Belt, South Carolina. Somebody had to cover the Vegas event and that onerous duty fell to the Los Angeles Times, which reported of Daniels’ stage appearance, “The whole thing took a few minutes and was downright chaste compared with the performances by Annie Cruz and Cindy Starfall, the featured performers in Little Darlings’ ‘Asian Invasion’ event about an hour later.” Somebody should invite Daniels to the State of the Union speech as their guest. That would shake things up.

* A couple of homeward-bound Las Vegas tourists were arrested at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for “gross lewdness or lascivious behavior” — a blow job, in short. Said one eyewitness, the duo “making out, and she was touching him all over. … It was nonstop.” Who did they think they were … Steve Wynn?