Wynn’s disgrace continues; Robots overthrow Las Vegas

It’s getting to the point that one wishes Steve Wynn would just go away quietly and take the saga of his sagging, septuagenarian genitals with him. But the news is rarely convenient like that. Fox News is reporting that the University of Iowa “announced plans to remove Wynn’s name from the school’s vision research institute in light of sexual misconduct allegations against Wynn.” The $25 million endowment by Wynn, made in 2013, met with some skepticism at the time. “An endowment gift from a tycoon suffering an obscure disease or condition may sound less like a ringing endorsement of promising research and more like a bequest in the name of wishful thinking,” wrote the Medical Daily.

Wynn got a dubious endorsement from sexist and incompetent ex-casino owner Tom Barrack: “This is a guy who runs one of the best female-oriented operations in the world — 40 percent of his executive force are women, two of his past presidents are women.” That’s a lot more than Barrack can say of his own company.

Less encouraging for Wynn was the Massachusetts Gaming Commission‘s statement that Wynn’s $7.5 million settlement for sexual assault was concealed from them. It’s difficult to see how the MGC can conduct an effectual investigation in a case where almost all of the witnesses are anonymous, although Wynn could still be facing a stiff fine, at minimum. The MGC itself is on the defensive, having to explain how it missed Wynn’s multi-million-dollar payoff during its suitability investigation.

MGC Chairman Steven Crosby warned,“We have unlimited authority to do virtually anything that we want, once we know what the facts are.” (Just ask Gary Loveman.) And the time of public opinion seems to be turning against Steve Wynn. In an unfortunate choice of words, Colby Bruno of the Victim Rights Law Center told the Boston Globe, “If you’re saying that you stand by women then this is where the rubber meets the road.” The Boston Herald piled on, describing the matter of the soft-pedaled litigation settlement as “a cover up,” castigating the MGC for not doing a more thorough background check and calling the Wynn brand “permanently damaged.” Wynn’s grasp on his Massachusetts beachhead looks more tenuous by the day.

* Whenever I’m compelled to write a news item about the advances made by robotics in Las Vegas casinos, at the back of my mind is the question of whose job is being eliminated. Well, it seems like the problem is worse than I thought. According to the University of Redlands, 65% of jobs in Las Vegas could be eliminated by 2038. That’s tens of thousands of people out of work, a stark and worrisome reality. According to the study, “The groups of occupations contributing the most to future automation … are office and administrative support occupations, food preparation and serving related occupations, and sales and related occupations.” If locals casinos aren’t concerned with this threat to their customer base, they should be.

“This looks like especially tough times ahead for Vegas and the Inland Empire,” says Prof. Johannes Moenius. “Las Vegas has approximately 39,000 retail salespeople. About 36,000 of those positions could be technically automated by 2035, according the study. Cashier, cook and game dealer jobs could be automated almost entirely,” warns CNN. The technology for dealer automation has been in place for years. “We expect an incredible amount of increase in income inequality,” says Moenius, adding that the impact will fall mainly on Blacks, Latinos and the undereducated. “We’ll likely have an over supply of people without education. Some of them we can train and some we can’t … They’ll have to go into early retirement.”

Unite-Here President D. Taylor opines that “this is a new industrial revolution that certainly, on public policy, hasn’t been thought out enough,” and he’s trying to renegotiate labor pacts so that displaced workers have soft landings. That being said, “We’re not Luddites. You’re not going to stop technology.” “You will see fewer people face-to-face in the service sector,” says Moenius, “but Cirque du Soleil will still be there.” We don’t know how many people would take solace in that thought.

* Illinois Lottery Control Board Chairman Blair Garber is out of a job after calling East St. Louis, home of Casino Queen, a “shithole.” Aforesaid city gave the world Tina Turner, Jimmy Connors, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Miles Davis. Not a bad lineage.