Steve Wynn in September 2014. Image by Getty

By Ari Feldman February 7, 2018

Steve Wynn resigned as CEO of Wynn Resorts, his Las Vegas casino empire, amid multiple newspaper reports that he sexually harassed employees and led a sexually exploitative workplace culture, the New York Times reported.

“In the last couple of weeks, I have found myself the focus of an avalanche of negative publicity,” Wynn said in a statement. He added that the reports had created an environment “in which the rush to judgment takes precedent over everything else, including the facts.”

Reports in the Wall Street Journal detailed how Wynn forced women to massage him naked and masturbate him. At the Mirage, where he was chairman in the 1990s, Wynn forced female waitresses to have sex in exchange for money with the casino’s VIP clientele. The female staff was also expected to ignore groping and other sexual harassment from casino guests.

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The Las Vegas Review-Journal recently revealed that the newspaper killed a story nearly twenty years ago about rampant sexual misconduct under Wynn at the Mirage. The report also contained details from a federal lawsuit filed by 11 Mirage employees against the casino charging sexual harassment from Wynn and guests. The Mirage settled the last complaint in 2003.

Contact Ari Feldman at feldman@forward.com or on Twitter @aefeldman

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