Wynn says he doesn’t understand nightclubs, loves nongaming revenue

Steve Wynn said today that he thinks young people probably waste too much time on social media and that he’s not a huge supporter of “the nightclub crowd.”

The casino mogul told an audience gathered for a major gambling conference at the Mirage that technology had helped resorts by allowing them to better track customers and employees and, generally, offer more choices. At the same time, he said, technology and social media seemed to engulf young people in a “virtual world.”

Wynn said he was “not a big fan” of Facebook or Twitter and that young people likely spend more “dim-witted time” on the social media platforms than they’re worth. He admitted a bit lightheartedly, however, that he was “one of those old white guys” who thinks Millennials are “sort of short on brains.”

“But in the meantime, we’re doing well with them. We put the little darlings in the nightclubs,” Wynn said. “It’s probably the only part of the business where I have cognitive dissonance. I walk into the clubs and I say to myself, either we have attracted every moron in the world, or there’s something about the sound that allows normal people to check their human sensibilities at the door.”

It was one of the more colorful moments in a keynote speech Wynn delivered at the outset of the first full day of the 16th International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking.

Started by the late Bill Eadington of UNR, the conference focuses largely on gambling-related academia and is drawing some 600 researchers and others from around the world to Las Vegas this week. Held once every three years, the last conference took place at Caesars Palace in 2013.

This year, organizers intentionally selected the Mirage as the conference location because the landmark resort celebrated its 25th birthday since the time the last gathering was held. That’s also why they asked Wynn, the resort’s original developer, to reflect on the so-called integrated resort model that made the Mirage such a big hit.

It was a rare appearance from Wynn at the Mirage, which is now run by rival casino operator MGM Resorts International. Still, he looked back fondly on the resort’s debut in 1989, when it made a huge splash with nongambling features such as an erupting fake volcano, a domed atrium filled with vegetation and a Siegfried and Roy show.

“It was a phenomenon because of what it was,” Wynn said of the Mirage. “It wasn’t about gaming — it was about the place.”

At multiple points in the speech, Wynn reiterated his strong belief in the importance of nongambling revenue to major resorts. He reminded the audience today that even as his resorts such as the Mirage, Bellagio and Wynn Las Vegas reached new heights in gambling revenue when they opened, they simultaneously brought in higher levels of nongambling revenue.

“The pattern is this: Gaming is a passive activity. It has no value. One roulette table is exactly the same as every other damn roulette table,” Wynn said. “A gaming room has no dynamic value. It’s strictly a receptacle, a cash register. The driver in our business is the noncasino activity. The driver in our business is the experiential value of the enterprise.”

In today’s business environment, big nightclubs are now a key component of nongambling business across the leading Strip resorts.

Even though Wynn said later that he does not have “a lot of respect for the nightclub crowd,” he did appreciate the financial success he has had on that front. And his resorts’ nightlife scene is well regarded: The XS nightclub at his Encore resort, for example, has been named the country’s top nightclub by Nightclub & Bar multiple times.

The introspective look at integrated resorts that Wynn kicked off was expected to continue with later panels on how that model has taken shape around the world and its future potential. The conference runs through Friday afternoon.