Author: Casino Connection Staff

The testimony of various players last week in the Wynn Resorts Ltd. during three days of suitability hearings before the Massachusetts Gaming Commission provided as much drama and surprises as an old “Perry Mason” TV melodrama.

One of the most dramatic came in the form of a letter instead of personal testimony. It was part of a report released by the commission’s Investigations and Enforcement Bureau (IEB). Steve Wynn, who founded the company now under the microscope, and then 14 months ago resigned as president and CEO and divested all of his interests after allegations about him surfaced in the press, claims that the manicurist he paid $7.5 million to in a settlement, scammed him.

The encounter happened in 2005, when Wynn was at the height of his career, just after opening the $2.75 billion Wynn Las Vegas. He wrote, “It started off as a manicure,” an account that unwinds almost like the opening of a film noir. The former CEO declined to be interviewed personally but provided written testimony.

Now aged 77, Wynn recounts how he was sitting in his shorts and T-shirt, when the never identified manicurist began rubbing his leg.

“I realize now I should have reported it,” he said. Instead they had sex, and the woman would later accuse Wynn of raping her and getting her pregnant. The $7.5 million settlement came as naturally as night follows day:

“Along comes this gal who had a turn with me, obviously being advised on what to do,” Wynn said. “Anybody who is over 10 years old and knows what goes on in the world knows what happens next. The story gets sensational.”

The commission’s issue is that this incident was never disclosed when it was investigating Wynn’s suitability to operate a casino in Massachusetts in 2013. It pointedly questioned the various company officials who testified last week about whether any in the current power structure knew about the allegations against Wynn and did nothing. And whether the corporate culture has actually changed as a result of Wynn’s departure, as new CEO Matt Maddox claimed last week in an emotional speech to the commission.

Wynn’s statement claims he had “multiple, consensual relationships” with employees over the years. “I deny ever having any relationship that was not consensual,” he wrote. He added, “That was 97 days after the opening of the Wynn Las Vegas at a cost of $2.75 billion. I said, Jesus, my name is on the sign on the top of the building. As vicious, as rotten as the move was, as scurrilous, as lying—isn’t anybody on earth that can breathe that would ever think I will rape someone. Nuts. So in this context, $7.5 million was not a significant number. And I paid it.”

More explosive was testimony by Wynn’s ex-wife Elaine Wynn, who during the third and final day of testimonies, told the commission she never told regulators what she knew of her ex-husband’s sexual liaison because she was told that the matter had been handled appropriately by Kim Sinatra, the company’s legal counsel (now departed from the company with a large severance package.)

Elaine Wynn co-founded the company and is now its largest shareholder. She said she first learned of the encounter in 2009, four years after it happened. She claimed she received an email “out of the blue” recounting the allegations. She was at the time in the midst of a nasty divorce with Wynn. Nevertheless she confronted him, only to be told by him that he had been extorted.

Sinatra told her about the settlement, and since it came from Wynn’s money and not the company’s she said she was satisfied.

According to the IEB report, “At the time, Ms. Wynn had no reason to doubt Ms. Sinatra and reasonably believed that Ms. Sinatra and Mr. Schreck and the company’s attorneys knew best how such allegations should be handled.”

The issue resurfaced in 2012 in the midst of the company’s lawsuit against another Wynn partner, Kazuo Okada, and as Steve Wynn was attempting to oust his ex-wife from the board of directors. She tried to stay on the board, although she was eventually ousted in 2015.

She left the manicurist’s settlement out of her suitability application to the MGC in 2013 and only began doubting the Sinatra’s advice over the ensuing years as she asked more questions about it.

“I started to sense that there was a bit of a change of tone and mood at the board, and I do believe that I was being referred to as a bitter, cynical ex-wife,” she said. “That was frustrating for me because I obviously believed that some of the questions I was asking were legitimate questions to be asked by a director, certainly as a shareholder,” she told the commission.

Sinatra has disputed the timing of the conversation and what it involved, but under questioning Elaine Wynn declared, “I strongly maintain that I spoke to her in 2009.”

The IEB report revealed that she was the subject of an undercover surveillance by Wynn Resorts’ head of security shortly after the Wall Street Journal story came out about Steve Wynn in January of 2018. This came as a surprise, she said.

She told commissioners “My attorneys never like me to editorialize, but I will say that in the world that we live in, gossip is always around, and people would speculate.” she said when Cameron questioned her about it. “I think somebody suggested that maybe I was being surveilled, and I found that difficult to believe. It wasn’t until this morning that I learned that perhaps that was accurate.”

The head of security, James Stearn, confirmed the surveillance and said he ordered it when he became suspicious she was meeting Kazuo Okada, the co-founder of the company. He said Steve Wynn and Maddox were not informed of it. Elaine Wynn claims she has never met Okada.

She maintains that she strongly supports the company. She noted that she could have already sold her shares and moved on. “I’m here because I am team Wynn,” she said.

Ex-corporate counsel Kim Sinatra came up again when Matt Maddox testified that Sinatra was more interested in protecting Steve Wynn’s interests than the company’s. That led to him dismissing her and naming the current counsel, Ellen Whittemore.

Maddox underwent sharp grilling by commissioners Commissioner Gayle Cameron and Chief Enforcement Counsel Loretta Lillios, concentrating on his leadership skills and the fact that several under him failed to provide him with details of Wynn’s settlement payments. No one has been able to show that Maddox knew about the allegations against his CEO at the time. He said he was more focused on preserving the company in the wake of the Okada lawsuit where billions of dollars were in the balance.

Maddox—who helped Wynn launch the company in 2002—was his handpicked successor and was CFO and president when Wynn resigned. He said when he first learned of the three different settlements, he didn’t believe they were true and didn’t believe it was his responsibility to inform the MGC about them. He said other officials were informed about them and that he didn’t known many of the details before replacing Wynn.

Cameron said, “I’m trying to understand this. You know about a settlement, you have a woman emailing you who has alleged something happened to her, you read about dozens of women who have made allegations who come forward, and you firmly believe that they all lied? That’s what you stated to the IEB, that they all lied. I’m having trouble understanding that, I really am.”

“I would be if I were you, too,” said Maddox. “But when crisis hits, and I think almost everybody’s immediate reaction unless you have the cold hard facts is typically denial.”

Maddox said Sinatra told him, “that there had been a consensual relationship with Steve and an employee over a decade ago that was reviewed by gaming attorneys and outside attorneys and had been handled appropriately and there had been a settlement made.” He was never told that the settlement involved the accusation of rape.

He noted that he was able to persuade Wynn to leave the company, and that he initiated corporate policies that took on harassment head on and reformed the corporate culture.

Cameron probed, “Did you ever feel betrayed by your staff …that all knew about this and yet didn’t tell you as the president of the company? What does that say about your leadership that they think it is OK that all these things can be happening but yet you’re never notified?” She added, “I’m trying to learn what you did as a leader.”

 “I tend to not focus on the past but try to fix the future,” replied Maddox. “When there is time to make a change, I make it,” he said of when he finally replaced the executives who knew of Wynn’s settlement. “I wasn’t perfect in this.”

He said the fact that he wasn’t informed of the allegations shows “that there were a lot of different people that, I think, were trying to protect Steve Wynn and the last thing that they would want to do is tell me.”

Why was that Cameron asked. Maddox replied, “I think I’m known as a very straight arrow.”

“One they can go right around,” said Cameron, evoking a gasp from the audience.

Cameron honed in, asking the CEO if he knows what “Known or should have known” means.

“It means there was willful neglect around something you should have known,” Maddox answered. In his final statement Maddox reiterated: “The company transformed in a very rapid way, and that didn’t happen by accident.”

Maddox said he learned of the contents of the January 2018 Wall Street Journal report on the allege “decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct” ten days before it was published.

He was asked if it ever occurred to him or anyone in the company to alert the gaming commission about it. Maddox said he didn’t think that ever happened. “It took me about five days to start to turn the denial into maybe there is something else here … I understand how ridiculous that looks.”

Board of Directors Chairman Phil Satre testified that the intense scrutiny the company endured made it better. “As we lead this company into the future, we are committed to implementing and enforcing industry-leading policies for compliance and meeting the highest standards of excellence,” he said.

After the hearing he told the press, “the entire board and management are full partners in the ongoing effort to foster a safe workplace environment where all are encouraged to voice concerns and employees at every level of the organization are held accountable.”

Near the end of the presentation by Wynn, Robert DeSalvio, who will lead the Encore Boston Harbor if the company retains its license, reminded the commission of the economic boon the casino will be for the region, including $575 million to the city of Everett over the next dozen years and the 5,000 jobs being created, many for local residents.

The MGC will soon go behind closed doors to decide whether Wynn Resorts can keep its license and open the $2.6 billion Encore Boston Harbor in Everett, which lies across the Mystic River from the Boston skyline. The casino is due to open in June and the company has already started hiring staff and taking hotel bookings.

The commission will also issue a suitability decision on the seven board of directors and individual company executives.

Although no one knows what is in the minds of the five commissioners, it is perhaps inevitable that industry analysts are “making book” on the possible outcome. John DeCree, a Las Vegas-based analyst with Union Gaming told investors last week, “It’s impossible to tell how these things will go, but based on the information available, we expect Wynn Resorts to maintain its license but get hit with a substantial fine (greater than the $20 million levied by Nevada Gaming Commission) and be subjected to regulatory probation and additional oversight.”

On the other hand, wrote McCree: “if the commission determines the company is unsuitable (even after appeal), and Wynn is required to vacate its license, we envision a trustee to oversee the opening of the property and an orderly sale process.”

John L. Smith of CDC Gaming Reports doesn’t expect the commission to force a sale. “No one reasonably expects Massachusetts to force the sale of a company that has made obvious strides to scour its corporate culture in the #MeToo era. It does, however, serve as a reminder that, as the facts have emerged from multiple investigative bodies, there will be no room for error in the future. Nor should there be.”

The report the investigators submitted to the commission concluded that the “company’s board of directors was not collectively informed in 2005 of the initial rape allegation, or of Mr. Wynn’s characterization that he engaged in consensual sexual relations with a subordinate employee, or of the eventual $7.5 million settlement agreement.” Those who did know, the report says, are no longer employed.

The company insists it is now a different institution from the one that Wynn founded and then led. During testimony before the commission, Maddox declared “Wynn Resorts has changed from a founder-led organization to a global enterprise overseen by a capable, independent and accountable board of directors.”

Maddox said, “I knew when I took over on Feb. 7, 2018, that we had to be strong, be fast and get to the truth. Only the truth was going to let this company survive and thrive. We had to be transparent, cooperative and progressive.”

During his search for the truth, Maddox said he started off skeptical of the allegations against Wynn and company. “As those investigations began, the denial changed, and I began to realize that there were many victims — and those victims felt powerless,” he said. “For that, I am deeply remorseful. They felt that they didn’t have a voice. That if they were to speak up, they could be retaliated against. Or if they did, it would not be investigated. For that I am truly sorry. I am sorry that our company did not live up to its values. And when I started to realize that truth, I took it very personally. And decided that no matter who the CEO is of Wynn Resorts, or who the chairman is, that would never happen again.”

As they listened, the panel found no problems with new board chairman Phil Satre and other board directors Dee Dee Myers, Betsy Atkins, Winifred “Wendy” Webb and Richard Byrne. Nor with the CFO Craig Billings or new chief counsel Ellen Whittemore.

In a sense the company that Steve Wynn founded is now his ex-wife Elaine’s company since when he left she had by far the largest number of shares. Taking its cues from her, the company has not disputed anything in the allegations against it. She didn’t oppose the company paying the record $20 million fine to the Nevada Gaming Control Board to keep its license there.

Wynn Resorts cooperated with gaming regulators in both Nevada and Massachusetts, voluntarily producing thousands of pages of documents and unlimited access to company executives as well as sharing. In its statement to the MGC it promised to share “detailed information regarding the swift and decisive actions the company took as soon as it became aware of the allegations against the founder. . In summary, Wynn Resorts has changed from a founder-led organization to a global enterprise overseen by a capable, independent and accountable Board of Directors.”

The company has created an independent committee to investigate claims of sexual harassment led by a former Boston police commissioner.

Maddox’s showing during the hearing has prompted the Boston Globe’s editorial staff to call for the commission to require that Maddox step down as a condition for the company retaining its license.

Globe columnist Joan Vennochi wrote last week, “Steve Wynn is gone from Wynn Resorts. But not his ugly legacy. That lingers, as long as Matt Maddox, Wynn’s handpicked successor, runs Wynn Resorts.”

Vennochi also wrote that Elaine Wynn should be forced to sell off her shares.

Globe Deputy Managing Editor Larry Edelman also called for Maddox’s departure. “I am torn on this, but I think CEO Matt Maddox should be required to step down. Before he succeeded Steve Wynn in February 2018, Maddox had been the company’s president since 2013 and Wynn’s right-hand man.”

Like Cameron, Edelman is highly skeptical of Maddox’s claims to have been “completely in the dark” regarding the accusations against his boss. “If he didn’t know anything, he should have, and his resignation would cement the company’s claim that it has cleaned house.”

Underlying last week’s testimony is the continuing power struggle in the company between both Maddox and Elaine Wynn. This was highlighted when Maddox testified that he at first believed the allegations against Wynn were orchestrated by his ex-wife. She campaigned against several former and current board members and against Maddox.

Meanwhile, apparently stunned by the ferocious nature of some of the questioning last week, the company tried a new approach, suggesting that the commission was violating its due process rights and those of the executives and directors.

In a brief posted this week, Wynn Resorts said the MGC “impermissibly shifted the burden to Wynn MA, the Company, and Mr. Maddox to demonstrate why their 2013 suitability” should remain, rather than “first proving by substantial evidence that the licensee has failed to maintain its suitability by clear and convincing evidence.”

The brief continued, “Their license cannot simply be put on trial before the Commission without the IEB making such a finding and decision,” and compared it to requiring a defendant in a trial to prove his innocence rather than for the prosecution to prove his guilt.

Those questioned were blindsided last week when they were quizzed about facts that had not been included as evidence in the IEB report. One of these was about the surveillance of Elaine Wynn, which Maddox denies knowing anything about.

That surveillance was conducted by James Stern, who admitted to doing it during testimony. He was fired two days after the hearings ended.

Wynn’s brief also called into question Cameron’s line of questioning about Maddox’s leadership, “which is not a statutory criterion in the Gaming Act and was not mentioned at all in the IEB Report.”

In a related development, Nevada’s Gaming Control Board provided Wynn with written confirmation that Maddox “was found suitable and remains in good standing with gaming regulators in that state,” and Nevada commission Chairman Tony Alamo told the Boston Globe that his commission’s investigation of Wynn is concluded.

That information was included in the Wynn brief in response to a suggestion by Massachusetts commissioners that the Nevada commission has not closed its investigation yet.

Board Chairman Phil Satre—with Elaine Wynn nodding in agreement—also bristled at a particular line of questioning during the hearings when Commissioner Enrique Zuniga asked Satre what the company would do in the event of an “adverse finding.”

Satre snapped, “Why would you care about that? I mean, our financial condition at that point in time is not something that is an issue for you. It’s an issue for our shareholders. It’s an issue for everywhere else, but why is it an issue for you, if you’ve decided, ‘We don’t want you here.’ ”

Satre also reminded the commission that they might not be in a position to demand the ouster of the current CEO or others because the Massachusetts property is a tiny part of the company’s overall holdings. He warned that the company would not do business in the state if the commission made it impossible to do so.

Although Wynn has invested about $2 billion in the Everett casino, which is about 2 percent of its annual revenue, Macau accounts for about 75 percent of its revenue. Meanwhile the company is strong enough that it recently announced a takeover bid for Australia’s Crown Resorts. It is also in the running for a license for an integrated casino-resort license in Japan.

Resorts World Las Vegas has taken two giant steps closer to its 2020 debut, borrowing $2.6 billion to complete construction of the 3,400-room hotel casino and hiring Strip veteran Scott Sibella to run it.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal said Sibella signed on April 4 as president and chief operating officer, the same positions he held for more than eight years at MGM Grand. He left the Grand in February, taking a buyout as part of a program under way at parent MGM Resorts International to cut $100 million in costs, in part by paring executive salaries.

Resorts World LV, a subsidiary of global resort conglomerate Genting, is scheduled to open in 2020 at the north Strip site of the old Stardust. The financing completed earlier this month indicates the project is well on the road to making that date.

Reuters reports that a $1 billion, 10-year bond was sold with a coupon of 4.625 percent along with a $1.6 billion senior secured credit facility. Barclays, Citigroup and JPMorgan were joint global coordinators for the bond issue, which Standard & Poor’s rated BBB+, an investment-grade ranking that is rare for gaming. Demand was strong, the report said. Orders from investors totaled $3.8 billion.

Construction of Resorts World suffered through a number of fits and starts after Genting bought the site in 2013 from Boyd Gaming, which had scrapped plans for a super-resort of its own there when the 2008-09 recession hit. Now, with most of the exterior structure visible, anticipation is steadily building for what will be the first new casino hotel to debut on the Strip since The Cosmopolitan almost 10 years ago. Plans call for an Asian-themed experience which in addition to a massive gaming floor will feature more than 25 food and beverage outlets, an array of retail, more than 200,000 square feet of spas, pools and fitness facilities, day and nightclubs and more than 300,000 square feet of meetings and conventions space. The cost at full build-out has been estimated at around $4 billion.

As for its management, Sibella is bringing a wealth of local know-how. A Las Vegas native and graduate of UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hospitality, he launched his career in Atlantic City with the Trump casinos before returning home as an executive at Treasure Island on the Strip, which MGM had acquired in the Mirage Resorts merger in 2000 and later sold to Kansas billionaire Phil Ruffin. Sibella stayed with MGM and moved to The Mirage as president and chief operating officer in 2007. He was named president and COO of the Grand in 2010.

William Hill US will become the official betting partner of the NHL under a new partnership.

William Hill will be promoted in relevant NHL markets and will leverage branding opportunities in connection with the League’s calendar of marquee events. The deal does not include access to NHL proprietary data, according to a press release.

 “This new partnership is yet another example of the innovative yet practical approach our league is taking with the emerging sports gaming industry,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in the release. “We continue to work directly with stakeholders to cultivate relationships across the sports betting landscape. Partnering with William Hill US, a leader in both the sportsbook and mobile betting marketplace, provides a tremendous opportunity to further fan engagement.”

Betting on NHL games has increased 38 percent during the 2018-19 season at William Hill’s Nevada sportsbooks, largely because of the success of the NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights franchise.

“Commissioner Bettman and his team at the NHL have been at the forefront of understanding the opportunities to engage fans through sports betting,” William Hill US CEO Joe Asher said at a press conference. “Combined with our existing partnerships with the Vegas Golden Knights and New Jersey Devils, we are extremely excited to continue to build our relationship with the NHL.”

The NHL also has deals with both MGM Resorts International and FanDuel Sportsbook.

Massachusetts could become the first state to allow sports wagers outside of a casino. That is the direction that a bill being discussed in the legislature would lead.

The Bay State has an enthusiastic population of sports fans, being the home of both World Series and Super Bowl champion teams. So, it’s not surprising that when the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the federal ban on sports betting in May 2018 that this state began immediately looking into legalizing sports book.

Nevertheless, it is close to a year since that court decision and so far nothing has happened in the legislature. If Governor Charlie Baker has his way, lawmakers will pass a sports betting bill by the summer. Currently his bill is before the Legislature’s Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies.

Massachusetts law allows a governor to directly propose a bill, which Baker did in January when he sent over a proposal to allow bettors to wager at either a casino or on mobile platforms. The state has two casinos, the MGM Springfield and the slots parlor Plainridge Park, with the Encore Boston Harbor looming in the wings to open in June.

The governor claims that his bill would create $35 million in state taxes that could be shared with municipalities. Bets would be taxed at 10 percent in casinos and 12.5 percent online.

In supporting his bill, Baker stated “Expanding Massachusetts’ developing gaming industry to include wagering on professional sports is an opportunity for Massachusetts to invest in local aid while remaining competitive with many other states pursuing similar regulations.” He added, “Our legislation puts forth a series of commonsense proposals to ensure potential licensees are thoroughly vetted and safeguards are in place to protect against problem gambling and legal activity.”

Wagering would be limited to those 21 and older and only on professional sports team. Betting on collegiate or high school teams wouldn’t be allowed and all coaches, athletes, referees or other employees of teams would not be allowed to participate.

The Boston Red Sox is cheering the prospect of sports betting. At last week’s unveiling of the MGM Resorts logo at Fenway Park’s Green Monster, the team president noted they support Baker’s plan. “We’d definitely like to see sports betting happen. It’s important for fan engagement. There’s a ton of illicit activity that we all know has been going on for a long, long time. So, we’ll let the state figure that out. It’s in their hands.”

MGM Resorts President Jim Murren, who was also at the unveiling, conceded that MGM does offer sports betting in jurisdictions where it is legal, but stressed that his company was after something else in partnering with the Red Sox.

 “We did this transaction because we’re in line culturally and we’re in the entertainment business. MGM is an entertainment company. We look for fan engagement, we look for fan experiences and we’d love to do it here.”

DraftKings, the Boston-based company that started off as a daily fantasy sports provider and expanded to include sports betting in several states, is fully on board with the governor’s plan, as the company’s spokesman, James Chisholm explained recently in an interview with South Coast Today. “Baker’s initiative makes all the sense in the world for us,” he said. “Whether you like it or not, there’s already sports betting going on in Massachusetts, just illegally. Legalizing sports wagering would generate revenue, keep people safe, and create opportunities for the 600-plus employees here at DraftKings.”

Baker was at the ribbon-cutting for the company’s new corporate headquarters March 25, when he referenced his bill and once more called on lawmakers to give him a bill to sign by summer.

The New England Sports Network has begun carrying a sports book show called “Follow the Money” that originates in Las Vegas. It will run five days a week. In a press release NESN declared, “Sports-wagering regulations are changing quickly and with these changes we anticipate an increased interest in obtaining relevant and reliable sports information.”

State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, who oversees the state’s very successful lottery, has been arguing for several years that the lottery should be allowed to embrace new technology and move online. She argues that the lottery should have a place at the table of sports betting. Recently she told lawmakers, “This is an operating company that needs to modernize, and what we are seeing across the world is a cannibalization of sales and the disruption caused for bricks-and-mortar companies by the internet.” She added, “And particularly, there are only so many entertainment dollars in total, so Lottery for a very long time was a predictable, terrific business, but it had no competition.”

Lottery Director Michael Sweeney fully supports that view. He told the joint Senate, House committee: “As the discussion continues about sports betting and the prospect of an online or mobile component to it, we see this as an opportunity to examine the Lottery and other existing forms of gaming in the state and establish regulations that provide a level playing field.”

The Massachusetts Lottery distributes aid to 351 municipalities, which they use to repair roads, fund programs for seniors, maintain parks and pay for recreation programs. Two years ago its net profit was $1.039 billion.

Baker isn’t getting any support for sports betting from the $42.7 billion budget that the House leadership proposed, which does not include money from that.

In January the governor submitted a budget that included $35 million from sports betting, but that wasn’t included in the budget released by the House Ways and Means Committee, and which is endorsed by Speaker Robert DeLeo. Instead the budget focuses on increased spending for public schools.

By taking out the sports betting revenue the house leadership is signaling that it wants to take a slower approach than the governor. DeLeo commented, “I think that is going to require a lot of discussion. I’m aware it could be an important source of revenue, but how we are going to do it … I don’t think it’s probably as easy as some people think it may be.”

Ohio state Rep. Brigid Kelly and state Rep. Dave Greenspan recently introduced a bill to legalize betting on professional and college sports. The Ohio Lottery Commission—expanded from nine to 11 members–would administer sports wagering. A new Sports Gaming Advisory Board would provide research and recommendations to the commission and the Casino Control Commission also would monitor sports betting.

Greenspan said, “At its core, this bill is intended to provide additional funding for public education in Ohio by making sports betting legal. The format and structure of the bill provides clarity as to the authority overseeing sports betting in Ohio while providing flexibility to address opportunities and challenges facing this newly legalized industry.”

Sports betting revenue would be taxed at 10 percent, with a portion dedicated to public education and 2 percent directed to the problem gambling and addiction fund.

Meanwhile, MGM Resorts International supports a bill that would allow Ohio’s four casinos and seven racinos to offer sports book, said MGM Northfield Park President and COO Chris Kelley last week.

He told the Akron Beacon-Journal “MGM has been a leader in sports betting for over 25 years and we think we’ve demonstrated the ability to work effectively with lawmakers, with regulators and bring an experience to the guest that they value,” adding “So we certainly would love to see something like that happen.”

The company would also like to see the legislature approve of able games at the state’s seven racinos, which are limited to video lottery terminal games. The four casino resorts in the state’s largest cities offer table games, along with slots.

Gaming is certainly on the minds of Buckeye State lawmakers. A bill was introduced the same day Kelley spoke that would legalize sports book with the Lottery Commission overseeing it. The Senate has a similar bill, but with the Ohio Casino Control Commission in charge.

Kelley’s comments were in conjunction with a ceremony where MGM took over ownership of the state’s most productive casino, racino or casino resort from Hard Rock International. The event included the unveiling of MGM’s 7 foot tall, 350-pound iconic Leo the Lion statue at the racino’s entrance.

Besides rebranding the property, MGM changed over the names of eateries, bars and entertainment venues, jettisoning rock and roll memorabilia while keeping some old names like Kosar’s Wood-Fired Grill, which is named after Cleveland Brown player Bernie Kosar.

Two more Pennsylvania casinos have officially applied to offer sports betting, as Mohegan Sun Pocono in Wilkes-Barre and Mount Airy Casino in Mount Pocono each submitted petitions to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to offer retail and online sports books.

Both casinos have already signed agreements with platform suppliers. Mohegan Sun Pocono announced at the end of January that it will partner with Sweden-based Kindred Group to launch retail and online sports betting under the Unibet brand. Mount Airy announced last week that it is partnering with the Stars Group, parent of internet gaming giant PokerStars, to create retail and online sports books under the BetStars brand.

Few details about the pending sports books were revealed in the publicly released portions of the license petitions.

In the petition, Mohegan promotes the creation of jobs through sports betting, although the public version does not identify how many jobs. The petition also plugged other economic benefits, including “increased tax revenue to the commonwealth and a boost to the local and state economy via an increase in spending on various goods and services.”

Downs Racing, the casino’s operating company, is seeking a certificate to offer a combination of land-based, mobile and interactive sports wagering. In an interview with the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board spokesman Doug Harbach said the board will schedule a hearing soon for Mohegan Sun Pocono officials to present their plan specifics and gain approval.

Mount Airy’s petition was also scant on public details, although Vince Jordan, the casino’s vice president 0of marketing and gaming operations, told The Citizen’s Voice that the casino plans on “making an exciting announcement in the next few weeks” that will preview the property’s BetStars sports book, adding that sports betting “is the obvious next step for us to continue diversifying our casino offerings.”

Mount Airy originally announced last August that it would partner with the Stars Group, which already operates retail books in New Jersey.

“It is anticipated that the addition of sports wagering will enhance the Mount Airy facility, increasing its competitiveness in the regional gaming market by providing a significant amenity for gaming patrons,” said Mount Airy’s sports betting petition “Mount Airy will endeavor to market to the online sports wagering customers in order to drive additional traffic to the land-based facility.”

Sports books are open at five of Pennsylvania’s 12 casinos and one off-track betting parlor. Some plan to offer online sports betting in the coming months.

One of those is Presque Isle Downs outside of Erie, which is planning a sports book licensed last year, but has now stretched its timeline to debut the book by June 1. Churchill Downs, Inc. is in the process of purchasing the racino from Eldorado Resorts, and the ongoing process has delayed the sports book, originally planned for an April launch.

Churchill Downs is planning a BetAmerica-branded sports book powered by SBTech.

Upstate New York officials are demanding answers in what many of them suspect as bribery of elected officials by gifts of sporting tickets from the Western Region Off Track Betting Corp.

Minority Leader Dennis Virtuoso of the Niagara County Legislature wants the New York state legislature to demand that OTB release the names of those who were given tickets to events through the company’s promotional programs.

This comes after allegations several months ago in the Niagara Gazette and the Investigation Post, that tickets to events were given to friends and family connected to local politics. Such tickets are typically reserved for VIP high rollers at the Batavia Downs Casino.

The newspaper stories told how OTB officials declined to give the names of those who used the Suite Ticket Promotion Program, despite a request under New York’s Freedom of Information Law.

OTB claims releasing this information would be an invasion of the recipients’ privacy.

Robert Freedom, executive director of the state’s Committee on Open Government, which controls such records’ access, said the denial has no merit because thousands of people could have seen the ticket recipients attending the event.

Fourteen months after Steve Wynn left under a cloud—more like a hurricane—for sexual misconduct, the company he founded is facing the music with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. Whether, after all the testimony, explanations and mea culpas, it will stay for the dance with its gaming license intact, or be sent packing, depends on the commission accepting that Wynn’s corporate culture has changed in that year.

The commission held three days of hearings last week to determine Wynn’s “suitability” to keep its license.

The commission also released the long-awaited report, which was, in its way, anticipated locally as the Mueller report was anticipated nationally.

The report assists the panel in deciding whether to allow the company to keep its license to operate its $2.6 billion casino resort in Everett. It details Wynn’s alleged misconduct. It tells what the people who worked at Wynn knew and did about it and the steps it has taken since then to change the corporate culture so the mistakes that happened won’t be repeated.

It details how executives knew about the sexual harassment for decades but disregarded the company’s own policies. They not only ignored those policies, they also actively covered up the incidents.

Wynn himself has consistently denied any allegations, but the company accepted that all of the incidents occurred in its settlement with the Nevada Gaming Control Board in February. The board hit the company with a $20 million fine, in part because withheld information about a $7.5 million settlement that Wynn paid to a manicurist who alleged that he raped her. But most important, the board didn’t yank its license to operate in Las Vegas.

During the first day of hearings board member Patricia Mulroy testified, “I have to be very frank with you. That man did lots of things wrong that are beyond comprehension.”

She added, “I was brand new to this board and this board could not focus on that discussion. Everything was seen from the filter of the litigation and the animosity towards Mrs. Wynn… I could kick myself here from China that I didn’t speak up. I let myself get sucked into that vortex of vitriol and for that I am just furious with myself.”

Mulroy joined the board in the fall of 2015. At the time she was told that the 2005 settlement to the manicurist was for a one-time indiscretion, “an outlier event,” and “old and cold” and that the sex was consensual. The term “rape” was never used. After the publication of the Wall Street Journal story, Mulroy was appointed chairman of a special committee to investigate the allegations. She explained that the board tended not to believe the allegations because they were used by Elaine Wynn in her divorce against Steve Wynn and the board had intense animosity toward her.

Mulroy testified that the board asked Sinatra many times about other settlements and was told there were none. Then her committee uncovered them.

“I was furious,” she said. “When we found out there were other settlements, when we found out about other incidents in the salon and spa, I was shaken to my bone. I was absolutely shaken to the core.”

Current Wynn President and CEO Matt Maddox also testified that he only learned of the allegations from the 2016 court filing. He was also told the relationship with the manicurist was consensual. He later heard the term “assault” when he was preparing for a deposition in 2017.

As the allegations surfaced, Maddox said the company was immersed in an extremely acrimonious case against a co-founder whom, executives were warned, would stop at nothing to discredit Steve Wynn. Including planting stories about him in the press.

“In hindsight, I should have paid more attention to it,” Maddox testified. “I should have thought of it as something other than a really tough litigation strategy, because that’s how it was positioned.”

He added “I understand how ridiculous that looks,” but “when crisis hits I think almost everybody’s immediate reaction unless you have cold hard facts is typically denial.”

Mulroy and Maddox are among 17 total Wynn Resorts higher-ups the board are interviewing, including Chairman Phil Satre, Executive Vice President Ellen Whittemore, CFO Craig Billings, board director Dee Dee Myers, security chief Jim Stern, Encore Boston Harbor President Robert DeSalvio and co-founder and ex-wife Elaine Wynn.

Maddox asked to address the commission. His remarks began: “Fourteen months ago when the Wall Street Journal article came out, our company was shaken to its core. We were in crisis, and many of us were in denial.” The company’s 25,000 employees worried about their future amidst reports that the company might be sold or broken up.

“I knew when I took over on February 7, 2018 that we had to be strong, be fast and get to the truth. Only the truth was going to let this company survive and thrive. We had to be transparent, cooperative and progressive,” said Maddox.

He thanked the commission’s Investigations and Enforcement Bureau (IEB) for helping the company to “get to the truth.”

“As those investigations began, the denial changed, and I began to realize that there were many victims—and those victims felt powerless,” he said. He decided, “no matter who the CEO is of Wynn Resorts, or who the chairman is, that would never happen again” and that the company would transform itself from a company that was about one man “into a progressive company that’s about the 25,000 people.”

He committed to transforming the company into a leader, with independent compliance committees, a “refreshed” board of directors, new management team and indirect and direct reporting, “so there would never be another opportunity for someone to feel like they did not have a voice.”

The company has been recast as “progressive,” visionary, creative and a leader in how it treats employees and of the need to invest in communities, he said. “A company needs to be viewed as a net giver in the communities in which it operates, not a net taker.”

Maddox concluded, “The transformation that we’ve gone through and the changes that we’ve made—which we’re going to outline in this report—I hope, will help all of you regain trust in us. We want to make you proud as a licensee here in Massachusetts.”

Whatever the commission does or doesn’t do to the company, Steve Wynn himself won’t be subject to disciplinary action since he has divested himself of all shares or ties to the company.

Although the hearings are public, the discussions among the five commissioners will take place behind closed doors. Interestingly, unlike most commission meetings, this one is not being live-streamed.

The report details that a manicurist, known under the pseudonym “Amy,” who worked in a casino salon alleged that Wynn raped her in 2005 and got her pregnant. She complained to then-vice president of hotel operations, Doreen Whennen and met with her and Wynn Las Vegas CEO Marc Schorr. Her employment records show that “Amy” “resigned” the next day.

In actuality a company attorney negotiated a $7.5 million settlement with “Amy” that was paid over a decade. In return she withdrew allegations and signed a non-disclosure agreement. Wynn set up an LLC to pay the settlement, so that the money couldn’t be traced to company funds. That attorney did not inform the company’s general counsel at the time and board members were never told. The executives involved are no longer employed by the company.

One of the company’s issues with the MGC is that the settlement was never disclosed in 2014 when it was holding hearings on Wynn’s suitability to hold a license.

Elaine Wynn, Wynn’s ex-wife, and currently the largest shareholder in the company, learned of the settlement 10 years ago and informed the general counsel.

Around the same period a cocktail server, whose pseudonym is “Beth” claimed Wynn forced her to have sex with him. She and her parents agreed to a $975,000 settlement from Wynn in 2006. But before that “Beth” informed the hotel’s chief human resources officer, who informed Wynn Las Vegas’s general counsel.

A 2018 letter from “Beth’s” attorney said she felt pressured into continuing a sexual relationship with Wynn.

The report contains other allegations. Such as a 2008 settlement for $700,000 with a cocktail waitress who was fired after negotiations over severance pay and later sent a demand letter claiming that Wynn pursued her for a year. This incident happened before the formation of Wynn Resorts, although two company executives were aware of it.

In 2014 a cocktail server fired from Wynn Las Vegas filed a complaint over the firing. During mediation she claimed to have been raped by Wynn in 2005. She was paid $9,000. Although the general counsel and several other officials knew of the complaint, it was never investigated. None of these officials are with the company today.

Two massage therapists claim that between 2013-2014 Wynn behaved inappropriately at the Encore Spa. These complaints included exposing himself, making inappropriate comments and requests for “sensual massage.” They informed the director who told Brian Gullbrants, who at that time was head of hotel operations at Wynn Las Vegas and is currently executive vice president of the Everett casino. He informed former Wynn Las Vegas President Maurice Wooden who informed current Wynn CEO Matt Maddox. Gullbrants is on the list of those expected to testify to commission. He is the only current employee who had oversight over a property where most of the Wynn allegations are centered.

Many other allegations are detailed in the 200-page report, which, according to several media outlets that obtained it said, “Their efforts at secrecy made it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for gaming regulators to detect this potentially derogatory information through typical regulatory means.”

Wynn himself faces no disciplinary action. Neither did seven employees named in the report as knowing about the allegations but taking no actions. None of them are still with the company. One, Kim Sinatra, formerly executive vice president and general counsel, left Wynn last summer with a $1.8 million severance package and millions of dollars in stock.

That severance package drew the attention of MGC Chairman Cathy Judd-Stein, who zeroed in on it during questioning of current CEO Matt Maddox.

“Did Ms. Sinatra know that her severance payment was being signed on August 3?” she quizzed. “Did she ask you to make sure to sign on August 3? Did she know before our deposition that she was going to be paid nearly $10 million?”

Maddox denied knowledge of it, although he said he did talk with Sinatra before her deposition by the MGC’s investigators.

Another board member, Betsy Adams, similarly grilled, responded, “At the time we believe we believe this was the right business decision. We were concerned about stabilizing the company… And not invited another big, ugly, public, protracted lawsuit.”

Another board member, Jay Johnson, told the panel, “When the WSJ came out, to say that I was disappointed would be an understatement. It rocked my boat and I wasn’t sure if I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay on this board.” He said that the reforms over the last 14 months persuaded him to remain, calling them “nothing short of remarkable.”

Although Wynn himself is beyond the reach of the commission, he could face police charges, according to a spokesman for the Clark County, Nevada District Attorney’s Office. That would probably require the cooperation of the persons named in the report, several of who have gotten large settlements. The cocktail waitress reportedly threatened to go public last year until the company accused her of extortion and brought in the FBI.

When the Wall Street Journal expose in January 2018 was published, it forced Wynn to resign as CEO and sell all 12 million shares of his company stock, cutting all ties with the company he founded. He made $2.1 billion on the sale. He also signed a non-compete agreement that runs out in a year. Shortly thereafter more women went public, one alleging rape in the early 1970s, and another claiming that she was “coerced” into having sex with Wynn when he was managing the Golden Nugget.

Although even Wynn Resorts’ critics credit the company for transforming a corporate culture that allowed allegations of sexual misconduct against Wynn to be covered up for decades, experts say the company can do much more to create a different kind of workplace in the dawning age of #MeToo.

Wynn has raised more women to be executives, and added several to the board of directors. It has ejected executives known to have been aware of the allegations but who did nothing. It has created an independent committee that includes a former Boston police commissioner to review future allegations.

Those changes are detailed in an 18-page report submitted to the MGC ahead of the intense grilling that began last week. Among the changes: The company no longer requires confidentiality in sexual harassment claims, allowing past and former employees to speak up.

Some critics nod approvingly, but add that other companies go further, giving employees the option to go to court publicly, rather than accept private arbitration which some say favors the corporation. Statistics show that businesses win arbitration most of the time and payouts are subsequently less.

Wynn spokesman Michael Weaver accepts that the company does things differently but insists, “Our goal of not protecting sexual harassers is the same.”

Some experts say the company could assess if those policies are working, and make the results public. The MGC could, if it chooses, require Wynn to file regular reports, said Jason Schloetzer, corporate governance expert at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, interviewed by AP News.

Weaver notes that Wynn brought in Great Places to Work, which conducts workplace surveys and research, to see how well these new policies are working. Since sexual harassment training was initiated last summer Wynn has received 22 confirmed cases that involved workers or guests that were resolved by disciplinary action or firing.

Jennifer Chatman, a management professor at the University of California-Berkeley business school told AP News that Wynn should do more to open up “stepping stone jobs” that lead to executive positions. “The hospitality business doesn’t have some of the gender pipeline inequities of other domains like high tech and investment banking,” said Chatman. “This should be a place where women should have been excelling for some time.”

Gina Scaramella director of the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, who early on demanded that the company remove Steve Wynn’s name from what is now known as Encore Boston Harbor, and whose organization helped Wynn create its sexual harassment policies, nevertheless insists that in the coming months and years: “The proof will be in how it’s implemented. We’ll be watching.”

One bizarre incident told in the MGC’s report happened after the company adopted its new human resources reforms. It involves an unnamed Wynn Resorts manager at the soon-to-open Encore Boston Harbor who admitted to a touching incident. He then demonstrated what he had done to a lone woman during the investigation, resulting in his immediate dismissal.

Before that happened, the socially-awkward manager would find ways to horn in on employees’ lunches, pry into their private lives and invent reasons for them to spend weekends working with him.

The attorney who conducted an independent review of the company’s new anti-harassment policies commented, “My investigation revealed that the reason why this particular person was there on the Everett site was because he had a specialized knowledge of how to get the job done on casinos.”

She said she felt the new policies were not sufficient to protect employees from misconduct from a supervisor who has power over them.

The IEB’s own investigation of this incident included interviewing the manager accused of touching an employee’s shoulders, who, it said, “appeared to have no concept of boundaries with his co-workers or subordinates.”

When human resources supervisors investigated the manager, he not only admitted to approaching an employee from behind: “To their great surprise, not only did he admit the allegations, but he chose to demonstrate his actions by repeating the behavior on the lone female in the room during the investigation’s interview.” He was fired shortly thereafter.

The report noted the “striking contrast” between how this complaint was treated compared to how such complaints were treated before Wynn left the company.