SINGAPORE Steve Wynn is “dying” to open a gaming resort in Singapore.
“That’s my next goal in life—to build a hotel in Singapore,” the CEO of Wynn Resorts tells The Business Times. He will likely have to wait until at least 2017, however, as the city-state has granted exclusivity until then to its first two gaming properties, Genting Group’s Resorts World at Sentosa and Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s Marina Bay Sands.
Back in 2005, when bidding opened for Singapore’s first gaming licenses, Wynn initially expressed interest but ultimately backed off due to the tight time restrictions placed on the bids. “I realized I couldn’t give it enough time because I had not yet opened Wynn and not yet opened Macau—it would have been an overreach if I had tried,” he says.
If and when Wynn does open a resort in Singapore, he wants it to be “the brainiest, cleverest hotel in Asia.”
And could it be that Wynn eventually teams up with his former adversary, Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson? The two gaming industry moguls seem to have buried the hatchet in recent months, saying nice things about each other and their respective companies after years of openly feuding.
Howard Stutz, who covers the gaming industry for Las Vegas Review-Journal, suggests the abrupt cordiality could signal a future alliance between Wynn and Sands. “It isn’t out of the scope of reality, however, that we might see their companies working together on industry issues in the U.S. (Internet gaming legalization) and overseas (continued expansion into foreign casino markets),” Stutz writes. “Once they put their overpowering personalities aside, Wynn and Adelson are probably on the same page concerning many of these matters.”