Woes mount for casino magnate Steve Wynn

Embattled casino mogul Steve Wynn (pictured) is facing even more bad news this week after the University of Iowa reportedly announced that it intends to remove his name from its vision research facility.

According to a report from American television broadcaster Fox News, the decision by the Iowa City-based institution followed the publication of a Saturday story from The Wall Street Journal newspaper of sexual misconduct allegations against the 76-year-old billionaire businessman.

Fox News reported that the University of Iowa opened its Stephen A Wynn 7BALL Institute for Vision Research in 2013 after the Connecticut-born magnate made a large donation of around $25 million. Wynn, who serves as Chief Executive Officer for casino operator Wynn Resorts Limited, was reportedly pronounced legally blind in 2010 after being diagnosed with the inherited disease retinitis pigmentosa (RP) in 1971  and bequeathed the cash in order to help support research into blindness. The broadcaster reported that should the nine-member Iowa Board of Regents governing body subsequently approve the move from the University of Iowa, it would represent the first time the institution has ever removed a donor’s name from one of its buildings or schools.

In related news, Fox News reported that Wynn could also be in trouble with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission after the regulator revealed that the businessman may have deliberately concealed a payment he is alleged to have made to one of his accusers prior to applying for a gaming license for his firm’s Wynn Boston Harbor Resort in 2013. Wynn Resorts Limited is hoping to open the $2.1 billion integrated casino resort on the banks of the Mystic River near Boston in June of 2019 but the regulator purportedly cited The Wall Street Journal story in wanting to know why the supposed $7.5 million payment had not been officially declared.

Stephen Crosby, Chairman for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, reportedly called the sexual misconduct allegations against Wynn ‘appalling’ before explaining that any decision on the future of a gaming license for the under-construction Wynn Boston Harbor Resort is to depend on facts gleaned from his body’s ongoing investigation.

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Moreover reportedly the subject of a similar inquiry in Nevada, Wynn has steadfastly maintained his innocence since the publication of The Wall Street Journal accusations despite resigning as Finance Chairman for the Republican National Committee over the weekend. In a statement published by Nevada broadcaster KSNV, he called the allegations ‘preposterous’ before asserting that the story was ‘the continued work of my ex-wife Elaine Wynn, with whom I am involved in a terrible and nasty lawsuit in which she is seeking a revised divorce settlement’.

“Elaine has explicitly threatened to slander and destroy me and I am surprised that the media is allowing itself to be used to advance this agenda,” read the statement from Wynn.