Massachusetts imposed a record $35.5 million in fines on Wynn Resorts and its CEO for various uncovered violations. However, it also serves as a warning as the promising state casino industry takes shape
The state’s Gaming Commission levied a $35 million fine and another $500,000 on the new CEO Matthew Maddox. The fine is for failing to reveal years of claims of sexual misbehaviour against the business founder Steve Wynn. However, the five-member panel permitted the business to recall its state casino license and to open its $2.6 billion Encore Boston Harbour resort in June as planned.
The fine is the biggest to be imposed by any state casino regulatory agency. The Nevada Gaming Commission in levied a $20 million fine in February on Wynn Resorts.
Massachusetts Casino Fines Wynn Resorts and CEO
The $35 million will affect the corporation’s bottom line this year, nonetheless, it’s relatively a small sacrifice, said a gambling expert at Boston College, Richard McGowan.
“Yes, the fine hurts,” McGowan said. “But the fact that the gaming club is a $2.6 billion development kind of belittles the fine.”
Commission members declined to elaborate on how they have reached the specific amount of the fine. However, WBUR reports $35 million signifies a month’s worth of predictable gambling incomes at the soon-to-open casino. It is based on state budget approximations. Also, it is equivalents to what the business, which owns casinos in Macau and Las Vegas, makes in revenues companywide.
And while the fine on the company CEO, Maddox, is also important, the final decision about whether he should continue to lead the business is up to Wynn Resorts’ board of directors, not the regulators, said a Boston University business professor, Kabrina Krebel Chang.
“it is a $500,000 fine and an obligation to develop more effective management and communication skills and to participate in sympathy and implicit prejudice training enough to change leadership and understanding?” she said
