Steve Wynn Lets the Dogs Out
Local journalist Steve Friess recently went to Macau for Newsweek to interview Steve Wynn about his operation there. When he arrived he noticed Wynn's dogs were with him. In addition to his other work, Friess co-hosts with Las Vegas Sun reporter Emily Richmond a podcast dedicated to pets where you can hear him talk with Wynn about the dogs. Friess dropped me this e-mail about the experience:
"I've been in Steve Wynn's offices in Las Vegas several times and I've seen those German shepherds wandering around happily every time. But it was a bit of a surprise to me to walk into his office in Macau and see them, once again, just hanging out. These are huge, very special animals — I'm told that they cost as much as $25,000 to breed and train — and the Wynns command them in German. They function both as pets and as security. So their docility may be deceptive, although it is clearly evident that Wynn adores these dogs.
On the audio, I had asked Wynn how the dogs traveled. He gives an intriguing answer about how he broke up the flights in such a way to, essentially, let them out. He'd never taken them to China before, but he did it this time because he was going to be there for a whole month [before] opening the Wynn Macau.
You could tell that the Chinese staff were a bit uncertain how to react to having large animals in the office. If it's rare in the U.S., it's completely unheard of to the Chinese people, particularly city dwellers who live in small apartments and typically have small dogs like pugs and other animals that look like those lion statues outside Chinese restaurants.
One other tidbit: Roger Thomas, the Wynn designer, claims the legs of chairs at Alex, the restaurant at Wynn, are fashioned from the legs of Wynn's dogs. On the audio, Wynn isn't sure if that's so but he does explain why it MIGHT be so."
(Photo: Gary Friedman / LAT)
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Give me a break...
Posted by: Joe Shea | September 20, 2006 at 08:44 PM
The dogs should turn on their owner for crimes done to Las Vegas due to this dude's ego and bad taste. Wynn is a true twerp.
Posted by: Wade Collins | September 21, 2006 at 10:14 AM
Has it really come to this ? Las Vegas is on the verge of spending billions of taxpayer dollars to run huge pipelines hundreds of miles up into central Nevada, to literally steal the lifeblood (water) of the entire state so that rich absentee developers can continue to build hideous "luxury" hi-rises along the Strip for the idyll dalliances of the worldwide super-wealthy, and all this LA Times commentator can come up with as a topic for discussion is ego-maniac Steve Wynn's ridiculous dogs ?! How pathetic are our media, when vital issues are at stake, in distracting not informing the public ..
Posted by: RussBBinVegas@aol.com | September 21, 2006 at 11:17 AM
STEVE WYN SEEMS NICE I HOPE I AM NOT WRONG
PLUS IF YOU MAKE MONEY IN HIS CASINOS THAT IS A GOOD BUSINESS I AM SURE THEY WOULD PAY YOU AND YOU WOULD BE HAPPY YAY:)
Posted by: PETE | September 23, 2006 at 08:58 AM
Informed comments here. Wynn Las Vegas isn't my cup of tea, but the high rollers who drop $300 a night for a room, $450 for dinner and $2,500 in the pit are welcome as far as I am concerned. Last I checked, it is gaming and hotel taxes that allows us Las Vegas residents to escape the Sunshine tax the saps in Arizona have to pay. As for tapping into water supplies in the north, well that's hardly related to this story... but if you want to say that it is more important for the farmers to have water to grow their crops than the casinos to have water to please their guests, I would ask you to compare revenue between the two industries.
Wynn an egomaniac? Sure. But why does that hurt anyone else. There are litteraly thousands of people at the Golden Nugget, Mirage, TI, Bellagio Wynn resorts and soon Encore (not to mention construction on this project).
Posted by: VegasGreg | September 25, 2006 at 12:45 PM
Having worked at his former Biloxi, Mississippi Resort "Beau Rivage" I had the honor and privilege of meeting Mr. Wynn and his wife during their visits and was asked to help walk his and the CEOs dog on many occasions. There is a myriad of facets to his amazing genius and his love for animals is only one of them. I suppose people are just born conformists and hone in on the oddity of dogs in the office. I personally think it’s a wonderful idea! What sets him apart from the Trumps and Kerkorians of the industry is that he should perhaps be thought of as not a "mogul" but an artist or a mystro with a deep and passionate vision and talent for creating and orchestrating some of the world's most remarkable Resorts full of beauty, ambiance and world-class talent for others to experience and enjoy. All I can say is that if there is such a thing as reincarnation…I hope to come back as one of Steve Wynn’s Alsatians (German Shepherds)!
Posted by: Michelle McBride | December 03, 2006 at 09:05 PM