What is the name of the casino that Steve Wynn opened in late 2008?
Encore Las Vegas or Encore at Wynn Las Vegas (often just called Encore) is a resort, casino hotel located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The resort is connected to its sister resort, Wynn Las Vegas; both are owned by Wynn Resorts Limited, headed by noted casino developer Steve Wynn. After 2½ years of construction, the resort formally opened to the public at 8:00pm on December 22, 2008 to large crowds. Due to the period’s economic downturn, the opening was designed to be more subdued than previous casino resort openings. The resort’s jewelery shop featured the 231 carats (46 g), prune-sized Wynn Diamond, which was billed as “the largest cut pear-shaped diamond in the world.” To open the betting, Steve Wynn gave invited high-rollers a few million dollars to make the initial bets and marked the initial start by declaring over a microphone, “Let the games begin!”; the start of gambling was accompanied by a recording of Frank Sinatra’s “Luck Be a Lady Tonight.” Sources:
Wynn Las Vegas Resort and Country Club (“Wynn”) is a AAA five diamond, Mobil five-star, and Michelin five-star casino resort located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The US $2.7 billion resort is named after casino developer Steve Wynn and is the flagship property of Wynn Resorts Limited. The resort covers 215 acres (87 ha). It is located at Las Vegas Boulevard South and Sands Avenue (on the N.E. corner), directly across The Strip from the Fashion Show Mall. The 2,716 rooms range in size from 640 sq ft (59 m2) to the villas at 7,000 sq ft (650 m2) with a 111,000 sq ft (10,300 m2) casino, a convention center with 223,000 sq ft (20,700 m2) of space, and 76,000 sq ft (7,100 m2) of retail space. Together with the adjacent Encore which opened in late 2008, the entire Wynn resort complex has a total of 4,750 rooms. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.
At 67, Wynn is a legend in Las Vegas – the man with the Midas touch who added glamour to the gambling industry. Even in this recession, thousands came to try their luck at his new casino, Encore, when it opened in late 2008. Encore cost nearly $2.3 billion dollars, a risky bet in a bad economy. Asked why he’d open a hotel in this economic environment, Wynn told Rose, “Well I’ll tell you right now that if I had any idea this…I wouldn’t if I had a choice. But this project was started four years ago. These things have a huge lead time.” Sources: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/10/60minutes/main4935567.
