Las Vegas Culture and Steve Wynn

This is not a defense of Steve Wynn nor an excuse to dismiss the accusing women.

To understand why it took so long for many of these women to come forward with sexual misconduct and harassment against Steve Wynn, you must understand the Las Vegas and gaming culture and why these women did not come forward sooner.

Las Vegas is a company town. Self-contained desert community surrounded by mountains.

When Steve Wynn first came to town, there were just a handful of casinos, long before he started the Mega-Resort boom with the Mirage Hotel & Casino. The Mob was being pushed out and a new Mob, aka Corporations, were moving in.

But even as corporate culture slowly took over, many things in Las Vegas did not change. For a valley that has over 2 million people, it's still a "small town" as far as the gaming industry is concerned. 

Generally, if something happened to a female (or male in some instances) back before Anita Hill made headlines with her recounting of sexual harassment by (current SCOTUS justice) Clarence Thomas, you generally kept it to yourself as to not jeopardize your job. Silence is golden. Human Resources departments talked with one another and owners talked to one another. If an owner owned more than one casino, you were blackballed from the other properties. 

As the consolidation of the gaming industry ensued, old policies had to be abandoned. The blackballing of people from employment had to go away. If you worked at one property and tried to get a job at another property owned by the same company, you cannot be barred from being hired.

Now, back to Steve Wynn. He is a powerful man in Las Vegas. He is a powerful man in Nevada. He pulls a lot of weight and strings. Back in the day, one call could make or break you if you said anything. Your career in gaming would be finished in Vegas.

What the #MeToo moment did was emboldened women to come forward. The fear of retribution is gone. No one is immune, even in a closed environment like the gaming industry. It is corporate culture now. No more sole proprietorships. There are boards of directors, stock market trades, shareholders. No more cloistered existences. Vegas is an open book.