Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING NOVEMBER 2018 34 Muhammad Cohen: Tell me about your relationship with Steve Wynn. Kazuo Okada: The beginning was in 1998 when Universal went public. I realized that the pachinko business was not the only way to go, so in the long run you had to do something besides pachinko. I read in a book somewhere that it’s best to look for new opportunities during the best of times. At that time, I had really wanted to get into the casino industry. So, I bet my future on the casino industry. Back in 2000, I looked into Las Vegas and was introduced to Steve Wynn. At that time, he was working with the Mirage, including other casinos there. But around 2001, he had just lost his battle with MGM [for control of Mirage]. He was in a very unfortunate position. The discussions between us went relatively well. He was in need of monetary support to move forward in the industry. At the time, Mr Wynn had just bought a property in Las Vegas that Howard Hughes used to own (the Desert Inn). The initial discussions that took place with Mr Wynn was with the understanding that we would go 50-50 – 50% on the funds and 50% on the number of directors. The discussions were relatively simple and I welcomed that. I wanted to keep the story very simple. The initial decision was to let Steve Wynn become chairman of the board and I would remain as vice chair. Wynn had the know-how of the design and the operation of the casino and the construction in that field. He did those matters with pride, experience and confidence. At the beginning, things were working very well. I think he appreciated the fact that I was a relatively silent investor, not complaining very much, not putting too much input into things. Things were very good for a fairly long time. Then [in late 2010/early 2011], Mr Wynn brought up to the board that he wanted to make a US$130 million donation to the [government-affiliated] University of Macau. I raised some issues with that because, first, it was really unheard of to make that amount of donation. The university donation was his personal desire – I thought that it should come individually and not through the company. Also, I mentioned that perhaps US$10 million – which is still a relatively high amount – would be a sufficient amount to a university to receive significant recognition and appreciation. At that time, Macau was a very successful market, one of the most affluent places on the globe – so why this particular university at this time? Part of me was asking, “Why are you really doing this? Why won’t you open up to what your intentions really are?” When he didn’t truly give me a full answer, that’s when I started thinking that maybe he’s not truly open to me on everything. Not necessarily that he’s hiding something, but maybe he’s not at the same level of trust with me. Prior to that, I had talked several times to Mr Wynn about FEATURES Initially it was 50-50 shares between him and me, but with his wife about to take half of Steve Wynn’s 50%, I would then become the controlling shareholder. Steve Wynn