How Steve Wynn Reinvented Vegas Twice — Once With the Mirage, Then With Bellagio
Steve Wynn opened the Mirage in 1989 and Bellagio in 1998 — the two buildings that ended old Vegas and started new Vegas. He was forced out of his own company in 2018, but the template he built still defines the Strip.
Steve Wynn took over the Golden Nugget downtown in 1973, then opened the Mirage in 1989 with a $630M Michael Milken junk-bond raise. Mirage redefined Vegas — luxury, themed entertainment, $5B+ revenue/year. Bellagio followed in 1998 ($1.6B build, world's most expensive at the time). Wynn sold to MGM in 2000, started Wynn Resorts, opened Wynn LV (2005) and Encore (2008). Forced out in 2018 over harassment allegations. The buildings he built still anchor the Strip.
If you ask any architect of modern Vegas to name the inflection points, two come up: the opening of the Mirage in 1989, and the opening of Bellagio in 1998. Both were Steve Wynn projects. Together they took Vegas from a Mob-tinged casino town to a luxury-resort destination with international reach.
The Golden Nugget years — 1973-1988
Wynn bought into the Golden Nugget downtown in 1972 with $1M of family money. By 1973 he was running it. He cleaned up the property, added a hotel tower, signed Frank Sinatra as a regular performer.
The Golden Nugget Atlantic City opened in 1980 and was a hit. By 1986, Wynn was personally worth $200M and ready for something bigger.
The Mirage — 1989
Wynn raised $630M from Michael Milken's junk-bond operation at Drexel Burnham — at the time the largest casino financing in history. He spent it building the Mirage on the Strip: 3,044 rooms, an erupting volcano out front, Siegfried & Roy in residence, dolphins in a pool.
The Mirage opened November 22, 1989. The skeptics said the property needed to gross $1M/day to service the debt. It cleared $1M/day in week one and never looked back.
The Mirage redefined what a casino could be:
- Themed entertainment as a built-in attraction (volcano, dolphins, Siegfried & Roy)
- Tropical/lush aesthetic instead of desert kitsch
- Conference business + leisure travel combined
- A pool that was destination-worthy
Every Strip property built since 1989 has copied at least one Mirage element.
Treasure Island and Bellagio — 1993-1998
Wynn followed Mirage with Treasure Island (1993) — a more casual sister property with a pirate-ship sea battle out front. Then Bellagio in 1998.
Bellagio cost $1.6B — the most expensive hotel ever built at the time. Lake out front. Conservatory. Picasso paintings hung at the eponymous restaurant. The fountain choreographed to music. Twenty-five years later it's still photographed more than any Strip property.
The day Bellagio opened in 1998, every other Strip casino was suddenly outdated. Caesars Palace was 32 years old. The Mirage was 9. Bellagio set a new ceiling. The race to catch up rebuilt half the Strip over the following decade.
Selling to MGM — 2000
In 2000 Wynn sold Mirage Resorts (Mirage + Bellagio + TI + Beau Rivage) to Kirk Kerkorian's MGM for $6.4B. The merger created MGM Mirage, the largest gaming operator at the time. We covered the MGM half of this in the Kerkorian story.
Wynn took the cash and started fresh. He bought the old Desert Inn property and tore it down.
Wynn Las Vegas and Encore — 2005, 2008
Wynn Resorts opened Wynn Las Vegas in April 2005 — $2.7B build, 2,716 rooms, the highest-rated luxury property on the Strip from day one. Encore followed in 2008 (an attached luxury tower, 2,034 rooms).
The Wynn aesthetic refined the Bellagio template: even higher-end materials, larger rooms (650 sqft minimum), curated restaurant lineup (Nobu, Sinatra, Lakeside). The properties have been operating at top Strip RevPAR (revenue per available room) ever since.
The 2018 ousting
In January 2018 the Wall Street Journal published a major investigation alleging decades of sexual misconduct by Wynn against employees. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission opened an investigation related to Wynn's pending Encore Boston Harbor license. Within weeks Wynn resigned as CEO and chairman of Wynn Resorts.
He sold his entire Wynn Resorts stake (12% of the company) for $2.1B in March 2018 and retired to Florida. The Wynn name stayed on the buildings — the brand was too valuable to rename.
What Wynn left behind
The properties still operating under his template:
- Mirage (now owned by Hard Rock since 2022)
- Treasure Island (sold to Phil Ruffin in 2009)
- Bellagio (MGM Resorts, Blackstone REIT real estate)
- Wynn Las Vegas + Encore (Wynn Resorts)
- Wynn Macau + Wynn Palace (Wynn Resorts, opened 2006 and 2016)
- Encore Boston Harbor (opened 2019)
Every modern Strip resort owes design debt to Wynn's template. The lake, the conservatory, the curated restaurant lineup, the high-end pool, the tower set back from the boulevard — these were all his innovations or his refinements.
For the broader Strip story: the Vegas Strip 2026 guide.
Topics
- steve-wynn
- bellagio
- mirage
- history