Wynn Las Vegas is the stuff that dreams are made of and are turned into legend. When casino mogul Steve Wynn decided to recreate a gaming dream, he thought of the name for his future property and called it Le Reve, which in French means ‘the dream’. He had named his latest and classiest casino after a town in Italy: Bellagio, and before that, he had built the Mirage. Indeed, as he continued reshaping the Vegas Strip, he upped the development ante, and not only in terms of investment, but in terms of class.

So, when the time came to follow his dream, somehow the name Le Reve did not fire the imagination, and as this is where Wynn’s properties are nursed, the only possible name for the site, where once stood proud the old Desert Inn in an unfashionable part of the Las Vegas Boulevard, would be the name of the man himself. Thus the property became the Wynn Las Vegas, but as the tower cuts into the Nevada landscape as an imposing bronze wedge, the name atop the building is a moniker with period inclusive like a titan’s signature imprint: Wynn.

As the biggest and most expensive gaming resort in the world, Wynn Las Vegas opened its doors at one minute past midnight, while I was celebrating the event in Florida at 3 in the morning, and before going to press. I phoned a friend to get a whiff of the action, but quite sensibly he had turned off his mobile. Still, you could feel the buzz of the resort opening, because no matter how big, a casino opening is just like many others. But that is as far as comparisons go. After all a US$2.7 billion property does have its own magic!

The man who had created an erupting volcano in the middle of the Strip, and staged a pirate show on a man made ‘ocean’ just a few blocks from that ‘geographical’ wonder, had to give the Wynn Las Vegas a signature theme. As thousands of people paraded along the Strip walkways to see the public shows, the Mountain that Steve built for his new property would be a show for his patrons inside the resort. Now, the mountain that came to Steve Wynn’s new casino stands between the Strip and the tower where the hotel and casino are situated. The crowds that wish to see Wynn’s new wonder will have to get inside to check it out.

They say that one theme that dominates Wynn Las Vegas is water. There are pools, fountains, and waterfalls everywhere. The water winds its way past restaurants and hotel rooms. The Las Vegas Journal, which was granted a preview of the property reports that there are waterfalls “some as high as 100 feet, fountains and other animated highlights hide the sounds of the bustling Strip that is just over the mountain's opposite side.”

As people slept in Europe and most of America, Steve Wynn was opening for the public the property that he spent the past five years designing and building, because, as he says, he likes to take care of every aspect of the project, just like a movie director, who checks every frame of his work before printing. The Wynn Las Vegas is the crown jewel in the line-up of hotel and casino developments on the Strip, and is the work of the man who reshaped the Mecca of gambling. As we sober up on the morning after, the Mountain will have revealed how it came to the Man. (E-04.28.05)

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