Hollywood Park Board Approves Wynn as Chairman, CEO by 7-3 Vote

Steve Wynn, the high-profile Las Vegas hotel-casino operator, was elected board chairman and chief executive officer of Hollywood Park on Thursday, setting off speculation about Marje Everett’s role at the track.

Everett, a fixture at Hollywood Park since 1972 and chairman and chief executive officer since 1985, nominated Wynn, whose election was expected because the board is top-heavy with Everett supporters.

The approval of Wynn by a 7-3 vote followed the track’s familiar political lines. In favor were Everett, Merv Griffin, John Forsythe, Aaron Spelling, Stan Seiden, Allen Paulson and Bruce McNall, and opposed were Harry Ornest, Warren Williamson and John Newman.

Wynn, who will turn 49 a week from Sunday, is chairman and chief executive officer of Golden Nugget Inc., the company that operates the Golden Nugget and Mirage hotel-casinos in Las Vegas.

Everett, 69, is involved in a bitter, expensive proxy battle with R.D. Hubbard, 55, the Texas glass-making executive who owns and breeds horses and operates race tracks in New Mexico and Kansas. Hubbard narrowly missed ousting Everett in a consent solicitation of Hollywood Park stockholders earlier this month. Their struggle will go to the wire at the annual shareholders’ meeting on Feb. 18.

Longtime Everett watchers are convinced that despite the election of Wynn, nothing will change at Hollywood Park, where Everett delegates little authority. Everett has retained the title of chief operating officer.

“Remember when Marje brought in Vernon Underwood (as chairman) several years ago?” said one former Hollywood Park executive. “Nothing changed as far as Marje calling the shots was concerned.”

On the other hand, Wynn’s style in the casino business is not unlike Everett’s.

“If Steve’s at Hollywood Park, he will be involved,” said a Los Angeles public relations person who knows him. “He wants to be the head honcho in everything that he gets involved in.”

Wynn opened the $900-million Mirage, which is trying to revolutionize casino marketing by appealing to both the high-rollers and family business, about 14 months ago.

“Steve’s a hands-on guy in everything he does,” said a Las Vegas casino consultant. “But he’s also the kind of guy who has time for you. If you’re legitimate, his door is open.”

When Wynn took over the Golden Nugget, it was reported that he quickly fired 160 employees. Paulson, part of the pro-Everett board faction, doubts that Wynn will be very visible at the track.

“He’s not an operations guy, so I don’t know how he could be,” Paulson said.

Asked about Wynn’s lack of racing qualifications, Paulson said: “You don’t have to have horses to know about other aspects of the business. Wynn’s a genius. He’s a businessman. Look what he’s put together in Las Vegas.”

Born in New Haven, Conn., Wynn first visited Las Vegas with his father when he was 10.

“There was magic in this place,” Wynn once told an interviewer. “It was the heyday of Las Vegas, and it had all the aspects of the forbidden fruit--beautiful women, glamorous stars, untold money and notorious people. I thought, ‘What else could anyone want?’ ”

Wynn was a senior at the University of Pennsylvania when his father died and left him a modest business, the family’s legal bingo operation on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Wynn arrived in Nevada a few years later, was a small investor in the revival of the Frontier Hotel and Casino and was befriended by E. Parry Thomas, a powerful banker. Wynn has referred to Thomas as his “second father” and also once said: “His sponsorship was the equivalent of having Bernard Baruch hitting for you on Wall Street.”

In 1980, Wynn helped Golden Nugget expand by developing a hotel-casino in Atlantic City, N.J., and seven years later the operation was sold for $440 million to Bally’s, which was trying to fight a takeover bid by Donald Trump.

Wynn has said that everything he owns has come from gambling.

“I’ve never had a meal, a dollar for tuition or a piece of clothing on my back that didn’t come from gambling,” he said.

The arrival of Wynn gives Hollywood Park two casino executives on its board. Griffin is chairman of Resorts International in Atlantic City.

“I’ve very concerned about that,” said Paul Deats, a member of the California Horse Racing Board. “Gaming is legal in Nevada and New Jersey, but I want to make sure that we do a more thorough (licensing) investigation of Wynn than we might do of someone else. The public has the perception that anyone running a casino might have an unsavory background.”

Wynn has said that he expects to be approved by Nevada gaming authorities for his Hollywood Park involvement. Wynn also has announced that he plans to buy a substantial amount of stock in the track.

Wynn could not be reached for comment Thursday. Earlier this week he said: “I’m excited about the potential of working with this distinguished board of directors.”

Directors of race tracks in California must be licensed by the state. Dennis Hutcheson, executive secretary of the California racing board, said that a typical licensing investigation takes two weeks.

“I would hope that we would spend more time than that with Steve Wynn,” Deats said. “Down the road, simulcasting (betting races shown on TV) is going to be changing in California, and some people would like to see betting parlors on every other corner.

“You have to be concerned about something like this happening when casino people are involved in running race tracks. And besides Steve Wynn and Merv Griffin, I am including the Ladbroke group (the English bookmaking company that owns Golden Gate Fields).”

This week, sources close to Hubbard and Hollywood Park estimated that the combined expense in the proxy struggle would reach $8 million, which would be double the estimate of a few months ago. Hollywood Park shareholders would be responsible for reimbursing Hubbard for his expenses if he wins.

Paulson, an aerospace executive who has spent more than $100 million buying horses since 1982, owns about 1% of the stock in Hollywood Park. Asked if he considered getting more financially involved in the track, he said: “I took a long look at it, but I had a lot of other interests that were keeping me busy.”

Asked if Everett could beat back Hubbard’s challenge, Paulson said: “You’ve got to give her an ‘A’ for trying. I think it’s in the realm of possibility.”