Wynn Resorts to pay a cash dividend of $609.3 million

Wynn Resorts Ltd., the owner of namesake casinos in Las Vegas and Macao, will pay shareholders a $609.3-million special cash dividend, almost a quarter of which will go to billionaire founder Steve Wynn.

The dividend is worth $6 a share, Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts said Monday, and follows the company’s sale this year of rights to develop a separate casino in Macao. The shares rose $6.48 to $88.67, a record high.

“It was certainly a surprise,” said Charles Norton, portfolio manager of the $64-million Vice Fund in Dallas, including Wynn shares. “I would much rather have it in my pocket than have it sit on the balance sheet.”

Steve Wynn, 64, is the 107th-richest American, with a net worth of $2.6 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Wynn and his wife, Elaine, own 24.2% of Wynn Resorts, according to a regulatory filing Monday, and would receive about $147 million from the dividend payout.

Steve Wynn said in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that he might seek to purchase more shares. Wynn controls 48.4% of the company in conjunction with Aruze USA Inc., owned by Japan’s Aruze Corp.

Wynn plans to open a new casino in Las Vegas and will also expand in Macao, where October gambling revenue was a record $686 million. The former Portuguese colony, the only place in China where casinos are legal, has become the world’s second- largest gambling center since 2004, when Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Galaxy Casino opened resorts there.