In reversal, Steve Wynn says he opposes Question 1

By Thomas Moore

Monday, Nov. 7, 2016 | 7 p.m.

On the eve of the election, Steve Wynn announced he had changed his mind on Question 1, which would expand background checks for firearms purchases, saying he would vote no on the measure.

“It’s a matter of conscience,” Wynn said when asked why he had come forward after initially supporting the measure. “When I found out I had supported the wrong side of this legislation, I felt guilty about it.

“When I took the time to research it, I hadn’t done it before. Had I done that, I wouldn’t have supported it with a penny,” he said.

Wynn said he had supported the measure because his friend, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of the main supporters of the initiative, asked him.

“So, of course, I gave the program a $50,000 donation because it sounded perfectly reasonable to me,” he said.

"I regret that decision in view of the truth of the situation,” Wynn said at a news conference Monday afternoon.

The change of heart came, he said, after two of his executives discussed the initiative with him, asking what it actually does.

After research, Wynn said that he was concerned that questions on a form to be filled out before transferring a gun to another are "needlessly restrictive.”

Questions about past criminal accusations and illegal drug possession are too broad, he added. “Anytime we restrict the constitutional rights of any citizen, the grounds of such disqualification should be precise and clear-cut and with no ambiguity.”

Yes on 1 campaign manager Joe Duffy pointed to the "significant support" for Question 1 from Nevada's gaming industry and said his group "would have welcomed the opportunity to talk" with Wynn about his concerns.

"Still, the facts about Question 1 haven’t changed even if Mr. Wynn’s position has changed. Question 1 is a common-sense measure that closes the loophole in our laws that criminals, domestic abusers and other dangerous people use to get guns in sales that don’t require background checks," he said. "The simple fact is that voting yes on Question 1 will reduce gun violence and save lives.”

Wynn, who described himself as a registered Democrat who votes both ways politically, used the conference to promote Republican Rep. Joe Heck for U.S. Senate and to describe how awful he thought the Affordable Care Act was for the country. He also spoke about the presidential race and managed to critique both candidates without naming names.

“For example, one candidate says billionaires and millionaires don’t pay their fair share,” he said, referring obliquely to Hillary Clinton.

“But more importantly, anybody who knows anything about out the tax law knows, almost all small businesses pay tax as a subchapter S corporation, like a partnership and not like a corporate tax.

“That means a lot of tax returns for a lot of small companies get filed as individual income although that company might have 30 percent of their capital tied up in inventory. That means the personal tax is a business tax in America.”

Wynn leveled his next observation at Trump.

“Another candidate wants to lower taxes, but he doesn’t explain how he’s going to pay for it. So if you want to lower taxes, you have to show how to pay for it without affecting the deficit.

“I haven’t been able to identify with either one of the people in the race. So I haven’t contributed to either campaign for president.”

CORRECTION: An inaccurate quote attributed to Wynn in an earlier version of this story has been deleted. | (November 8, 2016)