Regulators recommend licensing of Las Vegas resort

CARSON CITY, Nev. - Nevada casino regulators have recommended a license for Steve Wynn's $1.6 billion Bellagio resort scheduled to open Oct. 15 on the Las Vegas Strip.

Executives who were endorsed Wednesday included Wynn as director, Robert Baldwin as president and chief executive officer, Bill Bingham as vice president-table games, and Robert Oseland II as vice president-slots of the hotel-casino.

But Nevada Gaming Control Board members, concerned about conflicting statements made by another executive, Bruce Aguilera, and one of their own agents, postponed his licensing pending further review.

Aguilera, a longtime Nevada gambling figure, is seeking a license as the Bellagio's secretary and treasurer.

The agent and Aguilera have differing versions of what he said about a meeting with Lauri Choi, an employee of Wynn's Mirage hotel-casino ordered by South Korea to forfeit $630,000 she collected from businessmen in that country who had run up gambling debts.

Choi sent the money to her employer - but South Korean officials said that violated their law that bans transfers of more than $10,000 out of the country without government permission.

The Nevada Gaming Commission will have final say on the Bellagio licensing at an Aug. 20 meeting.

The 3,000-room, 36-story Bellagio was built on the site of the old Dunes hotel-casino. It will have 7 million square feet of space, a nine-acre lake, 1,100 fountains, 16 restaurants, 2,700 slot machines and 139 table games.

Baldwin told the board that all the rooms are over-booked for the entire first year of operation, and conventions are nearly booked solid.

"This is a different product," he added. "We're attracting a new audience to Las Vegas."

When the hotel was announced, the price tag was set at $700 million to $1 billion, but jumped with the addition of amenities such as marble floors, imported brass and imported fabrics.

The $1.6 billion figure doesn't include the $285 million spent by Wynn and his corporation on paintings by Van Gogh, Matisse, Monet, Renoir and others. The paintings will be on display at the resort.

The resort is named after an Italian village that captured the fancy of Wynn when he visited there with his family.

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