Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Wynn: Shooter Paddock was unremarkable customer

Las Vegas BLVD casino exteriors

Mikayla Whitmore

The Wynn hotel-casino on Las Vegas Boulevard on Sept. 30, 2015.

Wynn Resorts CEO Steve Wynn said mass shooter Stephen Paddock lost at his properties playing at the $20,000-$30,000 level over the last six to eight years.

Wynn, speaking today during the company’s quarterly earnings call, said the Paddock was an unremarkable customer.

“The fellow who did the shooting had been a customer since 2006; that’s when we first picked him up on our records,” Wynn said. “He was a player with a modest budget. The last three years he was coming here frequently with his lady friend.”

“I had a chance to interview our employees who knew him,” he continued. “He played at the $20,000-$30,000 level. He was a winner at Mandalay Bay but a loser at our place over the six to eight years here. He didn’t meet the profile of a problem gambler. He was a very controlled person. … They were the most vanilla, unexciting, totally typical couple that has ever walked in this building. When I interviewed employees who knew him, they were stunned.”

When asked about security on the Strip, Wynn jokingly said many people in the industry might consider him paranoid. Several years ago, he started meeting with numerous experts — including members of SEAL Team 6 — to develop an intensive security plan for his resorts.

“This would be a tough place to survive longer than three minutes if you had a gun on you,” he said, adding the plan became operational in spring of last year.

Wynn said he has been meeting with a group of Strip executives who are developing a plan to help victims who experienced serious and long-term injuries as a result of the shootings, two of whom are Wynn Resorts employees.

He said he has also met with other resort executives to address security concerns. He said he has no doubt that similar discussions are happening across the country.

“I’m sure in every executive suite up and down the Strip and in Reno and in hotels around the country is trying to find out if there’s a way, to use our local parlance, to lower the odds of a repeat of the event,” he said.