More shots of Vegas: extravagance defined

Inbetween watching shows, watching my friends gamble, and eating, there was lots of time to walk around the strip and check out some of the hotels.

The newest big hotel on the strip is called The Wynn. No, it’s not “win” misspelled (or “wine” for that matter), it’s a hotel named after its majority owner and founder, Steve Wynn …



According to my finance friend, Steve Wynn originally built and owned the magnificent Bellagio …



… and built it up to have this large collection of impressionist artwork worth tens of millions of dollars. The investors didn’t like all that excess value being tied up in a cheap art museum, and after a series of moves he was kicked up; leading him to set up the Wynn (which has just been finished – soon after which Wynn bought back from the Bellagio most of the artwork he had originally purchased).

The Wynn doesn’t appear as extravagant or themed as some of its newer counterparts, such as the Venetian (See below) which has its own complex series of interconnect canals and an astonishing number of rooms (starting at $700 for the cheapest – did I mention that’s US dollars?!) …



And inside, all throughout …



But the Wynn is even MORE extravagant in some other ways. For example, it has a full sized golf course AT THE BACK OF THE HOTEL – an extraordinary investment seeing (i) real estate on the Las Vegas Strip is some of the most expensive and fast-growing in the world, (ii) no one uses the course (unless given a free round) as it costs about $500+ a round ….




The other interesting part about the Wynn is that it boasts a full (many cars!) Ferrari dealership in the middle of the hotel.



Whoa. But if you could see the unbelievable amount of slot machines and tables, you’d realize where the money comes from to pay for it all …