Casino magnate Steve Wynn reportedly perpetrated 'decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct'

Casino mogul Steve Wynn has engaged in a "decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct," The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing interviews with "more than 150 people" who have worked at his casinos. Wynn, who turns 76 on Saturday, is the CEO of Wynn Resorts and is known for building lavish casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. He is also the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee.

The Wall Street Journal reported that in 2005, Wynn called a salon worker to his office at the Wynn Las Vegas for a manicure, after which the businessman "pressured her to take her clothes off and told her to lie on the massage table he kept in his office suite." Despite the manicurist's repeated statements that she did not want to have sex, Wynn "persisted in his demands," the Journal wrote, "and ultimately she did disrobe and they had sex." After the incident, the manicurist filed a report to the Wynn Las Vegas' human resources department, which ended in Wynn paying the woman a $7.5 million settlement.

The Journal reported that Wynn allegedly repeatedly acted inappropriately around the female hospitality staff in his casinos, to the point where employees "entered fake appointments in the books to help other female workers get around a request for services in Mr. Wynn's office." One masseuse, who worked at the Wynn Las Vegas, said Wynn told her to "massage his penis to climax," and she said she complied because Wynn was her boss — though she refused subsequent requests from him to perform oral sex. Another woman said Wynn asked to kiss her, a comment she "laughed off" so as not to anger him, per the Journal.

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In a written statement, Wynn denied the allegations and blamed them on ongoing, bitter divorce litigation with his ex-wife Elaine. "The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous," he wrote. Read more about Wynn's alleged misconduct at The Wall Street Journal.