Wynn Resorts in Las Vegas: Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond

What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas, right? Maybe not. As the industry continues to grow, mature, and shift into more diversified and family-friendly entertainment venues, the casino operators are going to want their customers to broadcast far and wide just what they saw and did in Sin City.

For the survival of the industry, that's going to have to happen. It's no longer enough to plant a gambling hall in the desert and watch it grow. Now it needs a whole mass-market support structure to feed and care for it.

In this clip from the Industry Focus: Consumer Goods podcast, Vincent Shen is joined by Fool contributor Seth McNew to talk about how Wynn Resorts (WYNN -1.78%) is working to better capture the integrated resorts market in this new Vegas. 

Seth McNew: Wynn is also developing a lot in Las Vegas. They were another company that got hit really hard in Macau. I think they've been happy to switch some focus to Las Vegas right now. Their resort there, they're building a new lagoon, a new big golf course. They had one already, but they're building a bigger one out there. They're definitely putting a lot of investment in there. I think they understand the risk of when that Resorts World casino opens right across the street, they're going to have to have something to offer.  
 
Vincent Shen: OK. I recommend to our listeners right now who haven't seen it yet -- Wynn recently had an investor analyst day and a presentation. I think it's worth reading the transcript from that, if you can find a copy of it, because it is unbelievable, some of the things that Steve Wynn says. Every single time he gets on these conference calls, it is just ... you don't know what he's going to say. But that's part of, almost, the cult following I feel he has among the gaming industry. He's really been a visionary, changing things up. When things were focused on the south side of The Strip, being able to push a lot of activity to the north side. The new resort that he's been developing in Macau, for example, definitely a visionary in the industry. But that call, it touches on some things like focusing on the more upscale clientele, and how that will always be their focus, because generally, even the people who don't necessarily fit that part of the market want to be in a place that feels luxurious.  
 
I've seen a little bit about their Paradise Park plans that you mentioned, where they want to change the golf course that's behind Wynn Encore, and open up this huge lagoon, do firework shows, potentially, on the lagoon, and you can do parasailing. There's just a crazy kinds of events with, of course, plenty of shopping, I think another thousand hotel rooms. That hasn't started yet, but again, that's kind of a push that Wynn is making in that region. 
 
McNew: Right, absolutely. Just like MGM (MGM -0.33%) they were wanting to diversify outside of gaming. I think this is the best way they can do it, take that existing property and really spice it up, make it a lot more interesting to people. 
 
Shen: A quote from that transcript from Wynn: "There will always be that 40-odd million people here. What I'm saying is, I want to give them something to do. I don't give a damn if they put a nickel in the slot machine. I want them to pay my admission. I want them to stay in my rooms. I want them to drink my booze and eat our food." I feel like that's really indicative of the shift, again, from that casino focus. It was like everything else was there to sustain the gaming business. Now, it's much more symbiotic. They're sustaining each other, more so. 
 
McNew: Sure. I think you see that switch in how it changed from the gambling industry to the gaming industry, and how now they call themselves "integrated resorts" instead of casinos.