Despite media report, Wynn Resorts is finished with Philadelphia

LAS VEGAS -- Wynn Resorts, Limited’s business relationship with a Philadelphia-based online gaming company does not mean the company is lobbying for legalized Internet wagering or looking to reverse its withdrawn bid for a gaming license application in Pennsylvania, a company spokesman said Monday.

Wynn Resorts signed a deal with Thrive Gaming before withdrawing its application for a casino license in Philadelphia. Thrive Gaming was founded in April as a “full-service gaming advisory firm specializing in regulated and social casino gaming.”

Wynn Resorts does not now offer online free-play casino games or real money poker. Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware have legalized online gaming; Pennsylvania will study the issue.

“The group exploring online gaming for Wynn Resorts happens to be based in Philadelphia because they live there,” Wynn Resorts spokesman Michael Weaver said in an e-mail. “Their work, and the fact that they live in Philadelphia, has no relationship to specific gaming activity in Pennsylvania.”

The Las Vegas-based gaming company issued the statement after a planphilly.com report Friday suggested Wynn Resorts Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn was not finished with Philadelphia, despite his company’s license-application withdrawal.

On Nov. 11, Wynn Resorts said it had withdrawn its application for a casino license in Philadelphia. The company said it would pursue other opportunities, including a casino license and the construction of $1.5 billion hotel-casino in Everett, Mass.

The Las Vegas-based gaming company proposed building a 150,000-square-foot casino with 900 slot machines and 100 table games along with a 300-room hotel on about 60 acres of waterfront in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood. The estimated cost would have been $925 million.