Wynn Las Vegas Magazine by MODERN LUXURY

Wynn Las Vegas - 2017 - Issue 3 - Winter

Wynn Magazine - Las Vegas

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事實上,他們兩人的友誼似是不同尋常地在冥冥中早已注定。1963年3月 28日,永利先生在父親準備手術的前夜去醫院看望他。麥克永利對兒子說:「 我想明天一切都會好起來的,但萬一不行的話,希望你照顧好你的媽媽。我 要你記住我欠你的世叔伯Frank Goldman(父親最好的朋友,Utica的一家麵 包店老闆)13,000美元,欠我的好友Charlie Meyerson 15,000美元的棒球賽投 注。記得還錢給他們,好嗎?」。「好的,爸爸您放心,」永利先生記得當時自己 這樣回答父親:「然後我親吻和擁抱了他,走到床尾,伸手握住他的腳趾頭, 告訴他要堅持下去,他說「我會的。」那是我最後一次和父親對話。」第二天晚 上,離史提芬永利先生從賓夕法尼亞大學畢業僅剩幾週時間,他成為了家庭的 一家之主,從父親處繼承了一連串的賓果遊戲廳,以及350,000美元的債務。 那年夏天,永利先生按照父親的地址簿在紐約找到了Meyerson。Meyerson 早在幾年前就已經退出了賽馬投注行業,在聯合國會場附近開了家餐廳,每晚 在餐廳裡消磨時間,白天則待在他自己的巴士和的士公司裡。「這個散發光芒 的人」,永利先生描述說,問起了他的母親、兄弟、生意,還有進入喬治城大學 法律中心的事,並說:「我對邁克的過世很難過。我永遠愛他。」永利先生回答 說:「嗯,一定是的,他去世前一天晚上,還叮囑我要把這個帶給你。」然後把 一個裝著15,000美元的白色信封在桌子上推過去。Meyerson帶著難以置信的 表情說:「史提芬,人的賭債在去世後就抹除了,這是大家的共識。這筆賬是在 1959年欠下的,我都已經忘記了。」然後把信封推了回來。「等一下,」永利先生 回應說:「如果是你欠了我父親的債,你不也是一樣要還嗎?」這句話打破了當 下的沉重氣氛,Meyerson笑了起來:「如果我欠著邁克永利15,000美元,他到 當天的晚餐時間就會來追討了!」 1970年代新澤西設立了新的合法賭博區,永利先生加入了這股淘金熱潮, 他們兩人之間的情誼變得更加深厚。「父親還在世的時候,我從來沒有想過 這個人會成為我最親密的成年朋友,一路看著我努力掙錢,失敗,又再重新開 始。」1980年,永利先生在大西洋城開設第六家賭場時,Meyerson加入了他的團 隊。永利先生回憶說:「Charlie是Golden Nugget賭場的靈魂人物,我們以當地 規模最小的賭場完全佔領了市場。當時新澤西州每90天公佈一次各家公司的 PHOTOGRAPHY BY BARBARA KRAFT In fact, their relationship seemed virtually preordained—by unusual circum- stances. It was March 28, 1963, and Wynn went to see his father in the hospital on the night before his surgery. "I think everything's going to be all right tomorrow, but in case it's not, I want you to take care of your mom. And I want you to mark down that I owe your uncle Frank Goldman [his father's best friend, a bakery owner in Utica] $13,000, and I owe Charlie Meyerson, my buddy who I bet baseball with, $15,000. Pay them, okay?" Mike Wynn told his son. " 'Okay, Mike, you bet,'" Wynn recalls telling his father. "And I gave him a kiss and a hug, and walked to the end of the bed and reached down and grabbed his big toe and told him to hold on, and he said, 'I will.' That was the last time I talked to my father." Overnight, only weeks before his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania, Steve Wynn was head of his family, inheritor of a string of bingo parlors, and $350,000 in debt. That summer, Wynn took his father's address book and found Meyerson in New York City. Meyerson had withdrawn from bookmaking years earlier, spending his evenings in the restaurant he'd opened near the United Nations and his days dispatching for his own bus and taxi companies. "And this sparkling human," as Wynn describes him, asked him about his mother, his brother, the business, and his entrance into Georgetown University Law Center, and said, "Sorry about Mike. I loved him." Wynn responded, "Well, that's for sure, because the night before he died he made sure I'd bring this to you," and slid a white envelope filled with the $15,000 he'd saved across the table. Incredulous, Meyerson said, "Stephen, a man's gambling debts die with him. Everybody knows that. This money was from 1959, and I'd forgotten about it," and slid it back. "Wait a minute," Wynn countered, "if you owed my father, wouldn't you have to pay it?" That broke the solemnity of the moment. "If I owed Michael Wynn $15,000," Meyerson laughed, "he would have collected it by dinnertime!" Their friendship blossomed into the 1970s, as Wynn joined the gold rush into the newly legalized gambling arena of New Jersey. "A man that I'd never known while my father was alive became my closest adult friend, watching me struggle to raise money, fail, and start over again." In 1980, when Wynn opened Atlantic City's sixth casino, Meyerson joined the team. "Charlie was the spirit of the Golden Nugget and we took total control of the market with the smallest casino," Wynn recalls. "Back then, the state of New Jersey published the earnings 28 在通向萬利高額投注 廳的鍍金孔雀門背 後, Meyerson如果仍 然在世,幫永利先生 接待客戶時一定會覺 得非常舒心自在。 Meyerson would have felt right at home hosting Wynn's clientele behind the gilded peacock doors that lead to this high- limit room in Encore.

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