Wynn was born into a Jewish family: his father Michael owned a chain of bingo parlors in the eastern United States, and his mother Zelma came from Maine.[page:63] In 1946, when Steve was four, Michael changed the family name from Weinberg to Wynn specifically “to avoid anti‑Jewish discrimination,” according to a profile cited in the article.[page:63]

Steve grew up in Utica, New York, attended the Manlius School near Syracuse, and later studied English literature at the University of Pennsylvania.[page:63] Shortly before his graduation, Michael died during heart surgery, leaving US$350,000 in gambling debts and forcing Steve to give up a place at Yale Law School in order to take over the family bingo parlor in Maryland — effectively making him head of the family business in his early twenties.[page:63]

Wynn married Elaine Farrell Pascal in 1963; they divorced in 1986, remarried in 1991 and divorced again in 2010.[page:63] The entry notes that Elaine served on the Wynn Resorts board for 13 years, until 2015, highlighting that she was both his spouse and a significant corporate insider.[page:63]

They have two daughters together, Kevyn and Gillian.[page:63] Elaine’s continued role as a director long after the first divorce — and even after the second — underlines how the Wynn family structure blurred lines between marriage, ownership and governance at the top of the casino group.

The article identifies two daughters, Kevyn and Gillian, but only Kevyn features prominently in the public record.[page:63] In 1993, Kevyn was kidnapped; Wynn paid a US$1.45 million ransom for her safe return.[page:63]

The kidnappers were caught when one tried to use a large amount of cash to buy a Ferrari in Newport Beach, California, and Kevyn was found unharmed several hours later.[page:63] The incident exposed the risks attached to high‑visibility wealth in Las Vegas and cemented the idea of the Wynn family as a target as well as a power center.

On April 30, 2011, Wynn married Andrea Hissom in a ceremony at Wynn Las Vegas.[page:63] The article notes that she is the great‑niece of Ben Novack, the Florida hotelier behind the Fontainebleau, tying the marriage into another hospitality‑linked family.[page:63]

Actor Clint Eastwood served as best man at the wedding, underlining the blend of Hollywood, hospitality and high finance around the Wynn circle.[page:63] This second marriage did not produce publicly listed children in the entry, suggesting that the known line of direct heirs remains through Kevyn and Gillian.

As of April 2025, Forbes estimated Wynn’s net worth at US$3.7 billion, derived primarily from his casino developments and Wynn Resorts stake.[page:63] He is also a major fine‑art collector, owning or having owned works by Picasso, Claude Monet, Rembrandt and others, many of which have been displayed in his resorts.[page:63]

Politically, Wynn has donated heavily to both parties over time, but in recent years he became a prominent Republican donor, finance chair of the Republican National Committee, and a vice‑chair of Donald Trump’s inauguration committee.[page:63] He and his spouse contributed US$1.5 million to Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, placing the Wynn household close to the center of contemporary Republican fundraising networks.[page:63]

Wynn has retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease diagnosed in 1971, and the article notes that he is legally blind.[page:63] In 2010 he adopted a plant‑based diet after watching the documentary “Eating,” signalling lifestyle changes relatively late in life.[page:63]

Since 2018, however, the Wynn family name has also been entangled in multiple sexual‑misconduct allegations against Steve, which he has denied, leading to his resignation as CEO of Wynn Resorts and large regulatory fines against the company.[page:63] These legal and reputational shocks have forced a partial separation of the man from the brand, even as his daughters and ex‑wife remain part of the extended economic ecosystem he built.