Billy Walters Alleges Steve Wynn Lobbied for Trump to Deny Him a Pardon
The well-known gambler Billy Walters believes that his long-standing conflict with Steve Wynn is what led former President Trump to commute his sentence for insider trading instead of granting him a full pardon.
In his newly-released memoir, "Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk," Walters describes an encounter in which he gained $3.8 million by playing roulette at the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City, New Jersey. At that time, the casino was owned by Wynn. Presently, Tilman Fertitta manages the Golden Nugget casino chain.
Walters and Wynn used to be friends and even played golf together.
Once upon a time, they came up with a plan where Walters would put up $1 million and spin the roulette wheel at the Golden Nugget with $1,000 wagers if Wynn took out one of the zeros from the wheel. This would make the roulette table more like the European version, which has only one zero instead of the American version's two zeros.
This plan fell through because of New Jersey's gaming rules. So, Walters and Wynn came up with an alternative. Walters agreed to put in $2 million to play the roulette wheel with $2,000 bets, and Wynn "invented" a new roulette game where one of the zeros would be removed. Walters won $3.8 million against the Golden Nugget, which didn't go down well with Wynn.
"When Wynn lost that roulette money to me, you would have thought I'd walked into his mansion and punched one of his Picassos,” Walters wrote. "That incident started a fierce feud between Steve Wynn and me that continues to this day."
This isn't a fictionalized mention of a punch to a painting - in 2006, Wynn almost sold Picasso's "Le Rêve" to financier Steven Cohen for $139 million when he paid $48.4 million for it five years earlier. But he accidentally banged into the painting, damaging it, before the sale.
Wynn Had Pull with Trump, Says Walters
In 2017, Walters was convicted of insider trading involving shares in Dean Foods. Although he wasn't found guilty of criminal offenses, golfer Phil Mickelson was involved in the case. Eventually, he surrendered $931K from insider trading information he allegedly received through his connection with Walters.
Mickelson might have aided Walters in avoiding prison time if he had confessed to insider trading, an action the golfer declined to take. While he was in prison, Walters' daughter took her own life, and his relationship with Mickelson ended.
Walters was released to home confinement in May 2020 due to the pandemic, and President Trump commuted his sentence on his last day in office on January 20, 2021. However, Walters wanted a pardon, not a commutation. A pardon removes a conviction entirely, but a commutation only offers leniency without erasing the conviction.
Walters believes that Wynn, a major GOP contributor, wielded power over Trump and halted the pardon.
Walters Has Dirt on Wynn
Walters can't say for certain that Wynn interfered with the pardon, but he said in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal that "several individuals I trust and believe" informed him about this issue.
The renowned sports bettor states that he heard rumblings at a Republican retreat where substantial donors, including Wynn, were present. There, Wynn reportedly boasted to pals about derailing Walters' chances for a pardon, his fundraising sway over the president, and the immense pleasure he derived from undermining him.
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Source: www.casino.org
