The man who wants to give Macau a hug

US billionaire Steve Wynn's first management gig came during his first year at university in the late 1950s, running one of his father's suburban bingo halls near Washington. Over the next few years he developed a promising career as a disc jockey on college and commercial radio stations in Rhode Island and Florida.

But Wynn's leathery baritone was lost to the airwaves forever following his decision in the 1960s to move to Las Vegas, where he bought a small stake in his first casino, the Frontier. He later owned and operated the downtown Golden Nugget before going on to develop Las Vegas Strip icons, including the Mirage, Bellagio and Treasure Island casino-hotels.

Wynn struck his biggest jackpot in 2002 when he won a gaming license in Macau, which now accounts for the majority of his group's revenue, cash flow and profit. The 69-year-old chairman of both Wynn Resorts and Wynn Macau sat down with the Post in Macau to talk about managing staff in Asia, missing the Singapore gravy train and the next challenge he plans to wrap his arms around: a resort on Macau's Cotai strip.

What matters most in your business?

With our customers there's no difference anywhere in the world with what matters: guest experience. If that's good, people come back and are going to tell their friends and are even willing to pay more to offset the rising cost of business. The building has a lot to do with it, and the decorating, but all that is a small percentage of the whole compared to the rest of it, which is human-resource engineering. The real guest experience is defined by the staff.

You talk about the importance of trust in business relationships. Is it the same with your staff?