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Steve Wynn: 'I Lost A Lot Of Money Sitting Across The Poker Tables From Lyle' Berman

Berman Inducted Into The Gaming All Of Fame

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Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn’s arch-nemesis at the poker tables is apparently a three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner.

On Wednesday in Las Vegas at the 2016 Gaming Hall of Fame induction ceremony held at the Palazzo, the billionaire gave some comments about the inductees, one of whom was longtime poker player and gaming industry executive Lyle Berman.

“I lost a lot of money sitting across the poker tables from Lyle,” Wynn said to the crowd in attendance, according to a report from CDC Gaming Reports.

Who knows what “a lot of money” at a poker table is to Wynn, but it could very well be a staggering amount.

Berman, who is currently on the Golden Entertainment Inc. board of directors, is credited with helping expand gambling past Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

In addition to the Gaming Hall of Fame, Berman is in the WSOP’s Poker Hall of Fame and the Minnesota Poker Hall of Fame. The 75-year-old, who was born in Minneapolis, was the first member of his home state’s Poker Hall of Fame.

Though he’s a high-stakes cash game player, Berman has accumulated $2.6 million in lifetime tournament earnings in events dating back to 1983.

According to the American Gaming Association, the group behind the Gaming Hall of Fame, Berman co-founded Grand Casinos Inc. in 1990, which “set the model for building resorts in the Mississippi Gulf Coast and beyond.” Fortune Magazine named the business the fastest growing company in America in 1995. The company grew from a three-person startup to employing 20,000 people with a market capitalization of $1 billion.

Berman was one of five people inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame this year.

The others were: gaming-technology pioneer John Acres, Las Vegas casino industry architect Don Brinkerhoff, tribal gaming visionary Richard A. “Skip” Hayward, and Redenia Gilliam-Mosee, the first African-American casino vice president in Atlantic City.

The Gaming Hall of Fame was created in 1989.