Fontainebleau Las Vegas has been aggressively recruiting talent ahead of its opening at the end of 2023, including key executives at Wynn Las Vegas.

Well, Wynn’s mad as hell, and they aren’t going to take it anymore.

A source familiar with the situation says Wynn Resorts is filing a lawsuit against Fontainebleau to stop what it considers to be unethical recruitment practices. We’ve learned exclusively the lawsuit is expected to be filed on June 5, 2023.

Yes, we’re spilling tea about somebody being in hot water. The circularity of the universe.

Whenever a new hotel-casino opens in Las Vegas, there is a scramble for experienced talent, especially at the executive level.

We’d heard rumblings Fontainebleau was shopping around town, but if you’re looking to acquire the best-of-the-best, there’s really only one place to go: Wynn Resorts.

Fontainebleau has been fairly transparent about its hiring of executives from competing resorts, including a fair number of hires from Cosmopolitan.

Back in April 2023, we Tweeted chatter about Fontainebleau’s recruitment strategy, specifically their going after Wynn employees.

The strategy, it seems, has been to offer executives lots of perks to lure them away from their existing gigs.

This isn’t uncommon, but Wynn Resorts seems to believe it has legal recourse to curtail Fontainebleau’s “poaching.”

We won’t have specifics of the lawsuit until it’s filed and made public, but it should make for great reading!

We are a big fan of Wynn’s lawyers because they mentioned us in their lawsuit against Resorts World for stealing Wynn’s trademarked design. Ah, the memories.

Could this legal kerfuffle have been avoided? Who cares? We love drama.

We’ll be curious to see what basis there is for the lawsuit because while some might consider these recruitment tactics shady, it’s unclear if they meet the threshold of illegality.

Our source says Fontainebleau has been called out previously for their practices by Wynn, so this may have to do with a past agreement being broken. We are not a lawyer. We are barely a blogger.

To add insult to injury, we’ve heard Fontainebleau executives pursued Wynn executives while staying at Wynn. We trust those executives are no longer welcome. That’s just objectively uncool.

We look forward to hearing Fontainebleau’s take on all this. We’re pretty sure they’ll go with the “this goes with the territory” argument but with fancier words by lawyers making $800 an hour.

In Vegas, the agreement to not steal key employees is largely unspoken, sort of a handshake deal, a “gentlemen’s agreement.” That’s not sexism, by the way, it’s mostly dudes who own and run casino resorts. We don’t make the rules.

It’s worth noting this whole situation is set against a backdrop of no small amount of WTF.

We trust the folks being recruited have been in Las Vegas for a while. Do they have any memory of Alon at all? A number of high-ranking executives were poached for the Alon project, with lots of promises about compensation and bonuses, and other perks.

Alon imploded, with lots of bridges burned in the process.

Alon Las Vegas
Fontainebleau actually exists, so there’s that.

Fontainebleau’s future is uncertain. It’s a lot of room to bring online at a time when people think the post-pandemic boom in Las Vegas is cresting. Resorts World’s lackluster financial performance is a reminder of the challenges ahead.

Bonuses and other perks aren’t guaranteed, even when they’re in writing. And bonuses based on performance are an especially risky game to play with so many uncertainties ahead.

Everyone wants Fontainebleau to succeed, including Wynn. (A rising tide lifts all boats), but this could be a shot across the bow when it comes to hiring practices. The pool of experienced hospitality talent isn’t all that deep. So we don’t presume to know how one opens a massive resort without stealing qualified people from other resorts. We trust recruiters to know where the line is and when it’s been crossed.

Wynn’s lawsuit is certain to articulate where the resort and its legal eagles feel Fontainebleau scrod the pooch, as the kids say.

The lesson: Of all the beautiful, valuable things at Wynn Las Vegas, if you’re going to try and take something, it had better not be the people.

We’ll do an update to this story once the lawsuit becomes available, but remember you heard about it here first. (Looking at you Las Vegas Review-Journal.) Like we’re not going to remind you. Do you know this blog at all?