Steve Wynn remains sceptical about online business opportunities and the role the Internet plays in the gaming industry.

Despite an estimated $4 billion to $6 billion a year paid for online poker in the U.S., Win, who has opposed online gaming for years, said it was a tough sell when PokerStars called.

"The internet looked like Mount Everest was blocking the sun," said Winn. He said he still believes that regulating internet poker will be difficult but not impossible.

He said, "What if the government intervenes and they take control and interfere with our ability to run our businesses? If they play internet poker, they will be taxed a ton of money." "They will only legalize it in the U.S. because they have an insatiable desire for money in Washington."

Win Resorts Inc. Chairman and CEO Winn recently got together with the Las Vegas Review-Journal to discuss online poker, company projects, and politics. The 69-year-old still has a firm grip on the publicly traded casino company, which made a net profit of $1.26 billion in the first quarter of this year.

Despite being disrupted by the collapse of his "strategic relationship" with PokerStars, Wynn is focused on laying the groundwork for the long-awaited $2.5 billion project at Macau's Cotai Strip and the opening of the new Angkor Beach Club's Memorial Day weekend. After deciding to tear down the entrance to Angkor, he created the $69 million swimming pool, club, and bar project.

Wynn believes his Macau project, built on a 52-acre landfill, will open in late 2014 or early 2015. Analysts believe he is more cautious about his ability to convert dumps into luxury resorts and that Kotai won't open until 2016.

"We are waiting for permission to work on the site," he said. "Our project has been approved, but we have to wait until the government issues their permission." In recent years, Macau has been the driving force behind all the good work at Wynn Resorts.

The company added space in China's provinces through Encore last year, which helped first-quarter revenue grow 46.6% to $865.7 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 50.2% to $272.8 million.

Wynn has lobbied for years for a resort with integrated destinations in Japan. It suddenly ended on March 11, when a tsunami generated by the 8.9 earthquake hit the east coast of Japan.

"They were always very, very hesitant to let outsiders in," Wynne said, "and there was some possibility that they would change their mind about the resort, but that's because they decided they really needed a profit."

He said the question facing Japanese officials is whether they are in a position to change their minds. Wynn also asked if they had suffered damage that would prevent them from becoming gambling houses.

"Forget about our business. You hope so," he said. "Of course we had big eyes in Japan and it would be a 100 percent effort for me. Unlike Singapore, we were ready."

When Singapore legalized gambling in 2005, Wynn said he was focusing on construction underway in Wynn Macau, which completed a project in Las Vegas and opened in 2006.

"When Singapore legalized gambling, I withdrew it," he said. "I had $3.6 billion worth of stuff in my startup. If I had taken over Singapore, I would have looked like a crazy person.

Turning to his competitor in Las Vegas, Wynn was surprised by the amount he invested in the City Center and the Las Vegas Cosmopolitan. 온라인카지노

"They started the city center with all their debts. I was lucky to run into people from Dubai," he said. "They gave them $5.4 billion. It's gone. How can you lose $5.4 billion here? You can't help but be a fool or an idiot."