Apparently never content to stop nickel-and-diming his dealers, Steve "Skeletor" Wynn has had his minions-for-rent at the law firm of Kamer Zucker & Abbott making mischief with the Nevada Labor Commissioner’s office.

Among the scenarios KZ&A has been floating past the desk of Labor Commissioner Michael Tanchek are such ‘What ifs’ as …

* What if employees were given the choice of no dependent coverage (at $5.15/hour) or could earn $6.15 an hour … provided that they paid dependent coverage at a rate of 10% of their income or more? (So there’s another 10% of their paychecks Wynn employees can kiss goodbye.)

According to one Wynn dealer, his/her spouse’s coverage would go from $360 a year to $6,500 if this goes through. Another reveals that she/he has already sustained a 31% pay reduction from Wynn’s tip-confiscation scheme alone.

* "Is there a minimum threshold (of health coverage)?" Or, in English: How little can we get away with?

* What if we start employees at $6.15/hour and then, after Nevada’s standard, 90-day probationary period, cut them to $5.15/hour once their health plan kicks in? ("… provided it gave the Employee seven days’ notice as required." Such generosity may cause me to weep.)

* "We have a six-month waiting period for insurance. Where does that put us?" According, to a Wynn source, this is KZ&A’s way of asking if Wynn could make employees wait 180 days instead of 90 for health coverage. Thrift, Horatio!

* What if Wynn offers health benefits but the employee doesn’t take them (say, because his wife already provides coverage through her job). Can Wynn impose the lower ($5.15/hour) rate on the employee anyway?

* What if the federal minimum wage goes up this year? Could Wynn wriggle out of paying a cost-of-living increase, too?

* Could Wynn, contrary to current policy, pay even less than $5.15 an hour to trainees?

That’s not the total of KZ&A’s Wynn-inspired hijinks, but it gives you the general flavor. The Scrooge-worthy skinflint mentality betrayed by these queries is truly breathtaking. (To say nothing of hypocrisy and vindictiveness.) It would appear that, even as he stuffs his pockets with a seemingly unwarranted raise for himself, Steve Wynn figures on appeasing shareholders off the backs of his employees … even as he borrows, borrows, borrows and builds, builds, builds. Where Steve Wynn is concerned, it seems, "making ends meet" is a concept by which only lesser mortals are required to live.

The good news is that Assemblyman Bob L. Beers is already on the case. Nor, I would imagine, does Mr. Tanchek want another wave of enraged casino dealers to descend on his office, tar and feathers at the ready.

However, a basic question is left begging … Namely, how many provocations is it going to require before casino dealers in Las Vegas get sufficiently het up to unionize? The longer Wynn can keep kicking them with impunity, the hollower the unionization threat looks.