That’s the message from Wall Street, courtesy of Deutsche Bank’s Bill Lerner, who tells one local newspaper: "They still seem to be the best-paid dealers on the Strip, … There hasn’t  been any financial implications (to the company) so investors aren’t too concerned about this."

Implication: neither should you be concerned. I don’t know if this is meant as an after-the-fact justification for the poor job local dailies have done covering this issue or not. (Their editorial pages appear to have taken vows on silence on the subject.) Either way, it’s not an issue I would expect to see showing up on Wall Street’s radar. Hence my non-surprise at Lerner’s comment.

Memo to Lerner: It doesn’t matter if dealers are the best-paid or the worst-paid; confiscating your employees’ tip money is flat-out wrong. Constantly raising the issue of how well-tipped the Wynn dealers are is a way of throwing dust in people’s eyes, a screwy attempt to paint Steve Wynn as Robin Hood: taking from the rich (minimum wage) dealers to give to the poor (salaried) pit bosses and boxmen. Maybe Lerner should give Steve a call and ask him some more pertinent questions, like: Why is Wynn Resorts constantly operating in the red? Must be that sky-high dealer compensation that’s to blame. [/sarcasm]

I had a nasty injury yesterday, sustained — now here’s a ridiculous method — while opening a window and am blogifying from home. Hence the absence of bold-face type, italics and links to online goodies. Safari apparently doesn’t support the bells and whistles of our blogging software. Sorry about that, folks.