Wynn Resorts CEO Stephen Wynn used his company's conference call to lay into the Obama administration, calling it the "greatest wet blanket to business and progress and job creation in my lifetime."
Late Monday Wynn Resorts reported second-quarter profit and revenue that topped Wall Street estimates thanks to its business in Las Vegas and in Macau.
On Tuesday JP Morgan, Jefferies and Barclays raised their price targets on the casino and hotel company, rating it at, respectively, overweight, buy and equal weight.
That was a day after Wynn's conference call, a transcript of which was made available Tuesday.
CEO, Wynn Resorts Ltd.Stephen Wynn,
After taking questions about the company's earnings and expansion plans Wynn was asked by Deutsche Bank Securities analyst William Lerner about Las Vegas.
"I believe in Las Vegas," Wynn replied. "I think its best days are ahead of it. But I'm afraid to do anything in the current political environment in the United States."
He criticized the "total lack of leadership from the President, and nothing's going to get fixed until the President himself steps up and wrangles both parties in Congress. But everybody is so political, so focused on holding their job for the next year, that the discussion in Washington is nauseating."
The Wynn CEO said he and others are "frightened to death about all the new regulations," particularly the prospect of escalating health-care costs.
"My customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration," he said, "and it makes you slow down and not invest your money."