Casino mogul Steve Wynn to pay $10m over sexual harassment claims

US casino mogul Steve Wynn is set to pay a $10m (£7.8m) fine to end a legal battle in Nevada over claims of his alleged sexual misconduct in the workplace.

Gambling regulators were poised to approve a settlement, where the billionaire admits no wrongdoing.

A Wall Street Journal report in 2018 alleged he harassed massage therapists and forced one staff member to have sex.

Mr Wynn denied the claims as "slander".

He resigned from Wynn Resorts as chief executive in 2018 and sold his stake in his company, weeks after the Wall Street Journal article. The report alleged a "decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct" by Mr Wynn, including forced sex with a manicurist to whom he later paid a $7.5m settlement.

He also stepped down as finance chair of the Republican National Committee, where he had helped to funnel money, including his own, to politicians including former president Donald Trump.

The 81-year-old made his fortune as the founder of world-famous gambling venues such as the Bellagio.

The son of a bingo hall operator, he built an empire that eventually spanned the world, with resorts across the US and in the island of Macau in China. Forbes estimates his fortune as worth $3.2bn.

Mr Wynn denied the claims in the Wall Street Journal as "slander" at the time of publication, blaming their airing on his legal battle with his ex-wife.

In 2019, Wynn Resorts agreed to pay $20m to Nevada gaming regulators, after an investigation sparked by the article found it had failed to investigate complaints.

Wynn Resorts also paid $35m to regulators in Massachusetts. In a separate settlement with that state, Mr Wynn admitted to having relationships with staff but maintained they were consensual, according to the Nevada complaint.

In the settlement signed on 17 July with Nevada regulators, Mr Wynn agreed to all but cut ties with the industry in the state. Under the terms of deal, Mr Wynn can retain a 5% passive ownership in a publicly-owned firm active in the state.

In the seven-page document he also acknowledged that he had been accused of "failure to exercise discretion and sound judgment" to prevent actions that "reflected negatively on the reputation" of Nevada and its gambling industry.

The deal is expected to be approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission on Thursday.