Protests outside his marquee casino in Las Vegas, reports of labor board investigations, outrage at a new tip-sharing policy, and now accusations from a fired dealer of improper behavior in meetings all add up to a rocky start to 2007 for Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn.

Wynn, the creator of The Bellagio and creator and owner of The Wynn casino/resort on the Las Vegas Strip, has come under fire lately for a couple of less-than-popular business decisions. The latest is an accusation from pit dealer Cynthia Fields that she was fired for filing a report with the National Labor Relations Board after a meeting in which she and other witnesses said Wynn lost his temper and made job threats if they protested a change in the casino's tip distribution policy.

"They wanted to get rid of me to prove a point, to scare everybody," she said.

Fields, 39, of Henderson, fears the incident will unfairly tarnish her reputation as a dealer and hopes the NLRB can put her back on the job at Wynn Las Vegas.

"Everyone is going to look at me as a troublemaker and I was only standing up for my rights," Fields said. "I was standing up for the rights of every employee at the Wynn."

This all started on September 1, 2006, when the tip policy at the Wynn was changed to include floor supervisors in the shared tip pool, a huge shift in Las Vegas tradition. Wynn dealers, looking at a potential 20% reduction in income, were understandably upset by this new policy. Wynn dealers were frequently making more money than their supervisors, and management implemented the new policy to correct the perceived inequity. Dealers disagreed, saying that the casino should not use dealer's tips to increase mangers' salary.

In a meeting on Oct. 30, Wynn allegedly threatened dealers with pay cuts or other reprisals if they protested the new policy. Fields was seated next to Wynn in this meeting and says she took the brunt of his anger. "He said that if we go union, a strike would be imminent and we would all lose our jobs," Fields said. Fields characterized her reaction to the meeting as "terrified," and filed a grievance with the NLRB. The board determined on Dec. 28 that there was enough evidence to pursue a complaint against Wynn.

The complaint against Wynn is scheduled to go before an administrative law judge March 13. The hearing had been scheduled for February, but was rescheduled to give investigators' time to look into Fields' subsequent charge that she had been unfairly suspended, said Stephen Wamser, deputy regional attorney for the National Labor Relations board.