Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Wynn Resorts Ltd. and other Las Vegas casino operators have seen healthy companies cancel conventions since President Barack Obama criticized taxpayer-funded trips, Chief Executive Officer Steve Wynn said today.

“I’m sure the president didn’t mean to stigmatize the convention and meetings business in Las Vegas when it was conducted by companies that weren’t on the government dole,” Wynn said today on an earnings conference call. “But that’s the effect that it had.”

The negative publicity associated with Las Vegas is spurring cancellations across the city, already hurt by the U.S. recession, Wynn said. The chairman of “one of the healthiest companies” in the U.S. paid a $3.3 million fee to scrub a $5 million sales training event, he said.

“It’s disturbing to me when the chairman of such a company feels intimidated,” Wynn said. He said he hopes “the rhetoric that is used is more considered in the future. It’s been demonstrated to us that it can have unintended consequences.”

Obama warned this month that companies receiving government bailout money “can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime.”

Companies getting bail-outs should be scrutinized, Wynn said, while healthy ones should be allowed to manage themselves.[bn:WBTKR=GS:US]

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. [], recipient of a $10 billion government bailout package, moved a conference to the San Francisco Marriott from MGM Mirage’s Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas. American International Group Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc.’s Primerica unit have also canceled events at other resort destinations.

Visitor Drops

Las Vegas Strip gambling revenues tumbled the most on record last year. Visits to Las Vegas, which hosts more conventions than any other U.S. city, will fall as much as 4 percent this year, said Rossi Ralenkotter, CEO of the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. The number of seats available on commercial flights remains almost 15 percent less than a year ago.

Wynn’s comments echo similar reactions by hotel operators and Las Vegas Sands Corp. founder and CEO Sheldon Adelson, as well as executives of Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., MGM Mirage, and Wynn Resorts’ Las Vegas President Andrew Pascal in interviews this month with Bloomberg News.

To contact the reporter on this story: Beth Jinks in New York at bjinks1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 24, 2009 19:50 EST