Casinos are supposed to be hurting financially, but maybe Wynn Resorts didn’t get the memo. The Wynn Las Vegas announced this week it has purchased a 2,000-pound sculpture of Popeye for $28.2 million and put it on display for guests to enjoy.

The spinach-eating sailor sculpture by New York City artist Jeff Koons joins a host of other artworks on display at Wynn in Las Vegas, including pieces by Columbian artist Fernando Botero and French painter Raoul Dufy. There’s even another Koons sculpture of tulips that was purchased by Wynn for $33.7 million.

“They are hugely popular with guests,” said Michael Weaver, Wynn’s senior vice president of marketing. “It’s part of maintaining the brand.”

Wynn, which is competing for a license to build a $1.6 billion casino in Everett, is legendary in Vegas for gambling on high-end luxury casino resorts known for their lavish amenities, service, and attention to detail. The public company operates two towers on the Vegas strip and another in Macau in China. A second facility is under construction in Macao.

For the quarter ending March 31, Wynn reported net revenue of $1.5 billion, up 9.8 percent from the year before. Net income was $227 million, up 11.8 percent. The big gains came in China, where revenue increased 14.2 percent; net revenue from Las Vegas operations was off 1.5 percent, driven primarily by a falloff in casino revenue of 11.9 percent.

In the context of a multibillion-dollar business, the purchase of a $28.2 million sculpture may not seem like much. But the Popeye purchase illustrates how the casino company thinks. As Steve Wynn revealed in an April CommonWealth interview, people come to Wynn resorts for the excitement and entertainment. “It’s an experiential exploration,” he said. “They come for the fun of it.”

Wynn Resorts is less free with its money when it comes to negotiating mitigation payments with communities surrounding its proposed Everett casino site. Wynn couldn’t come to an agreement with Chelsea and Somerville, so it went to arbitration and won, with its financial offers prevailing. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh refused to negotiate with Wynn on mitigation payments and turned the job over to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. Wynn’s final and best offer to Boston included $1 million up front and $2.6 million a year thereafter.

By contrast, Mohegan Sun, Wynn’s rival for the eastern Massachusetts casino license, has already agreed to pay Boston at least $18 million a year in mitigation payments. Mohegan Sun, which also operates a casino in Connecticut, has portrayed itself in newspaper ads as a good New England neighbor while calling Wynn “the Vegas company that fights with our communities.”

A Mohegan Sun spokesman said the Popeye expenditure is telling. “This is a pretty vivid example of how Mr. Wynn’s priorities are squarely positioned in Las Vegas; and his approach to Massachusetts is completely out of step with the intent of the gaming statute and the responsibilities an operator has to work cooperatively with surrounding communities,” the spokesman said.

Weaver says Wynn is willing to pay surrounding communities to mitigate the impact of its proposed casino, but won’t go beyond that. “We don’t view the surrounding community process as a chance to purchase a license,” he said.

Steve Wynn, in the CommonWealth interview, made clear that he believes Mohegan Sun will do anything to win the eastern Massachusetts casino license so it can shield its Connecticut casino from competition from him. “You’d have to be critically handicapped not to see that, from a Massachusetts point of view, it’s a disqualifier,” he said. “To pick Mohegan Sun, if you represent the state of Massachusetts, is an act of gross irresponsibility.”