THE MASSACHUSETTS GAMING COMMISSION said on Friday that its investigations and enforcement bureau will launch a “regulatory review” of allegations of sexual misconduct against Steve Wynn, whose company Wynn Enterprises is building a $2.4 billion casino and hotel complex in Everett.

The allegations surfaced on Friday in a story in the Wall Street Journal, which reported that Wynn sexualized the workplace and pressured workers to perform sex acts on him. In one instance, according to the story, Wynn paid a manicurist $7.5 million to settle charges that he had sex with her against her will in 2005.

Wynn issued a statement to the Journal in which he said “the idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous.” He also alleged that “the instigation of these accusations is the continued work of my ex-wife Elaine Wynn, with whom I am involved in a terrible and nasty lawsuit in which she is seeking a revised divorce settlement.”

All licensees of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission must pass lengthy background reviews and be deemed “suitable” to receive a gaming license. Suitability, under the state’s gaming law, has many facets, including “integrity, honesty, good character, and reputation.”

The law also says the commission shall deny any application for a license for a key gaming employee if that employee has “committed prior acts which have not been prosecuted or in which the applicant was not convicted but form a pattern of misconduct that makes the applicant unsuitable for a license.”

In a statement, the Gaming Commission said it “is now aware of and is taking very seriously the troubling allegations detailed in the Wall Street Journal article. The suitability and integrity of our gaming licensees is of the utmost importance, and ensuring that suitability is an active and ongoing process. Consequently, the MGC’s investigations and enforcement bureau will conduct a regulatory review of this matter to determine the appropriate next steps.”