Billionaire casino developer Steve Wynn criticized former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, as he told more than a thousand investment advisers at a conference that the communist revolutionary’s Cultural Revolution was “imbecilic” and “almost ruined” the country.

The chief executive of Wynn Resorts spoke during a question & answer session at the Charles Schwab IMPACT 2007 conference.

Most questions were about the political and business climate in China.

In most of his speech, Wynn praised the Chinese government for the country’s economic growth and its efficient bureaucracy.

He spoke some Mandarin, a language he began learning after attempting to do business in the country several years ago.

The company plans to add an upscale 400-room Wynn Diamond Suites, costing as much as $600 million, in 2010. It also said that in August it was awaiting approval from the government of Macau to develop a separate 52-acre site.

During his talk, Wynn also waded into other controversial topics, saying that if the Dalai Lama were to visit China it might cause some unintended disorder, and he named terrorism as the biggest threat to global business.

In 2002, Wynn won 1 of the coveted licenses to develop casinos in the former monopoly gambling enclave, and opened the $1.1 billion Wynn Macau in September last year.