The mobsters were known to have controlled the money-counting at the most famous casinos in their day, including the Dunes, Sands, Desert Inn and Stardust - all of which have already disappeared from the Strip.

Gambling profits were skimmed to send back home to pay for their gangs' illegal enterprises involving illegal betting, drugs, prostitution, murders and everything else. When The Riviera opened in 1955, organized crime outfits from across the country had already sunk their teeth into the casinos in a takeover that had started the decade before. The Flamingo has been completely rebuilt at its original location, but the Tropicana still has pieces of its original building, making it the last true mob structure on the Strip, said Michael Green, Nevada historian and a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Most of its contemporaries have been long gone, with only the Tropicana and Flamingo casinos still in business.

'Ironically, the Riviera is as famous for its imaginary self as much as its actual self,' said Geoff Schumacher of the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, also known as the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. The Riviera's implosion marks the latest kiss goodbye to what's left among the relics to Vegas' mobster past. The tourism agency bought the 2,075-room property across 26 acres last year for $182.5 million, plus $8.5 million in related transaction costs, with plans to expand its Las Vegas Convention Center. Officials said the Monte Carlo Tower will be imploded in August. The shuttered casino's owners, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, spent $42 million to level the 13-building campus. 'The Riv' closed in May 2015 after 60 years on the northern end of the Strip.

when a series of explosions sounded, followed by the building crumbling from the sides and then into the middle, kicking up a mountain of dust.Ī fireworks display erupted moments before the demolition. The 24-story Monaco Tower was demolished around 2:30 a.m.

LAS VEGAS, NV - The Riviera Hotel and Casino - the Las Vegas Strip's first high-rise that was as famous for its mobster ties as its Hollywood personification of Sin City's mobster past - officially exited the scene early Tuesday with a cinematic implosion, complete with fireworks.

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