The Riviera was one of the most influential casinos located on the Las Vegas Strip.
During its prime, the Riv would host shows by World Class performers like Frank Sinatra,
Barbra Streisand, and Liberace.
The Riv would also be the center of quite a few controversies due to many murders being
associated with the resort.
Hey everyone, how’s it going?
My name is Jonah Stahl, and welcome to Abandoned Explained.
In today’s video, we are going to be diving into what caused the Riviera to cease operations.
This topic is actually a suggestion I received from one of you!
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Anyways, let’s dive into it!
The initial mastermind behind the infamous “Riv” would be Detroit Mobster William
Bischoff.
During the early 1950’s, Bischoff first proposed the Riviera under the name the Casa
Blanca.
In 1952, Bischoff would receive a gaming license for the casino.
However less than a year later, Bischoff withdrew from the project.
He would then hand the property over to a group of investors from Miami.
Now at the forefront of the Casa Blanca was Samuel Cohen, formerly known as Sammy Purple.
Cohen would achieve this nickname from being the leader of a small organized crime group
that mainly partook in petty theft.
While he no longer was formally affiliate with the group, rumors were circulating that
he still was involved with the organization.
When Cohen took over the property, he would also change the name from the Casa Blanca
to the Riviera.
The state would approve Cohen’s gaming license in 1953, and the Riv would open on schedule
on April 20, 1955.
When the Riv opened it would be the ninth resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
The opening of the Riviera, along with the Dunes and the Royal Nevada would be the subject
of an article in a famous issue of Life Magazine.
The article was written in June of 1955, and was titled “Las Vegas - Is the Boom Over-Extended?”.
To summarize his points, the author was worried that Las Vegas was building to many resorts
to be profitable.
During the Riviera’s opening ceremony, the honor of cutting the opening ribbon would
go to Liberace, one of the world’s most well known celebrities at the time.
At the height of his fame, Liberace was the world’s highest paid entertainer.
He would also become the Riv’s first resident performer, and would be one of the property’s
main performers for years to come.
Upon opening, the Riviera’s design would revolutionize the strip.
Many Casinos located on the Strip at that time resembled roadside motor courts.
The Riv would be the first high rise resort to be built on the Strip.
The Riviera’s revolutionary design would cause every future project located on the
strip to be built as a high rise.
Three months after opening in July, the Riviera would end up going bankrupt.
So what happened?
Well, that depends on who you ask.
According to the Riviera’s website, Cohen and Company were unaccustomed to gambling
and that they ran into trouble.
Others theorize that while it is true that Cohen’s team were not accustomed to the
gaming industry, and were simultaneously being skimmed.
This theory states that organized crime members would skim the gambling profits and send them
back home to pay for their gang’s illegal enterprise.
What we know for sure is that Cohen would later go on to famously skim profits from
the Flamingo Hotel with Meyer Lansky, otherwise known as the “Mob’s Accountant”.
This leads many people to believe that profits were being skimmed at the resort.
Next up at the Riv was a group a former Flamingo Hotel Managers lead by Gus Greenbaum, who
was an early associate of Bugsy Siegel during the prohibition.
He was also responsible for turning around the Flamingo after the untimely demise of
Siegel.
Gus would take over operations at the resort, after leasing it from the ownership group
Gensbro Hotel Company.
Many believed that Gus was coerced out of retirement after receiving threats from Chicago
Mob Boss Tony Accardo for some outstanding debts.
This theory is strengthened by the fact that Greenbaum’s sister in law was smothered
to death in her home one week after the grand opening of the Riviera.
Among Gus’s staff was William Nelson, who was the Riv’s Entertainment Director.
It would later be discovered that William Nelson was actually mob informant Willie Bioff.
He would only last three months before being killed by a truck bomb in November of 1955.
His killers would never be found, but I’m sure we all know who was responsible for the
murder.
Throughout Gus’s Management of the Riviera, he would suffer from an addiction to drugs,
and gambling.
This would lead to him embezzling from the Casino profits.
When the Riv began to lose profits, the mob investigators caught onto Gus’s antics.
On December 3rd, 1958 Gus and his wife, Bess, were found murdered inside of their Pheonix
home.
No one was ever charged for the double murder, however many people speculate that the murder
was a hit initiated by either Mob Boss Tony Accardo, or Meyer Lansky.
Mob Fixer Sidney Korshak played a major role in the Riviera’s management.
This was bad news for the Riv since Law enforcement agencies suspected he was responsible for
skimming the casino’s revenue and distributing it Gus Alex in Chicago.
Alex would in turn distribute the money to organized crime members like Tony Accardo.
Law Enforcement suspected that he would either make payment arrangements or deliver the money
to Gus on his monthly trips to Chicago.
In June of 1968, the Riviera was purchased by a group of bankers including Parry Thomas
and Jerome Mack, as well as investors connected to Parvin-Dohrmann Corporation, who owned
the StarDust, Aladdin, and Fremont Casinos.
Parry Thomas and Jerome Mack were major investors in the Las Vegas Strip, and they were vital
in making Las Vegas into what it is today.
A year later, a deal was made to sell the property to Parvin-Dohrmann.
However, this deal was blocked by the Nevada Gaming Commission due to the company’s previous
failure to report a change in ownership.
Later that year, Dean Martin was signed by the Riv to perform in the casino’s main
showroom, as well as be the acting Entertainment Director.
Subsequently, Martin was given a 10 percent stock in the ownership of the Riviera.
Issues would arise shortly after, when Dean Martin asked to perform only once a night
instead of twice.
The Riviera would deny his request, as they believed it would set a bad precedent for
main performers, since they would also insist on performing once a night.
As a result, Martin would leave the hotel in 1972, and the Riv would buy their shares
back.
Martin would stay with the hotel as the Entertainment Director.
In 1973, the Riviera was purchased for 60 million dollars, or 350 million dollars in
today’s money, by AITS Inc., a Boston Based travel company.
The two main people in charge of the property now were Israeli businessman Meshulam Riklis
and Isidore Becker.
Riklis would later finance a movie called Fake-Out starring Pia Zadora, in which the
Riviera would be the setting.
A year after Fake-Out would come out, in 1983 the Riviera would file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Protection in order to restructure their debts.
Riklis pledged to invest more money into the project, and hired Jeffery Silver as the CEO
to turn things around at the Riv.
As CEO, Silver began shifting the resorts marketing focus away from High Rollers, and
towards the Middle/Working Class.
Silver would open a Burger King inside the resort, making Burger King to be the first
Fast Food Chain in a Las Vegas Casino.
This move inspired many to call the trend in Las Vegas Casino’s catering to the Middle
Class as the “Burger King Revolution”.
From 1988 to 1990, the Riviera would undergo an expansion.
Silver wanted to construct a new Casino Room that would contain 500 slot machines.
This expansion would go significantly over budget prompting the Riv to file for Chapter
11 once again in 1991 with 126 million dollars in outstanding debt.
The company would emerge from bankruptcy in 1993 as Riviera Holdings Corporation, which
was formed by the former creditors of the bankrupt hotel.
Throughout the 2000’s, the Riviera would slowly begin to decline in popularity.
In the resorts prime, the Riv held shows by world class celebrities like Frank Sinatra
and Barbra Streisand.
Throughout the 2000’s, the properties most popular show was a topless show called “Crazy
Girls”.
On July 12, 2010, the Riv would announce that it was undergoing bankruptcy once again.
This would be the last time the Riviera would file for bankruptcy.
Their bankruptcy plan included a reorganization plan under which secured lenders would receive
new debt, and stock in the property.
At this point, the Riviera owed over 275 million dollars.
The decline in the Riv’s popularity can be partially blamed on a lack of foot traffic
to the area.
The Riviera used to be surrounded by popular casinos like the Stardust, New Frontier, and
Westward Ho.
However, these properties were demolished to make way for new projects which wouldn’t
pan out.
Shutdown of construction at the adjacent Fontainebleau Resorts Las Vegas and Echelon Place would
also attribute to the decline.
I’ve actually made a video on what happened to the Fontainebleau, if you’re interested
click the card in the top right corner!
At the time of the bankruptcy, the Riv would have nearly 1,600 employees.
The decline in the Riv’s popularity would lead to many pool tournaments to hold their
contests at other casinos.
Up until the bankruptcy, the Riviera would have a near monopoly on the Professional level
North American Pool Tournaments.
After announcing that the Riv would be filing for bankruptcy, many pool tournaments would
begin to hold their contests elsewhere.
In 2013, Billiards Congress of America would move it’s tournament from the Riv to the
Rio.
Valley National 8-Ball Association announced in May of 2010 they would move their contest
to Bally’s Casino.
The only tournament to be held at the casino until it’s closure was the American Poolplayers
Association.
In August of 2011, the Riviera would re-open its bingo room in an attempt to bring in more
customers.
At the time, the Riv was the only Casino on the Strip to offer bingo.
The Riviera also contained one of the largest Bingo Halls in Las Vegas, and was voted “Best
Bingo Room” by the Las Vegas Review Journal.
The Riv would also launch a partnership with Buffalo Studios, a company that had created
a Facebook game called “Bingo Blitz”.
The game allowed players to play online bingo on a webpage that had an image of the Riviera.
The image was intended to drive more customers to the Riviera by associating bingo with the
Riviera.
In February of 2015, the Las Vegas Convention Center and Visitors Authority acquired the
Riviera and its land for 182.5 million dollars.
The property was leased back to its former operators, who would officially close the
casino on May 4th, 2015, only a little over a month after its 60th anniversary on April
20th.
Upon closing, the property would lay off over 1,000 employees, each of which received a
severance package.
The Riv would also assist in finding new employment for their former employees.
Due to the immense size of the Riv, the structure would have to be imploded in two seperate
implosions.
The first implosion would take place during June 2016, and smaller demolition work would
be done leading up the second implosion.
During the prep work for the implosion, it was discovered the resort’s Monte Carlo
Hotel Tower still contained Asbestos.
This would be removed prior to imploding the tower.
On August 16, 2016, the Riviera would be imploded to make way for a planned expansion of Las
Vegas Global Business District.
The demolition would cost a total of 42 million dollars.
The main reason behind the Riviera’s demise has to do with it’s declining popularity.
As I mentioned earlier, many nearby casinos were demolished to make way for new projects.
When the vast majority of these projects went under, foot traffic to the northern end of
the strip would fall drastically.
This lead to drastic decline in tourism to this portion of the strip.
Another issue that contributed to the Riv’s closure was the lack of quality shows.
In the Riv’s prime, people would flock from all over to watch shows by Frank Sinatra or
Liberace.
Towards the end of the Riviera’s run, the resort would not host one notable show.
I personally believe that these two factors were the main reasons as to why the Riviera
ultimately closed its doors.
It’s truly quite sad to hear about the fate of the Riviera.
The Riv was arguably one of the most influential resorts on the Las Vegas Strip.
Many things that are common place in Las Vegas, like High Rise Resorts, were influenced by
the Riv.
Without the Riviera’s innovation, the Las Vegas Strip would not be what it is today.
The planned expansion would never panned out, and the former site of the Riviera was turned
into a parking lot.
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