After 60 years, a Las Vegas classic is folding

By John Katsilometes

Sunday, Feb. 22, 2015 | 2 a.m.

I’ve written columns from makeshift outposts all over the city. “Bureaus,” I call them. At the moment, the public Internet station at the UPS Store at the Riviera is my bureau.

You can surf the Web for a quarter a minute, if you commit to a $5 cash minimum payment. You can book a room at the Riv from this spot, if you want to avoid the line at the registration desk about 20 feet away.

Why am I here, checking out this scene?

Because the Riviera is headed for demolition. The Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority verified what already had been known around the property and city: The tourism agency is buying the resort, demolishing it and building a new convention center as part of its $2.3 billion Las Vegas Global Village business district.

This is all to take place as the hotel is celebrating, without an actual party, its 60th anniversary. Hanging above the Riv’s entrance is a sign trumpeting its “Diamond Jubilee.” Under is a cardboard cutout of magician Dirk Arthur, posing with a trio of exotic cats from his “Wild Illusions” show at Starlite Theater.

The entrance of the hotel, and its valet, are positioned on the backside of the resort, facing Paradise Road instead of the Strip. The main entrance was set to the east because Paradise Road is closer to the Las Vegas Convention Center (ironically enough) and McCarran International Airport than the Strip.

The atypical arrangement was the brainchild of former CEO Andy Choy, who had lots of ideas that cut against conventional wisdom. The latter years of the Riviera were punctuated with concepts and strategies that might seem a better fit for the era of the original “Ocean’s 11.”

Casino management is an unpredictable, often improbable, business — even for a probability wiz like Choy. Under his stewardship, not every idea took off. Example: The Riv partnered with Flavor Flav in an ill-fated chicken restaurant that never served a single wing at the hotel. (The Banana Leaf, however, turned into a decent dining spot, and the food court, just past a line of pinball machines lent to the hotel by the Pinball Hall of Fame, opens conveniently to the Strip.)

Choy was let go in June 2013 and moved to Hong Kong six months ago to become chief gaming officer for Melco International.“During my tenure with the Riviera, we developed several proposals to turn the operations around, but all involved significant risks and sizeable investments,” he said. “Ultimately, I don’t think any of them come close to the announced sale price of the land.”

Over the past few years, great emphasis was returned to traditional gaming at the Riv, even when most tourists said they didn’t come to Las Vegas to play table games or slots. When Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International pivoted away from gaming as their chief revenue source, the Riviera continued to push low limits and great odds. The resort boasted such promotions as 3:2 single-deck blackjack, with the best odds on the Strip.

The most recent push was to boost the entertainment lineup by convincing Las Vegas production company Red Mercury Entertainment to spruce up Versailles Theater and move “The Rat Pack is Back” and “MJ Live,” both popular shows, from the Rio. A fair bit of a buzz was generated about the revival of the Versailles, a classic Vegas showroom that owners hoped would reanimate the resort .

The Riviera hoped to celebrate its 60th birthday by making a statement that it was the one hotel on the Strip that still boasted a great, old-Vegas identity. Instead, like the timepiece hanging from Flavor Flav’s neck, the clock ticks down.

Funny, a few minutes ago a member of the hotel’s cleaning staff passed by, pushing a small dumpster on wheels through the registration area. He inadvertently slammed the container into a trash can, sending it crashing to the floor.

It felt like a mini-implosion, and a harbinger of what’s to come.