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By Rio Yamat

The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS 鈥� Sin City blew a kiss聽goodbye to the Tropicana聽before first light on Wednesday in an elaborate implosion that reduced to rubble the last true mob-era building on the Las Vegas Strip.

The Tropicana鈥檚 hotel towers tumbled in a celebration that included a fireworks display. It was the first implosion in nearly a decade for a city that loves fresh starts and has made casino implosions as much a part of its identity as gambling itself.

鈥淲hat Las Vegas has done, in classic Las Vegas style 鈥� they鈥檝e turned many of these implosions into spectacles,鈥� said Geoff Schumacher, historian and vice president of exhibits and programs at the Mob Museum.

Former casino mogul Steve Wynn changed the way Las Vegas blows up casinos in 1993 with the implosion of the Dunes to make room for the Bellagio. Wynn chose to not only televise the event but create a fantastic story for the implosion that made it look like pirate ships at his other casino across the street were firing at the Dunes.

From then on, Schumacher said, there was a sense in Las Vegas that destruction at that magnitude was worth witnessing.

The city hasn鈥檛 blown up a Strip casino since 2016, when the final Riviera tower was leveled to create space for a convention center expansion.

 
This time, the implosion cleared land to accommodate聽a $1.5 billion baseball stadium聽for the relocating Oakland Athletics. It鈥檚 the latest project to contribute to the city鈥檚 transformation into a sports hub.

Now, only the Flamingo remains from the city鈥檚 mob era on the Strip. But the Flamingo鈥檚 original structures are long gone, Schumacher noted. The casino was completely rebuilt in the 1990s.

When the Tropicana closed in April, it was the third-oldest casino on the Strip. Once known as the 鈥淭iffany of the Strip鈥� for its opulence, the Tropicana was a frequent haunt of the legendary Rat Pack, while its past under the mob has long cemented its place in Las Vegas lore.

The Tropicana opened in 1957 with three stories and 300 hotel rooms split into two wings. As Las Vegas rapidly evolved in the following decades, the Tropicana also underwent major changes. Two hotel towers were added in later years. In 1979, the casino鈥檚 beloved $1 million green-and-amber stained-glass ceiling was installed above the casino floor. The original low-rise hotel wings survived the many renovations, however.

Behind the scenes of the casino鈥檚 grand opening, the Tropicana had ties to organized crime, largely through reputed mobster Frank Costello.

Costello was shot in the head in New York weeks after the Tropicana debuted. He survived, but the investigation led police to a piece of paper in his coat pocket with the casino鈥檚 exact earnings figure, revealing the mob鈥檚 stake.

By the 1970s, federal authorities investigating mobsters in Kansas City charged more than a dozen operatives with conspiring to skim $2 million in gambling revenue from Las Vegas casinos, including the Tropicana. Charges connected to the Tropicana alone resulted in five convictions.

There were no public viewing areas for Wednesday鈥檚 event, but fans of the Tropicana did have a chance earlier this year to bid farewell to the relic.

鈥淥ld Vegas, it鈥檚 going,鈥� Joe Zappulla, a teary-eyed New Jersey resident, said in April as he exited the casino, shortly before doors were locked a final time.