I feel compelled to interrupt this flashback now for a personal disclosure, regarding the Riviera’s relative impact on my own life. The luridly ludicrous “Showgirls” filmed its showgirls at the Riv, and at the end of “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” when the titular four try a foursome, the Riv is where they try it. In the original ”Ocean’s 11” of 1960, the Riviera was one of the five hotels that the Rat Pack and their pals robbed. Martin Scorsese shot his movie “Casino” in the Riv’s casino, not in some pretend one. What happens in Vegas gets blown to bits in Vegas.Ĭhances are, even if you have never stayed or played at the Riviera in person, you have seen some scene of it. The Desert Inn is now the Wynn, and the Stardust, poof, up in smoke.

The Hacienda was imploded and the Mandalay Bay is there now. The Dunes was imploded and the Bellagio is there now. The Sands was imploded and the Venetian stands on that land now. Which vestiges of old Vegas will this leave us? Not a whole lot. It likely is not a coincidence that the Riviera’s closure date has been set for two days after this highly publicized fight, giving thousands of big spenders one final opportunity to drop by the Riv’s pits and slots and leave a stack of cash behind.

It so happens that boxing is bringing tourists galore to Las Vegas this very week, in town for Saturday night’s highly anticipated bout between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao that once again makes the ZIP code 89109 where the action is. I do know for a fact, though, rest assured, that those ritzy, glitzy days of yore are going, going, gone, and with them the Riviera itself, which is scheduled to close for business permanently on May 4 at high noon, 60 years old and out of time, out of luck, out of date.

Riviera casino las vegas closing