Las Vegas casino Tropicana demolished in spectacular show

Thought to be the last mob era building on the Las Vegas Strip, the Tropicana opened in 1957 and hosted famous faces including the Rat Pack.

Sin City blew a kiss goodbye to the Tropicana before first light in a spectacular demolition that reduced the last true mob building on the Las Vegas Strip to rubble.

The Tropicana’s hotel towers tumbled in a typically flashy celebration that included a fireworks display.

It was the first implosion in nearly a decade for a city that loves fresh starts and that has made casino demolitions as much a part of its identity as gambling itself.

The Tropicana falls — The complex first opened in 1957 (AP)

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.

Mr Wynn thought not only to televise the event but created a fantastical 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, Mr Schumacher said, there was a sense in Las Vegas that destruction at that magnitude was worth witnessing.

The Tropicana as it was — The hotel and casino was the last of the mob buildings in Sin City (AP)

This time, the implosion cleared land for a 1.5 billion dollar (£1.14 billion) baseball stadium for the relocating Oakland Athletics, part of the city’s latest rebrand into a sports hub.

That will leave only the Flamingo from the city’s mob era on the Strip. But, Mr Schumacher said, the Flamingo’s original structures are long gone. The casino was completely rebuilt in the 1990s.

The Tropicana, the third-oldest casino on the Strip, closed in April after welcoming guests for 67 years.

Tropicana ceiling — The opulent stained glass ceiling cost a million dollars (AP)

It opened in 1957 with three storeys and 300 hotel rooms split into two wings.

As Las Vegas rapidly evolved in the following decades, including a building boom of Strip mega resorts in the 1990s, the Tropicana also underwent major changes. Two hotel towers were added in later years.

In 1979, the casino’s beloved million-dollar green-and-amber stained glass ceiling was installed above the casino floor.

A cloud of smoke where the Tropicana once stood — It is a final farewell for a building steeped in glamour and notoriety (AP)

Behind the scenes of the casino’s 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’s debut. He survived, but the investigation led police to a piece of paper in his coat pocket with the Tropicana’s exact earnings figure, revealing the mob’s stake in the casino.

The Tropicana on Las Vegas Strip — The complex will make way for a stadium, as the city looks to rebrand itself as a sports hub (AP)

There were no public viewing areas for the event, but fans of the Tropicana did have a chance in April to bid farewell to the Vegas relic.

Joe Zappulla, a teary-eyed New Jersey resident, said at the time as he left the casino, shortly before the doors were locked: “Old Vegas, it’s going.”