Implosion brings down Tropicana casino in Vegas to make way for baseball stadium

The Tropicana hotel on the Las Vegas Strip was imploded early Wednesday, marking the end of the last true mob building in the area.

The event featured fireworks and was the first casino implosion in nearly a decade, paving the way for a new $1.5 billion baseball stadium for the Oakland Athletics.

Once known as the “Tiffany of the Strip,” the Tropicana opened in 1957 and was a favorite of the Rat Pack. It had ties to organized crime, notably mobster Frank Costello, NPR has reported.

The implosion leaves the Flamingo as the only remnant of Las Vegas’s mob era, though its original structures have been replaced.

Written by B.C. Begley