There’s not much to update, the Riviera having gone into a state of arrested redevelopment, as it were. It is owned by Riviera Holdings Corp., whose directors include Barry Sternlicht and Derek Stevens. We tried several times to contact Sternlicht and Stevens, to no avail. However, a source close to the Riviera brought us up to date on recent events.
When we walked the property with then-president Andy Choy in 2012, the Riviera was buzzing with changes. Choy was entering his third year in the presidency, having taken the job when the Riv was brought out of bankruptcy in 2010.
The steakhouse had been redone, as had the pool area, the hotel rooms were in the process of a makeover and paints were being tested for a touch-up of the exteriors. Some things worked. Some (a bingo room) didn’t. It was a grand experiment: There was single-zero roulette, single-deck 3-2 blackjack, and other creative twists, including the only crap game we've ever heard of dealing 1,000X odds.
The era of experimentation was short-lived, as the creative moves you allude to just weren't clicking with the marketplace. Ownership decided to position the property for a resale and Choy left in June 2013. Senior Vice President of Gaming Noah Acres also parted ways with the casino. In the wake of the changes at the top, capital-improvement projects were halted. Itinerant casino manager Diana Bennett – daughter of Strip legend Bill Bennett – was whistled in to run the property. The showrooms were leased out and redevelopment went into a deep freeze.
As for a resale, don’t bet on it. The recent headline transactions on the Strip have been of vacant land (the New Frontier site), a finished resort (The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas), and the skeleton of a semi-finished casino (Echelon), at deeply discounted prices. With assets like those on the move, a 59-year-old casino has limited appeal. Bottom line, the Riviera in its current form figures to be sticking around for a while.
Given that it's not exactly a bright and shiny beacon on what's become the hot end of the Strip, it's understandable that the Riviera may be overlooked by some, but we still see plenty to recommend. The aforementioned R Steakhouse is a value gem on the Strip that's made even better by the 2-for-1 in the LVA Member Rewards Book (one of the better dining deals in the MRB). The Wicked Vicky Tavern, now controlled by the casino, has been running new food and drink specials, and the main bar sells call drinks for $3 and beers for $2 around the clock. The show situation seems to be in constant flux, but there are some winners there, too, including the "Riviera Comedy Club" (which also has an LVA twofer) and the lounge-located Forever Motor City and Forever Doo Wop shows, the former reviewed favorably in the current issue of the Las Vegas Advisor.
