Major Arteburn Riddle [1] (born 1906or1907; died July 8, 1980) [2] was an American businessperson who owned several casinos in the Las Vegas area.
Riddle was born in Louisville, Kentucky. [2] At the age of 11, he moved with his family to Indianapolis. [3] There, he eventually started working in his father's trucking and manufacturing businesses. [3] By 1936, he was involved in an Indianapolis-area nightclub with illegal gambling, which was linked to mobster Al Capone and his Chicago Outfit. [3] In 1940, he became involved with another gambling club in Moline, Illinois. [3] [4] [5] Around this time, he was romantically linked to mob figure Virginia Hill. [6] [7] Riddle moved to Chicago in the 1940s. [3]
Riddle made a fortune in the 1930s and 1940s with an oil and gas drilling company in Texas. [2] [8] He also owned a trucking company in Evansville, Indiana, from 1937 to 1954. [3] [9]
Riddle started his Las Vegas casino career in 1956, when he took over the Dunes. [2] Riddle and his co-investors substantially expanded the hotel using loans from the mob-influenced Teamsters pension fund. [9] He was also noted for booking the first topless showgirl revue in Las Vegas, Minsky's Follies, into the casino. [10]
He opened the Silver Nugget casino in North Las Vegas in 1964. [11] Around 1975, he took over the Riata Club and reopened it as the Silver City Casino. [12] [13] In 1977, he took over operation of the Thunderbird hotel casino and renamed it as the Silver Bird. [13] [14] In 1978, he opened the casino at the Holiday International, under a lease from the hotel. [15] [16]
In 1963, Riddle wrote The Weekend Gambler's Handbook, a book of advice for casino gamblers. [8] It became popular, despite containing some advice that was based on superstition rather than mathematics. [17] After the book's publication, he appeared as himself on the June 24, 1963, episode of To Tell the Truth , receiving two of the four possible votes. [18]
Riddle's son, Charles, died of suicide in 1966 at the age of 18. [19]
Riddle died on July 8, 1980, at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, from pneumonia after suffering from a rare blood disease. [2] [20]
Soon after his death, Riddle's casinos went into bankruptcy. [21] The Silverbird and the Holiday International closed down, [16] [22] and the Silver Nugget and Silver City were sold off. [23] [24] Riddle's estate sold his remaining shares in the Dunes around 1984. [20] [25]