Major Riddle

Major Arteburn Riddle^[1] (born 1906 or 1907; 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]