My Favorite Movie Ever - Casino (1995) Directed by Martin Scorsese

They could not have chosen a better set for the movie Casino than a real operating casino on the Las Vegas strip. The Riviera is one of the few casinos in Las Vegas that still has that classic Las Vegas feel. The Riviera was one of the lead characters in the movie playing the part of the fictional Tangiers Casino in the movie.

The Riviera has also been the backdrop and has made an appearance in other movies including 3000 Miles to Graceland, Oceans 11, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery among others.

Sam Rothstein's character portrayed Frank (Lefty) Rosenthal.

Rosenthal was born in Chicago, Illinois of Swedish heritage and adopted by Jewish-American parents, growing up in the city's West Side. As a youth, Rosenthal learned sports betting in the bleachers of Wrigley Field, and would often skip classes to attend Chicago sporting events. By the mid 1950s, he was working with the Chicago Outfit. Chosen for his gambling ability, Rosenthal ran the biggest illegal bookmaking office in the US on behalf of the Mafia. Based in Cicero, Illinois under the guise of the Cicero Home Improvement company, the Outfit and Rosenthal bought "contracts" from sports bribers to fix sporting events. After being indicted as a co-conspirator on multiple sports bribery charges, Rosenthal moved the operation to North Bay Village in Miami to avoid attention.

By 1961 Rosenthal had acquired a national reputation as a sports better, oddsmaker and handicapper, and was frequently seen in the company of prominent Chicago Outfit members Jackie Cerone and Fiore Buccieri while living in Miami. At this time Rosenthal was issued with a subpoena to appear before Senator McClellan's subcommittee on Gambling and Organised Crime, accused of match fixing. He invoked the Fifth Amendment 37 times[1] and was never charged. Due to this he was barred from racing establishments in Florida. Despite his frequent arrests for illegal gambling and bookmaking, Rosenthal was convicted only once, pleading no contest in 1963, for allegedly bribing New York University player Ray Paprocky to shave points for a college basketball game in North Carolina. Once again to escape police attention, Rosenthal moved to Las Vegas in 1968.

A pioneer of sports gambling, Rosenthal secretly ran the Stardust, Fremont, Marina and Hacienda casinos when they were controlled by the Chicago Outfit.[2] He created the first sports book that operated from within a casino[2] making the Stardust one of the world's leading centers for sports gambling. Another Rosenthal innovation was to allow female blackjack dealers, which in one year doubled the Stardust's income.

In 1976, when authorities discovered that Rosenthal was secretly running casinos without a Nevada gaming license, they held a hearing to determine his legal ability to obtain one. Rosenthal was quickly denied a license because of his unsavory reputation as an organised crime associate, particularly because of his boyhood friendship with Chicago hitman Anthony Spilotro.

Rosenthal married Geraldine McGee, and while she had a daughter, Robin L. Marmor, prior to their marriage (fathered by Lenny Marmor), Frank and Geri had two children together, Steven and Stephanie. The marriage ultimately ended in divorce, with Rosenthal attributing the failure primarily to McGee's inability to escape her alcohol and drug addictions. After leaving Rosenthal and stealing a significant portion of his savings, Geri died at a motel in Los Angeles on November 9, 1982, at age 46, of an apparent drug overdose. Her death was ruled accidental, from a combination of Valium, cocaine, and alcohol.

Rosenthal survived an assassination attempt, in October 1982, after his car was rigged with explosives.[2] He survived because his car was a 1981 Cadillac Eldorado which had a metal plate under the driver's seat (GM installed it to correct a balancing problem) which absorbed most of the force of the explosion. The person or persons behind the attempt have never been positively identified. Possible suspects include Spilotro, Milwaukee Mafia boss Frank Balistrieri, and outlaw bikers who were friends of Geri Rosenthal.

Rosenthal subsequently was forced out of Las Vegas in 1988 when he was placed in "the Black Book," making him persona non grata (unable to work, or even enter) all Nevada casinos because of his alleged ties to organized crime. He retired to Laguna Niguel, California, then to Boca Raton, Florida, and then Miami Beach, where he ran a sports betting website and worked as a consultant for several offshore sports betting companies.

He died of a heart attack in his Miami Beach, Florida home on October 13, 2008 at the age of 79

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Well, they were actually 4 that Frank (Lefty) Rosenthal ran for the Chicago mafia however the Stardust Casino was the largest and main player. He also secretly ran the Hacienda, Fremont and Marina.