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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]
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]
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]
