Around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, more than 2,000 pounds of explosives sent the Tropicana’s Paradise Tower and Club Tower tumbling in less than 30 seconds.

By the 1970s, federal authorities investigating mobsters in Kansas City charged more than a dozen operatives with conspiring to skim $2 million in gambling revenue from Las Vegas casinos, including the Tropicana. Charges connected to the Tropicana alone resulted in five convictions.

No stranger to reinvention, Sin City is pushing to offer more high-end experiences beyond gambling: “We have moved away from being a value-based destination.”