Allan Sachs, 76; Casino Owner in Vegas’ Mob Era

HENDERSON, Nev. — Allan D. Sachs, a former hotel-casino owner and prominent gambling executive when organized crime wielded influence in Las Vegas, has died. He was 76.

Sachs died late Sunday in a Henderson hospital of complications from pneumonia. He had been ill for several years, battling cancer and Parkinson’s disease.

During his gambling career dating from the 1950s, Sachs owned the Stardust and the Fremont hotel-casinos. He and reputed mob leader Moe Dalitz also opened the Sundance, now Fitzgeralds, in downtown Las Vegas.

Sachs’ business interests led to contentious proceedings with regulators. The Nevada Gaming Commission, however, licensed Sachs in 1979 to purchase Argent Corp., which owned the Stardust and the Fremont, from Allen Glick, a suspected front man for the Chicago mob.

Five years later, the licenses were rescinded by the gaming commission. Sachs and his longtime friend and business partner, Herb Tobman, were fined $3 million after the commission found the two had failed to stop skimming by the mob at the Stardust.

In rescinding the gambling licenses, the state said the men failed to take “appropriate action” to prevent the skim of at least $1.6million.

Sachs was never proved to be connected with organized crime and maintained that he had done nothing wrong.

The Stardust and Fremont are now owned by Boyd Gaming Corp.

Sachs was born in Chicago on July 17, 1925, and had lived in Las Vegas since 1952. He served on a Navy destroyer during World War II.

Before becoming a casino executive at the Stardust in 1958, Sachs had been a partial owner of the Tropicana hotel-casino and worked in casinos in Cuba.

He is survived by his wife, Janice; sons David, Michael and Rudy, all of Las Vegas, and Dale of Seattle; a sister, Shirley Deland of Saginaw, Mich.; and a grandson.