Allan David Sachs (1925-2002) and Herb Tobman (1924-2006) both initially came to Las Vegas in 1952 … and will be forever most remembered as men who were forced to surrender their gaming licenses, paving the way for Boyd Gaming to take over the Stardust. Sachs was a Chicago native who worked his way up to running the Sundance casino-hotel (now The D) and the Aladdin, and co-owning the Fremont Hotel and the Stardust with Tobman.
The two men weren’t accused of being in on any illegal activity at the Stardust, simply of having failed to prevent additional skimming from occurring on their watch. In the verdict of local historian Michael Green, "what they did was not as egregious as what happened during Frank Rosenthal’s era. Thus they are neither as famous nor as infamous as Rosenthal."
Sachs served military duty in World War II aboard a destroyer in the Pacific theater of operations, having added two years to his age to be able to enlist. His journey to Vegas was as circuitous as that of other casino operators of his era: jobs in Chicago’s illegal gambling dens, in Havana’s casinos during the Batista regime, in Panama and then Cuba again. Between Sachs’ Cuban and Panamanian sojourns, he broke in as a dealer in Las Vegas, worked his way up to owning the Royal Nevada Casino, and returned in 1958 as a co-owner of the Tropicana. Eulogized the Las Vegas Sun, "His easygoing style and vast knowledge of the gambling business made him a popular casino boss."
Ironically, Sachs and Tobman gained control of the Fremont and Stardust in 1979 due to the skimming activities of "Lefty" Rosenthal and front man Allen R. Glick, who had just been run out of town, putting several casino properties into play. Sachs had worked for Glick as Stardust president several years earlier (although as a holdover from the pre-Glick regime), resigning in 1976 due to what were later described – in a very innuendo-loaded phrase -- as "disagreements with Glick and Rosenthal about casino operations." He filled the intervening three years with a brief stint at the Aladdin, then oversaw the Sundance before returning to the Stardust three years later as co-owner. "Sachs was a highly knowledgeable but unpretentious gaming executive who was popular with his employees," wrote Sun reporter Ed Koch in 2006.
Sachs’ comeback was a relatively short-lived triumph. In late 1979, the Wall Street Journal reported that he, too, was mobbed up. That allegation would dog him for another five years. In 1984, the Nevada Gaming Control Board determined that $1.6 million had been skimmed from the Stardust. Sachs and Tobman were fined $3.5 million and forced to turn over their gaming licenses. They later told a federal court they did so "under duress." UNLV Professor of History Eugene Moehring thinks they were also in the wrong place at the wrong time: "The town was dying and needed something new. Sachs and Tobman simply did not have the capital to do what was needed to be done to save the Stardust."
Tobman staunchly defended Sachs to the end, telling the Sun in 2002 that "I want it clear that Al was never in the Mafia. He would tell you himself, ‘I am a Jew, what do I know about the Mafia?’" Added widow Janice Sachs, "There was never any bitterness on my husband's part. He'd see the guys who had thrown him out and say hello to them." Local restaurateur Freddie Glusman said of Sachs, "Al was just a good person -- when he gave you his word you didn't need a 20-page contract. He was one of the old gamblers who built the foundation of Las Vegas and paved the way for the big corporations to come in" … and when those corporations did arrive, the days of a Sachs or a Tobman were numbered.
Tomorrow: The rags-to-riches story of Herb Tobman, from service-station attendant to Las Vegas civic leader, and the final years of Tobman and Sachs.
The photograph below, which shows Al Sachs and Herb Tobman conferring with their attorneys while they appeared before the Nevada State Gaming Commission in 1984, is reproduced courtesy of Greenspun Media/Las Vegas Sun.
