Gaming figure Cohen dies at age 88

Monday, July 31, 2000 | 8:31 a.m.

After a stroke forced him to retire in 1981, Yale Cohen missed the seven-day workweeks that he had long devoted to the Stardust hotel-casino, which he helped open in 1958.

On his deathbed last week, Cohen told his children and grandchildren that he wished he could return to work.

Yale Allen Cohen, who overcame early friendships with mob figures to become one of Nevada's most popular and respected casino executives, died Saturday of heart failure at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center. He was 88.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 42 years were this afternoon at Palm Mortuary-Eastern. Burial was in Palm Valley View Cemetery.

Cohen was a fixture at the Stardust from its glory years under the ownership of his boyhood friend, Las Vegas gaming figure Moe Dalitz, through its unceremonious fall amid allegations of mob skimming under the reins of Argent Corp. golden boy Allen R. Glick and his associate Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal.

In 1976 Cohen appeared before the Nevada Gaming Commission for licensing, where his past acquaintances with mob figures -- including, according to news reports of the time, the nation's "12 biggest Cosa Nostra operators" -- were scrutinized.

But Cohen's spotless gaming record in Nevada convinced the board to overlook his past and unanimously approve him. He remained at the Stardust five more years until ill health forced his departure.

"My father's legacy is that he was a kind, generous gentleman," said Gil Cohen, a casino host at the Mirage hotel-casino. "He treated people right and never had an unkind word for anyone."

Nevada Supreme Court Justice Bill Maupin, a longtime friend of the Cohen family and a Las Vegas resident since 1960, said he grew up admiring Cohen and men like him.

"When I was a boy, casino operators like him were bigger-than-life figures," he said. "He was a symbol of all of the people who came to Las Vegas to start a new life in a friendly, small-town atmosphere where everyone knew everyone. He had a quiet confidence about him. You just felt comfortable in his presence."

Cohen's daughter Debbie O'Bannon said that despite her father's love for his job, where for many years he never took a day off, his family always came first.

"When he was brought up for licensing, Dad did not care about his job," she said. "His only concern was for his family and what the hearing would do to us.

"People would always ask him, do you know this (shady) person and he would say, 'Yeah, I know him, and I also know (two-term Nevada Gov.) Mike O'Callaghan, (late Sun Publisher) Hank Greenspun and (gaming giants) Kirk Kerkorian and Steve Wynn -- I know a lot of people.'"

It was Cohen's past relationship with purported Cleveland Cosa Nostra figure John Scalish that caused Nevada gaming officials to question whether Cohen should have a license. Scalish was said to have attended a 1950s' mob conference in Apalachin, N.Y., where organized crime families divided up the rackets empire.

At a May 1976 Gaming Commission hearing, Cohen denied any close ties with the mob but admitted his family had known Scalish. "My brother and I may run into them on the street," he told the commission, "but I never call or go out there."

Peter Echeverria, then-chairman of the commission, said Cohen should not be penalized for his past. "You have no control over where you are born or who your associations are when you are younger," he said.

When the Stardust later fell into disarray under Glick and Rosenthal and their successors Al Sachs and Herb Tobman -- they were ousted in 1984 amid allegations that they failed to stop a skim of more than $1 million in casino funds to the mob -- Cohen's name remained untainted.

Born Jan. 28, 1912, in New York City, Cohen was the second of four children of Russian immigrants Sam and Becky Cohen. The family moved to Cleveland, where Sam was a fruit and vegetable merchant.

Yale Cohen dropped out of school as a teenager to help support his family by selling newspapers. He went into the Army and served during World War II as a medic in northwest Africa and Italy. He was wounded and was awarded the Purple Heart.

After the war Cohen returned to Cleveland, where he gained experience in illegal gambling houses.

In 1958 Dalitz, who then ran the Desert Inn, asked Cohen to come to Las Vegas to help open and run the Stardust.

"Back then, they didn't have titles -- you were just a casino boss," said Cohen's daughter Debbie. "You were the host, the manager, you hired people, you oversaw the games -- he just did everything.

"Longtime Stardust workers and guests were still asking about my father although it has been nearly 20 years since he worked there," she said. "That is the kind of impact he had on people."

Cohen was a member of the Las Vegas Country Club, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Variety Club and the Kentucky Colonels, and he was active in supporting Israel.

In addition to his son and daughter, both of Las Vegas, Cohen is survived by his wife of 58 years Toby Cohen; a daughter-in-law Cathy Cohen; a son-in-law Dean O'Bannon, all of Las Vegas; a sister, Ann Bohnen of Cleveland; two grandchildren, Shana Cohen and Heidi Cook, wife of Jim Cook; and a great-grandchild, Madison Cook.

He was preceded in death by brothers Eddie Cohen and Julius Cohen.

The family asks that donations be made to the American Heart Association.