Monday, April 19, 1999 | 11:19 a.m.
A gambler all of his life, Tom Elgas spent his final days showing his son Tom Jr. how to place bets on an Internet craps game.
It was nothing like the large sums of real money Elgas had wagered at Las Vegas gaming tables. What was important was the precious time spent with his son, one of eight children.
On Friday, after telling his eldest son he felt he would die Sunday, Tom made a gambler's last request. He asked Tom Jr. to go to Binion's Horseshoe Sunday night and place a bet on the craps table for him.
Tom died on Sunday in his son's arms at Tom Jr.'s Las Vegas home. He was 54. Tom Jr. fulfilled his father's wish by going to the downtown casino and placing the bet. He won $105. But Tom Elgas Sr. also went out a winner in a much more important way.
"Dad got time to make his peace," Tom Jr. said. "He told us how proud he was of us."
Elgas' short but courageous battle with lung cancer -- the result of a four-pack-a-day cigarette smoking habit -- was told in a Nov. 17, 1998, Sun story that also chronicled his career as a local small businessman and his ups and downs as a gambler.
Services for Elgas, who brought the first smooth-flowing animated marquee to Las Vegas -- the one that stood in front of the Las Vegas Convention Center from 1987 to last September -- are pending. Palm Mortuary is handling the arrangements.
"I told my 7-year-old daughter Jennifer that daddy is sick now, but I will get better," Elgas, who lived in Las Vegas 27 years, told the Sun last November. "I'm not ready to leave her yet. Dying is not an option for me right now."
In February, in what was the hardest moment of Elgas' roller coaster life, he sent Jennifer to live with her mother -- his fifth ex-wife -- in Washington state. Tom Jr. said his father "didn't want Jennifer to see him go downhill."
Elgas, a one-time Golden Gloves boxer and high school athlete, smoked his first cigarette when he was 14. During his lifetime, he consumed more than 4,000 cartons of Kool cigarettes but quit cold turkey last August after being diagnosed with cancer.
"I regret I ever picked up a cigarette and lit it," Elgas said last November. "When you're young, you don't listen. You think you are invincible. Over the years, it sneaks up on you and, before you know it, you have cancer."
At the time, Elgas was undergoing both chemotherapy and radiation to reduce the huge tumor in his left lung in hopes of becoming a candidate for life-saving surgery. It turned out he was too far gone for surgery.
Born May 21, 1944, in Milwaukee, Elgas was raised in Southern California. After graduating from Orange High School, he learned the advertising business from his father, Ernie Elgas, who at age 83 resides in Santa Ana, Calif.
Elgas came to Las Vegas in 1971. His first job was as public relations director at the old Craig Road Speedway. He later produced sports guides, including the Showboat Pro Bowlers Association program, the Desert Inn Ladies Professional Golf Association book and programs for Las Vegas Golden Gloves tournaments.
In 1976, Elgas published the "Nevada Official Bicentennial Book," a 528-page history of the state through the eyes of 247 writers and community leaders of that time.
Gambling became his passion and his second career. But it also contributed heavily to Elgas' business problems, including a 1977 bankruptcy, and his failed marriages.
Elgas finished in the money at four World Series of Poker events at the Horseshoe, including a third place in the 1987 $2,000 buy-in Texas hold 'em world championship.
But what Elgas won at poker he more than gave back at craps and sports betting.
In August 1986 the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority awarded Elgas a contract to build a $1 million, 82-foot electronic sign to display trade show messages and advertisements at the Convention Center.
The sign revolutionized local outdoor message boards because it displayed full-color graphics at 30 frames per second -- three times faster than prior technology. Soon after, major Strip resorts installed similar signs. Elgas later installed and sold ads for the electronic reader boards at McCarran International Airport.
In addition to his father, son and daughter, Elgas is survived by two other sons, Michael Elgas and Maxwell Kutner, both of Las Vegas; five other daughters, Mary Elgas, Cindy Hammonds, Vicky Parker, Samantha Kutner and Stephanie Kutner, all of Las Vegas; five brothers, Robert, Gary, Ronald, and Donald, all of Orange, Calif., and James of Arlington Heights, Ill.; three sisters, Jeanie, Susan and Patricia, all of Orange, Calif.; and 12 grandchildren.
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