By admin 
Arlen Opper was very sick, but he wasn’t about to miss a meeting of the tribal council of the United Auburn Indian Community.
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Opper, who died Tuesday at 68 following a battle with esophageal cancer, had been instrumental in helping to build Thunder Valley Casino Resort for the tribe near Lincoln. A business he led, Capital Casino Partners, put up early money for the construction project. He maintained impeccable attendance at tribal council meetings thereafter, according to colleagues and family.
This included a tribal council meeting that Opper attended via Zoom less than two weeks ago when it had become difficult for him to speak and he had little energy.
“He actually asked us all morning to not speak with him because he wanted to save his energy for this call because it was important to him,” his daughter Alyson Opper Aurich said. “He wanted to see it through.”
On Wednesday, those who knew Opper were mourning the death of a man who was friendly, hardworking and, above all, steadfast for the people and causes he cared about.
‘Just didn’t have a mean bone in his body’
Born on June 8, 1958, Opper was the youngest of four children and was raised in Land Park. His father Sy Opper, a noted businessman in his own right, co-founded Harold’s Plumbing and Electrical Supplies in 1946, eventually growing it to eight stores, his 2007 obituary in The Sacramento Bee noted.
The younger Opper would, like his father, spend much of his life in the Sacramento area. He forged friendships early on with people like Mark Friedman, a prominent developer who he later worked with. Friedman, who will speak at Opper’s memorial service on Sunday, said that he and Opper knew one another for more than 60 years.
“He was somebody who just didn’t have a mean bone in his body,” Friedman said. “In all that time, I never heard him say a mean or a cross word about anybody, which is pretty rare. I don’t think I could say that about anybody else.”
Opper attended C.K. McClatchy High School, graduating in the same class as California Democratic gubernatorial nominee Xavier Becerra. Later, Opper earned a business degree from UCLA.
After graduation from college, Opper worked briefly in his family’s business before going on to his development and business career. His unflappability and friendly demeanor would serve him well in his work.
Around 1990, Opper and his partner George Christopulos, who died in 2017, were middle men during ultimately fruitless negotiations to bring the then-Los Angeles Raiders to Sacramento. The Bee noted that the men “acted as liaison and buffer between the volatile and combative personalities of” then-Raiders owner Al Davis and then-Sacramento Kings owner Gregg Lukenbill.
Lukenbill told The Bee on Wednesday that Opper was “very smooth and very honest and very transparent.”
While Sacramento didn’t get an NFL team, Opper developed a friendship with former Raiders head coach and celebrated football broadcaster John Madden, who died in 2021. Madden attended bat mitzvahs for both of Opper’s daughters, Opper’s family said. Madden also made Opper part of bus rides he would take around the U.S. to get to games due to his famous aversion to flying.
“Sometimes he would call Arlen and say, ‘Hey, you want to ride with me?’” Friedman said.
Lukenbill remembers Opper bringing Madden and another friend, Oakland Athletics great Reggie Jackson, to his office.
“He was just that kind of a guy,” Lukenbill said. “Very sociable, very friendly.”
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He also eventually referred a friend, attorney Roger Dreyer, to represent Davis in a case in the 2000s.
“If you needed something done in Sacramento, you needed to make a connection, Arlen was the guy,” Dreyer said. “He would always know somebody.”
Making his mark in tribal gaming
For a time after the Raiders deal fell through, Opper continued to dabble in sports business. In September 1990 he met in New York City with Lukenbill, then-Sacramento City Manager Walt Slipe and others when the city made an unsuccessful pitch for a Major League Baseball expansion franchise.
Opper eventually pivoted to tribal gaming, where he crossed paths with Howard Dickstein, counsel for the United Auburn Indian Community. The tribe has had much success with gaming over the years and Opper helped that happen, Dickstein said.
“He definitely played a role both not just in the gaming, but in their general reputation in the community, the astute alliances they made, businesses alliances they made with important investors and business people in the Sacramento community,” Dickstein said.
Doug Elmets, longtime spokesman for the tribe, said that Opper’s laugh was infectious and his life perspective wonderful. “I feel like he is a model or an inspiration for how to face the most difficult challenges that anybody can possibly face,” Elmets said.
Opper also helped Cache Creek Casino Resort in its evolution from a bingo hall into its present form. Dickstein said Opper helped add a card room there. John Mikacich, who was also involved in development of Cache Creek, said that he and Opper drove together three times a week for several years to the site.
“He was always very energetic, a great storyteller, and just really, really clever and fun to be around on those rides,” Mikacich said.
‘The ultimate girl dad’
Opper wasn’t just successful in business. He stepped up for his two daughters after his wife KC Clark Opper died of cancer in 2011.
“He was dealt an unthinkable card when my mom passed away, and he became both parents and he did a remarkable job at that,” his daughter Alyson Opper Aurich said.
She called him “the ultimate girl dad, truly, that stepped up to the plate in that regard and was there for us for every step of the way, good or bad.”
A paid obituary published Wednesday by Opper’s family lists his survivors: his daughter Lexi Opper; his son-in-law Phil Aurich; grandchildren Cam, Case, Ryder and Reagan Aurich; his fiancee Madeline Rubenstein Compton; stepson Nate Compton; sister Gayle Opper Glenn and her husband Jeff Glenn; sister Shelley Carl and her husband Tom Carl; brother Michael Opper and his wife Lorraine Opper; and his mother Estelle Opper.
Opper’s funeral is scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m. at Mosaic Law Congregation in Carmichael and is open to the public. The family has requested donations, instead of flowers, to Mosaic Law, Congregation B’nai Israel or a charity of a person’s choice.
Alyson Opper Aurich said her father was private about his illness, but that the message she has kept hearing from people was that he “made them feel” like they were family.
“I think that’s why this catches people so off guard because he kept a lot of this private that he was so sick and people are expecting to know it because they feel like family to him,” she said. “So it’s hard for them to wrap their head around this.”
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This story was originally published August 13, 2026 at 7:00 AM.