Vol. 3, No. 9, September 2007
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Anthony Curtis
Publisher, Huntington Press and the Las Vegas Advisor
Casino Connection: What brought you to Vegas?
Curtis: I came to Las Vegas to gamble. As soon as I turned 21, I dropped out of college—first at Duke and later at UCLA—where I became enthralled with the mathematics of gambling. My father, who was a university professor, wasn’t too happy with my decision,
Did you have success immediately?
No. I concentrated on blackjack. You learn quickly that you can’t jump into it. One of the problems was bankroll. I didn’t have enough money to sustain me through the swings you see as a card counter, so I had to find other ways to survive.
I learned there were better ways to make money than grinding it out at the tables. One of the things I discovered was that tournament play was very beatable.
What was the inspiration behind the launch of the Las Vegas Advisor?
As I said, I had to make money when I first got here, so I kind of was able to live off the land. I discovered things that were amazing in the Vegas of the 1980s: cheap food, cheap drinks, cheap fun; coupons you could turn into money if you knew how to do it. So I began to think about the possibility of telling other people about these opportunities. I thought these were the greatest things in the world so I began to think about how to do it.
But you had no experience with publishing up to that time?
None at all. That was the era before personal computing and laptops. I was doing things on typewriters, copy machines and printers that were very outdated, even for those days. And I didn’t take ads, so for a long time I struggled to figure out how to make money with it.
It was almost like the perfect storm. Vegas got hot, personal computers came into widespread use, and we suddenly started making money.
Why didn’t you take advertising?
There were two reasons: First, I thought if I didn’t take advertising, it would translate that no one could tell us what to write and we could be totally objective. The second reason was that I couldn’t sell anything anyway! (laughing)
Huntington Press, one of the largest publishers of gaming books, evolved out of the LVA. How did that come about?
It just seemed natural. As the Advisor got bigger and bigger, we realized we could market to that group. We had success with products from other publishers, so we figured we could do it too. There weren’t that many good gambling books out there at the time, and I thought we could do better. We just morphed into another layer of publishing. It fit well with what we were doing.
You’ve become a spokesman for Las Vegas and the gaming industry in the mainstream media. How did that happen?
I did one interview at one time that they liked it. They are all followers. They don’t like to develop new sources so they go after a reliable source, and that’s what I’ve become.
I’m one of the few people who can talk about gambling from the inside as a player at a high level for a long time. And because I don’t take advertising, I can speak candidly and openly.
Do you see yourself as a cheerleader or someone who validates the city and industry? Or just a neutral observer?
I try to be neutral, but I am also a cheerleader because I love gambling and Vegas. You hear all this negative stuff about gambling, and I try to show them that gambling, if done properly, can be a means to an end. But the average player doesn’t want to study. They think they can just throw the money on the table and walk away a winner. But it doesn’t work that way. I try to be neutral and objective, but I’m definitely pro-gambling and pro-Vegas.
You were attracted to Las Vegas early on because of the advantage you could get over the casinos. Have those gambling options for real players declined in recent years?
A lot of people cry that the opportunities are no longer here. I disagree with that very strongly. There are more players, more tables, more machines than ever. The opportunities are here.
What’s happened is that surveillance had gotten better, information has gotten better, the sharing of information has gotten better. Pros have to be more careful, they have to move around more. People who really understand how to play video poker say that the machines that used to pay 1 percent or 2 percent over 100 are disappearing. Yes, those margins have shrunk a bit, but they’ll also tell you they can still find good machines at the quarter, dollar and higher levels. They just have to work a little harder at it.
I like the Vegas of now better than the Vegas of 15 or 20 years ago. I think there are more opportunities than ever for great players.
What about the game that brought you to Vegas, blackjack. Most casinos on the Strip now offer 6-5 payouts on a natural. Isn’t that a reversal?
Yes, a 6-5 blackjack is a bad game. It costs players more to play that. The casinos are taking a shot at taking the money from suckers. But players who play 6-5 are usually out to have fun. They’re just playing a higher ticket price to have fun, that’s all.
The good players who understand the game can make something out of 6-5, believe it or not. But they don’t have to play that game. You can count cards on one, two or eight decks… 100 decks!
What about shufflers and tracking software? Have they ruined the game?
They can make it a less-profitable game for sure. But a lot of those things the casinos introduced just didn’t work. Protective software has never worked. But it’s getting better and could possibly put an end to it. But it’s got to be able do a lot of things: track card counting, shuffle tracking, people who follow cards through decks…
And even if it is perfected, it won’t be everywhere. These things are expensive. You might see it in Caesars Palace or Bellagio, but you won’t see it in every casino in Vegas or in every Indian casino.
And there will always be competition for the player. The Downtown casinos have great games because they know they can attract good players who may have an occasional edge, but will, overall, lose. So competition will always ensure there’s a good game somewhere.
So what are the games you can win at in Vegas?
Blackjack, video poker, poker, sports betting and race betting. Those are the only games where you can get an edge over the house, without using coupons, tournaments or cheating!
How quickly do pros investigate casino promotions?
When a new place opens, the pros are all over it. They make the rounds. They look at the machines, they look at the procedures, they look for a weak spot. There’s always something. The casinos see that and they close the loophole.
The casinos will always make mistakes. That’s why it’s fun. I don’t gamble for a living anymore and a lot of the places wouldn’t let me if I did. But I’ve usually got action going somewhere because it’s fun. I walk into someplace and see something that isn’t quite right, I want to see how long it will last. For example, when I go into a casino that has a lot of progressives, I check out the amount of the progressives. If I see one at a certain amount, I know I can sit down and play those machines with an edge.
I think everyone agrees that poker has peaked. Do you expect the bubble to burst?
Poker has weathered the storm very well. It got punched in the nose with the internet gambling ban. But I think it’s a game that everyone loves. I think it will continue to pick up momentum. Just look at the turnout at the World Series of Poker.
