The first edition of the first volume of the Las Vegas Advisor was published in February 1983. Anthony Curtis points out, however, that the eariest issues of LVA were experimental. Those issues, published semi-monthly, were typewritten and copied on a Xerox by Anthony's parents (who saw the potential and didn't mind helping out). That version was published for only about a year, as it was the time that Anthony was most involved in gambling professionally, and decided to put the idea on the shelf.
Still, the original LVA had built a core readership of a few hundred who continued to lobby for its return. After almost two years, Anthony decided to produce an interim version of LVA called Las Vegas Advisor Recommendations. The first issue of Las Vegas Advisor Recommendations was published as a one-page (double-sided) sheet in December 1986. It was also published semi-monthly and did not accept subscriptions until September 1988, when it became four pages and went to a monthly schedule. In July 1990, coinciding with the first six-page issue, it reverted for good to Las Vegas Advisor. So, yes, despite there being several incarnations of the newsletter, any of which could probably be tagged as the "start of LVA", the year 2008 marks our silver anniversary in the Las Vegas media business.
You can send Happy Anniversary cards to Anthony Curtis c/o Huntington Press, 3665 S. Procyon Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89103. But please, no gifts. If you want, you can make a donation in Huntington Press' name to the Fund for Destitute Casino Executives, Trial Attorneys & Presidential Candidates at www.suckerborneveryminute.com.
Just kidding.
Anthony explains the success of the newsletter as follows: "When I came to Las Vegas, there was no such informational source, which is why I decided to create one. In the beginning, LVA was so good because I was in the casinos every day, so the information was fresh and accurate. Later, the strength came from all that I'd learned from being a player, while the freshness and accuracy were maintained by reports from our growing number of subscribers and the arrival of the Internet. Bringing on the coupons didn't hurt."
Today, the Las Vegas Advisor has a subscriber base of 20,000. Plus, LasVegasAdvisor.com attracts nearly 150,000 unique visitors per month. The company's book-publishing arm has published about 75 titles, many of them considered to be among the best gambling books ever produced.
As far as the last time the subscription price was raised, are you sitting down? Are you hanging onto your hats? It went from $30 to $50 in March 1992 (when Deke Castleman joined the staff and the page count of the newsletter was increased from 6 to 12). What else can you name that hasn't gone up in price for the past nearly 16 years? (And keep in mind that the Pocketbook of Values coupon package that comes with a membership has about tripled in size during that time.)
In fact, the price of a subscription and the POV has gone down since then; we dropped the fee for an online-only membership to $37 in February 2000. Actually, perhaps Bargain City's best bargain of all is the $37 online membership to the Advisor, which comes with hundreds of dollars in savings during a trip to Las Vegas, and thousands of dollars saved over numerous trips. If we do say so ourselves.
