Anthony Curtis has authored two respected and top-selling books on the gambling industry: Bargain City-Booking, Betting, and Beating the New Las Vegas, and The Art of Gambling.
He has also been employed as a consultant and gambling expert for Disney Studios, ABC's 20/20, and the cult-favorite NBC show, Crime Story. He has been featured on 48 Hours and Dateline NBC, as well as having articles published about or by him in USA Today, Publisher's Weekly, Chicago Sun-Times, Casino Player, The LA Times, Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, Discover Magazine, The London Times, and other leading publications around the globe.
Curtis has also made his mark in the gambling world through excellent tournament play. He has won over half a million dollars, including the $76,000 World Matchplay Blackjack Championship, $125,000 Atlantic City Craps Championship, $50,000 Las Vegas Keno Championship, and $60,000 Las Vegas Blackjack Championship.
Growing up in Detroit, Michigan, Curtis had always shown a talent for math, as well as board and card games. When he was 16, a family friend gave him a book on blackjack, and young Anthony was hooked. Over the next five years, he read every book on blackjack that he could get his hands on.
He eventually left home and attended UCLA on a wrestling scholarship, but dropped out of college in 1979 (when he turned 21) and headed to Las Vegas with $2,600 burning a hole in his pocket. He won $22 on his first day in town, then dropped $1,800 on his second day.
After springing for the cost of an apartment, he was already down to less than $100. Curtis began working odd jobs and looking for ways to stretch his money. He discovered that coupons offered by local businesses would allow him to eat and drink cheaper and get generous discounts on shows and other events.
For the next 15 years, Curtis developed his blackjack skills. Along the way, he befriended and played alongside such legends as the MIT Blackjack Team and Stanford Wong. He had won several hundred thousand dollars, but the casinos were getting wise and it was becoming increasingly difficult to play in Las Vegas.
"I became so well known," he once stated in an interview, "that the days of my walking into a casino and acting like a square were over. I decided I could make more money in publishing than in gambling."
Curtis used his impressive winnings as seed money and started the Las Vegas Advisor magazine. Besides gambling tips and news about the city, there's also an impressive selection of coupons, no doubt inspired by Anthony's leaner years, and a Top 10 List of the best bargains to be found in the city.
These days, Curtis only takes part in a few high-stakes tournaments, preferring to spend his time on his company, Huntington Press, which prints how-to-gamble books, but also creates and distributes about 20,000 copies per month of the 14-page Las Vegas Advisor.
More Blackjack Players: Stanford Wong - Hollywood Dave Stann - Sam Vaughn - Edward Thorp - Cathy Hulbert - Michael Konik - Keith Taft - Anthony Curtis - Peter Griffin - Ken Uston - Richard Munchkin - Ken Einiger - Tommy Hyland - Al Francesco - Eleanore Dumont - Ken Smith - Lawrence Revere - Steve Forte - Barry Meadow - Brian Zembic - Big Chuck Gorson - Erica Schoenberg - James Grosjean - Max Rubin - Henry Tamburin - Russ Hamilton - Jimmy Pine - Joanna Wlodawer - Joe Pane - Kevin Blackwood - Blackjack Hall of Fame - MIT Blackjack Team