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Las Vegas

When saving is the object: Fun at all costs

Not flush with cash? The best deals for hotels, casinos, meals and entertainment are this insider's winning hand.

By ROBERT N. JENKINS
Published November 6, 2005

	[Times photo: Robert N. Jenkins]
	At the Golden Gate, owner Mark Brandenburg holds “the second-best deal in town,” his hotel casino’s 99-cent shrimp cocktail.

LAS VEGAS - Anthony Curtis modestly describes himself as "a guy who scrounges deals all over Las Vegas. I get a buzz off a great deal . . .

"I discovered you can get a Nathan's hot dog for 99 cents at the Mermaid Lounge, while they're $3.99 any place else. I'm more excited by that than by getting a free meal in one of the new gourmet restaurants."

Those free meals come his way because, though understated in wardrobe and voice, Curtis, 48, is one of the more recognizable people in a city that celebrates excess and prominence. Neither performer nor politician, Curtis, slim with black hair, is often stopped on the street and in the casinos by people who want to shake his hand, perhaps hoping to absorb some of his luck.

But Curtis emphasizes it is intelligence and perseverance, not luck, that have earned him a good living here the past 25 years.

He has been successful in both his day job - founder and publisher of the monthly Las Vegas Advisor - and, although not as often now, as a professional cardplayer. The recent day he spoke with visiting travel writers, a TV crew filmed his every move, for use in commercials promoting a blackjack tournament to be shown on a cable channel in the spring.

To his parents' dismay, Curtis said, the day he turned 21 he dropped out of UCLA and left behind a wrestling scholarship. He moved to Vegas to play cards for a living.

He worked at it for about 15 years, ultimately winning hundreds of thousands of dollars in major tournaments. Now, he usually only takes part in a few big-stakes tournaments. Most of his time is spent on his company, the Huntington Press, which prints how-to-gamble books but also creates and distributes about 20,000 copies a month of the 14-page Las Vegas Advisor.

In place of photography this newsletter crams astonishing detail - a three-month schedule of headline entertainers and ticket prices for each, toll-free and local phone numbers for 100 casinos, three months' worth of weekday and weekend room rates for three hotels in three price categories. (Weekdays are cheaper.)

The Advisor boasts that it has never accepted advertising, in order to maintain its independence. That's important because every issue also features the staff's pick of the best gambling contests, reviews of entertainers and the fabled "Top Ten Values."

Currently that list includes a free photo taken with a celebrity impersonator, the best coupon book given away, and something that has become a Las Vegas legend: the best cheap restaurant meals.

Which is why this morning Curtis holds court at the head of a table in the Ellis Island Casino and Brewery restaurant. He picks at his food as he chats about the $4.95 steak dinner.

The meal includes a 10-ounce steak, a large salad, roll, choice of potatoes or rice, and vegetable. To drink, diners can choose coffee, tea or either the root beer or the four beers brewed here.

The steak proves surprisingly tasty, but it is not on the Ellis Island menu - the cognoscenti know to ask for it, 24 hours a day.

Curtis explains that although much in booming Las Vegas is as expensive as you'd pay in other major cities, "People want to come to Vegas and not be "the mark' - the square" who is taken advantage of.

"So when they go home and friends ask, "Did you win?', they answer, "No - but let me tell you about the $5 steak, or the 99-cent Heineken, I had.' "

Disclosing such deals is what the Advisor does. The Ellis Island steak is No. 1 on its "Top Ten" list.

The steak used to be $2.95, Curtis says, "and then about four years ago they raised the price. We freaked out, took them off the Top Ten list.

"There is no way they make money on this; clearly it is a loss-leader. But it's the best deal in Vegas. The place is just barely off the Strip (Las Vegas Boulevard, home to most of the major hotels) and is past all the big casinos. But this is a local place, which is where the values are. If you want a deal, you won't find it in places you see on TV."

Later he amends that, noting, "I can't think of a single thing that's a bargain in Bally's (hotel and casino) except for the Sunday brunch. It is $58 - but that includes champagne, lobster, duck, lamb . . ."

Las Vegas' developers are rushing to block out the sun with ever-larger hotels. Places such as Bally's, with 3,000-plus rooms, represent "the mega-resorts that became whole cities," Curtis says. "People get swallowed up in a black hole once they get into these places."

Downtown, that is, the old, original Las Vegas is different.

But to get there from the Strip, you have to pass "a seedy part of Vegas, a part of town you wouldn't want to walk around at night . . . But downtown, "Retro Vegas,' is very, very safe - there are lots of police."

A landmark downtown is the 106-room Golden Gate, which opened Jan. 13, 1906, and has been open ever since. But Curtis says that what makes the Golden Gate special is "the second-best deal: the shrimp cocktail, for a whopping 99 cents."

It was first offered in 1959, for 50 cents, when the owner wanted to "do something different in the desert," according to current Golden Gate owner Mark Brandenburg.

"The price was changed in 1991 to 99 cents - that was pretty tough for the locals to bear, but the place was losing about $300,000 a year on the shrimp."

Now, the 99 cents gets you a large helping of medium-size shrimp served in a spicy cocktail sauce in ice cream sundae glasses. The same glass filled with large shrimp is $2.99.

Says Brandenburg: "We now serve more than 800,000 cocktails a year - and we are still losing money, but not quite as much as before."

And the cocktail is still on the Las Vegas Advisor's Top Ten list.

Curtis is so passionate about touting deals that he can't help but undercut himself:

"The Advisor is $50 for 12 issues, and that includes our Pocketbook of Values," which has 150 money-saving coupons. "But if you subscribe online, it's just $37."

"The average price of shows, rooms and meals has gone up over the years," Anthony Curtis notes. So here - free - are a few more of his money-saving tips:

- "You have to pick up the coupon books, look in those giveaway magazines in most hotel rooms for freebies and big discounts.

"If you really want value, you can't stay at the Bellagio, Paris or Aladdin. You have to stay at the Orleans, Tuscany (or either of) the Fiestas, and rent a car," to reach the hot spots. Besides, valet parking at the casino hotels is usually free."

If you want a really cheap room, come in December in midweek."

- Almost any living person who has sung or done magic tricks for money is liable to get booked onto a Vegas stage. Headliners and major showgirl performances can easily be priced at more than $75 a seat. But you can save a lot of that if you know about the three half-price outlets of Tix4Tonight; call toll-free 1-877-849-4868 or go to one of the large kiosks between noon and 9 p.m. on the day of the performance.

The company does not release the names of the shows it will sell before 11:30 a.m. that day.

It sometimes has tickets for the biggest shows at lesser discount. And if you go to the Web site, www.tix4tonight.com you can print out a $2 coupon to save on the handling charge.

- Another of the Advisor's Top Ten is, of all things, an afternoon magic show. The only performer in the Mac King Comedy Magic Show was named entertainer of the Year by Las Vegas Weekly in 2004, the same year the famed Magic Castle in Los Angeles named King its Magician of the Year.

Tickets are $21.95, but just outside the entrance to Harrah's, where he has performed the past five years, people hand out coupons that admit two for $7.99, including two drinks. (702) 369-5111. - Not in the Advisor Top Ten but on his own favorites list is the Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba!, in the Fashion Show Mall, which is on the Strip. "It has a great happy hour, tapas, sushi, free entertainment, all for $3."

FOR MORE INFORMATION: The marvelous Las Vegas Advisor Web site includes its current "Top Ten Values," explaining each, plus restaurant recommendations, show and headliner calendars, and even an answer to a reader's question of the day. There is also information on the various subscription offers; go to www.lasvegasadvisor.com For information on the places mentioned here, two good sites are vegas.aol.com, and the city tourism bureau's site, www.lvcva.com/index.html or call 702 892-0711.

[Last modified November 4, 2005, 12:40:22]