Mag Gives New Meaning To A Spread, Places Bet On Burgeoning Gaming Market

For all the billions spent on gambling in the U.S. every year, magazine publishers have never been able to get a handle on what is obviously a lucrative market. As much as the gambling lifestyle encompasses a wide range of interests - everything from sports and fashion to travel and fine dining - most gambling-first magazines were little more than glorified advertorials. As such, they drew little support from either readers or the ad community.

Gaming-industry veteran Avery Cardoza, however, believes these magazines failed not because of a flawed idea, but because of flawed execution. "Half of this country gambles!," Cardoza rails. "It's amazing to me that something like this hasn't been done right before." To this end, he is stepping into the magazine business with the October 28 launch of Avery Cardoza's PLAYER, a bimonthly gambling lifestyle title that aspires to be for gamblers what Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine are for sports fans.

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When asked why PLAYER will succeed where others have failed, Cardoza says with a laugh, "Well, me." With more than 20 years in the business - Cardoza Publishing has sold more than seven million copies of its 100-plus gambling books, while Cardoza Entertainment publishes six casino-simulation computer games - he's essentially a one-man gambling institution. This experience has helped secure for PLAYER a level of access enjoyed by few other publications. The posh Bellagio, for example, shut off its fountains for a photo session and allowed the mag's photographers to shoot in the usually off-limit poker rooms.

"I don't want to sound conceited here, but there is no second to me," he says plainly. "I don't think anybody else could do this magazine." Cardoza is putting his money where his mouth is: he's the title's sole financial backer. "If I fail, it's on me. I like to take risks."

It's an attitude that will likely appeal to companies in the magazine's three endemic ad categories: casinos, alcoholic beverages and tobacco. While Cardoza declines to identify specific advertisers who have signed up for PLAYER's first issue, he boasts of support from the "biggest names" in the categories. Though he hasn't yet secured the level of involvement he wants from fashion and luxury goods companies, he believes the first issue will convert most non-believers.

Content-wise, PLAYER promises a mix of the expected gaming tips with information about the drink, food and fashion central to the gambling lifestyle. "It won't just be some strategies for Pai Gow Poker," Cardoza explains. "That's the rice and beans. You need that, but you also need the salsa." In keeping with the Vegas glitz, the magazine will be printed on heavy stock paper and pay significantly more attention to design than previous gambling titles. "But we won't have type going in 28 different directions," Cardoza notes. "We're not an art magazine."

Unlike many fledgling magazine publishers, Cardoza isn't so naïve as to think that advertisers will immediately flock to his 100,000-circulation title. "I can talk all day about how wonderful we are, but companies want to see how we do first time out," he notes. "I understand that." Asked to liken the magazine to other titles, he suggests Cigar Aficionado ("But we're going to skew younger and be more fun") and Playboy ("without the sex"). He pauses, then adds, "I really don't know, to be honest. I guess any men's magazine is competition on some level. ESPN [The Magazine] or Maxim can say 'a lot of our readers are gamblers,' but we're the only publication that's specifically targeted at a gambling audience with high disposable income."

Not surprisingly, PLAYER will skew male, though Cardoza promises the magazine won't be "insulting" towards women. He's aiming at the 25-to-45 set, rather than the "60-year-old-retired-lots-of-money" gambler often seen galavanting about Las Vegas wearing pantsuits and fanny packs. "We'll get the people who pick up the phone and call their friends and say 'hey, let's go to Vegas for the weekend," he says.

Thanks to Cardoza's other gaming-oriented ventures, PLAYER has somewhat of a head start in terms of generating an audience. Forty thousand consumers who have bought Cardoza products have already signed up for the magazine, and a handful of high-end casinos will distribute the mag in their suites. At newsstands and in bookstores, the mag will sell for $4.99.

As for potential expansion, Cardoza pledges to be conservative about increasing frequency and circulation until the editorial product is well-formed. That said, look for PLAYER to attempt to parlay its winnings sooner rather than later. "250,000 [circulation] is the low end of where we should be," Cardoza says. "I don't think 500,000 is out of the question if we do this right."

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