A friend is thinking of filing for bankruptcy, primarily due to credit card debt plus some casino markers. He was told that most debt can be erased by bankruptcy, but not debt owed to casinos. Is that correct?

Last month Megabucks doubled from about $15 million to $30 million, instantly. The jackpot has since been hit, but I’d still like to know what happened to cause that jump. It reset at the usual $10 million, so nothing fundamental seems to have changed.

Having had success playing Texas hold 'em tournaments online, I'm now ready to tackle a live tournament at a casino. What advice can you give me so that I won't be spotted as a live-game rookie?

I enjoy collecting casino playing cards and was just wondering how many decks of cards does any one casino go through in a day, week, month, year?

I recently watched a TV program called "City Confidential" concerning the now-defunct Las Vegas company named American Coin. It seems the company was rigging video poker machines and was shut down. I know the machine chip programmer was murdered and the suspect was acquitted and later confessed. What happened to the other two conspirators in the murder investigation? One was named Vito and another was some gal. Also, this whole case stunk of Mafia involvement, especially with the seemingly large number of cover-ups involved to protect the two family owners of American Coin, who it seems were never named as suspects and who had the most to lose in the criminal trial!

Informative question/answer on the term "suckout" in poker (QoD 3/22). But there was no mention of a "bad beat." Would a suckout basically be the same thing?

Have the casinos/manufacturers tightened the hit ratio on video poker? While the pay schedule on top of the machine may be attractive, it seems winning hands occur less often than in the past. Have the machines gotten tighter?

With Herbst Gaming, owner of Primm Valley Resorts, Terrible’s and 11 other casinos, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Ownership of the casinos will revert to creditors, while the Herbst family retains majority ownership of the slot routes. What are slot routes?

After a truck driver was caught stealing MGM Mirage and Harrah’s customer information both Players Club and Total Rewards changed their websites within 24 hours of each other? Was the security breach worse than reported?

What is the philosophy with the "Daily Average" you mentioned in the 3/16 QoD? As an out of towner, when I visit, is it more advantageous for me to play heavily on two or three days instead of spreading the same amount of play over four or five days? I played more on our last visit than my friend, but he’s getting more offers and I suspect that that is the reason. Thanks!