What are your all-time favorite Vegas/gambling-themed movies? Which do you feel portray the most realistic vision of Las Vegas as it exists today, or did so during the time the movie pretends to cover?

Could you please tell us which poker rooms still allow smoking and which ones have banned it?

The World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour seem to have a Coke-Pepsi rivalry going. Which one do you think will win?

I have noticed that most casinos on the strip play blackjack where they don't hit on a soft 17, yet most do hit soft 17s downtown. Why is this? And what is the difference in the odds of winning? (I usually play where they do hit the soft 17s.)

In the movie Casino and the TV series "Las Vegas," when a customer is on a hot streak, it seems management tries very hard to distract the player by changing dealers, closing the table, or using other methods to cause the player's luck to change. Is this reflective of what actually occurs or is it just TV/movie hype?

When a hand is dealt in video poker, are the bottom five cards dealt at the same time? Does it affect the outcome by waiting in holding and drawing? I thought I had read that all ten cards were dealt at once. However, on "Modern Marvels" (History Channel), they said the RNG kept running until the cards were drawn.

2006 is the 75th anniversary of legalized gambling in Nevada. It would be cool if you could explain how Nevada happened to go into the gambling business back in 1931.

How does three-card monte work?

Let's say you enter a satellite tournament for the World Series of Poker and manage to win one of the $10,000 entries. You then, of course, get knocked out in the main tournament, long before you reach the money. What are the tax implications of winning your entry fee? On the one hand, you didn't win any actual cash. On the other, the seat has a definite $10K value. I'd hate to be on the hook for $10K worth of ordinary income that I never actually saw. That would make playing in the WSOP a very expensive lark, even via satellite entry.

About 10 years ago I stayed at Harrah’s and there was an invitational backgammon tournament going on. I was curious to know if any casinos today ever sponsor anything to do with backgammon? Are there any public venues in Las Vegas for backgammon?