OMG! We received such an incredible response to our New Year's Day poll, often in essay-like proportions, that it's taken us even longer than usual to sort through all your feedback. Issues of space limitation dictated that we had to do a lot of editing and whittle down the answers we used, just to make the answer of vaguely manageable proportions. Even so, we've had to split it into two parts: Today, you can read about some of the horror stories that you'd rather forget about; tune in tomorrow for the antidote with the best of the "best of's."

What can you tell us about the citizen police academy in Las Vegas. Do regular people really get to ride around in cop cruisers and fight crime?

Do you know how hosts are compensated? Assuming they're salaried employees, do they get bonuses based on their players' losses? If you play at several casinos owned by the same company during the same trip, are all of your hosts compensated during the trip, or only the host at the casino you're staying at? In other words, if your host at casino A brings you in and you do your playing casino B, a sister property, does your host at casino A get credit for that play?

How many wedding chapels are there in the Vegas area? Is one better than another? How many weddings occur in Vegas annually?

Reader Poll: What are your best and worst personal stories from Las Vegas in 2006?

What do you guys do for New Year's Eve? Do you go down to the Strip? Are there private parties? Do you hide from the festivities and go to bed at 9:30? I'm curious about how people who've lived in Las Vegas for a long time and know it so well celebrate the new year.

Sometimes the smoke in casinos becomes too much. Can you provide a list of casinos that provide a non-smoking area.

My husband and I will be in Vegas on Christmas Eve. We are staying at Caesars and were wondering if there was anywhere on the Strip to go to Mass?

My husband is a corrections officer with a permit to carry a concealed handgun in our state (Minnesota). Can he carry in Las Vegas? What are the policies on honoring out-of-state handgun permits in the casinos and in the city in general?

I was wondering if the topic of fitness has come up before? Specifically, hotels or other places in Las Vegas that offer classes (such as spinning) to out-of-town guests. I know Green Valley Ranch does, but do you know if anywhere else does? I'm trying to find activities for my wife next trip out -- she likes to sit by the pool, but December doesn't work so well for that.