I’m not in the casino business, but I understand a little about blackjack and decided to take a flyer on your book Casino-ology (I went with the e-book at the lower price). Good stuff! But I have a question. In chapter 25, "Marked Card Play in 21," Bill Zender writes: "I possess some video footage of cheaters denting the 10-value cards [on a 21 game] with the intentions of busting the dealer once all the 10 cards were marked.Recently, I was talking to a gaming acquaintance who mentioned a similar scam that happened many years ago. He told me that a group of cheaters marked all the 10-value cards on several games at a casino that utilized a curtain-type shield over the front of its dealing shoes. Because of the shields, the casino wrongly assumed the shoes were safe from all types of marked cards. Over the course of the day, the cheaters dented the bottom edge along the length of all 10 cards. Later that same day, the cheaters used that information and the damaged curtains to beat the casino out of a good deal of money. Once the cards were marked, the cheaters used both a top-card bettor and a third-base "anchor" to beat the 21 games that had the defective curtains." I understand that it would take the amount of time you cite —- "the course of a day" -— for the cheat to get all (or even most) of the 10s. But the money player could start playing immediately, with some advantage, from the first shuffle after at least a couple of cards were marked, right? So why would they waste all the opportunity on the way up by waiting till all the 10s were marked?

How bad is it to play less than max coins on a video poker game? Sometimes I don’t want to play $1.25 a hand (maybe because I don’t want to lose too much that day). Is it really a sin to play $1 or 75¢ or even just a quarter per play?

Who is responsible for the upkeep of the escalators to and from the pedestrian bridges along the Strip? Is it the casinos' responsibility? The one at the Tropicana always seems to be broken or roped off, slowing me down and making it harder to dodge those people trying to sell timeshares.

What information, if any, can you give of former Frontier and new TI owner, Kansas businessman Phil Ruffin? Does he have a long background in casinos or is he some Johnny-come-lately?

What's the deal with the government tracking cashout amounts at casino cages when above a certain amount?

While checking out the video poker schedules at one of the bars at the Encore, I asked the bartender what the play was to get comped for a drink. He said they don't comp drinks at the bars. I can get a comp drink when I play video poker on the floor, why not at the bar? Wynn allowed it at his other properties, what's the deal with the Wynn/Encore?

Just returned from a successful (won a little and used LVA coupons) trip to Vegas and was driving on Paradise between Flamingo and Tropicana and saw the Thomas and Mack center. Who are (were) Thomas and Mack? Hope I got the two names right.

As a resident of Chicago and a regular at Majestic Star riverboat casinos in Gary, Indiana, I was particularly interested in your QoD about Don Barden. Since the Horseshoe casino's grand reopening in neighboring Hammond, Indiana, speculation has swirled whether the two Majestic Star riverboat casinos would be similarly scrapped into one large barge casino or limp along as is or be sold. Chatter among employees and gamblers alike speculates all sorts of options for the future of Barden's Majestic Star riverboat casinos. Got any information about its future?

I see the term "corkage fee" on several of the restaurants info pages. What is this, and what does it apply to?

I know that if a person wins a jackpot of $1,200 or more, he/she would have to claim it on their IRS. My question is: Would a person still have to file a claim with the IRS if that person won several $500 jackpots, totaling more than a couple thousand dollars, either at the same or several casinos in a weekend?