My question is about slot machines. Thirty years ago when I first started vacationing in Las Vegas, slots were little more than an afterthought, exiled to the far corner of the casino where little old ladies with coin buckets and dirty fingers pulled handles and went cross-eyed from watching the reels spin. Today, they occupy well more than half the casino. To what do you attribute the increase in the popularity of machine games?

Ah, now you've piqued my curiosity. Regarding the old catwalks (QoD 12/21/08), you say, " ... and the risk of surveillance personnel falling over the edge (it did happen, but that’s another story)." So what is the other story?

What can you tell us about the recent appearance of the historic snowfall in Las Vegas? Any pictures?

In the Fast Track section of the January Advisor, there was a short blurb about a new controversy involving the IRS, the casinos, and the Culinary union. Can you explain the background of the tip-reporting deal that the blurb referred to? Thanks.

Do the casinos ever employ "shills" to work the Texas hold 'em tables? I saw a job posting for a "Proposition Player Position" with Cannery Casino Resorts. Is this the same thing as a shill? If not, what’s the difference? What are they hired to do?

Thanks for the graphic description of New Year's Eve in Las Vegas (QoD 12/11/08). Sounds deadly! What do people who actually live in Las Vegas do that night? Go out and party with the crazies? Lay low and come up for air a couple days later? Go to Borneo?

Can you make a living playing video poker? By a living, I mean averaging $200 a day profit. Or are all machine payoffs adusted too low to be profitable?

Regarding the Peppermill Lounge in Las Vegas, the land that it occupies must be worth a brazillion dollars -- that's more than a quadrillion. How can this ultracool retro hang afford to stay there? Who owns it?

Every time I go to the Strip, I see a lot of construction. Could you please update me on what's on, what's off, and completion dates, or are we going to be stuck with this mess ad infinitum?

I have read that the Tropicana is bankrupt and in trouble with regulators in Atlantic City, but I do not know the whole story. Can you give us a summary of the "troubles at the Trop"?