The sportsbook at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas has posted its annual Oscar predictions. Although forbidden to take wagers in case someone in the know places a bet, the Stardust Sportsbook enjoys the worldwide attention it gets from its choices. Last year they correctly picked five of the six winners in the best picture, acting and directing categories, but goofed on their best supporting actor selection by choosing Tom Cruise in "Magnolia" who was beaten by Michael Caine, who won for "The Cider House Rules".

This year, the Stardust chooses "Gladiator" as a 9-5 favorite to win the best movie award over "Traffic" at 3-1; "Erin Brockovich" at 4-1; "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" at 6-1; and "Chocolat" at 8-1.

For best actress, their nominees are Julia Roberts, "Erin Brockovich," even; Joan Allen, "The Contender," 7-2; Juliette Binoche, "Chocolat," 4-1; Ellen Burstyn, "Requiem for a Dream," 5-1; Laura Linney, "You Can Count on Me," 8-1.

And for best actor, they pick: Russell Crowe, "Gladiator," 2-1; Geoffrey Rush, "Quills," 5-2; Tom Hanks, "Cast Away," 7-2; Ed Harris, "Pollock," 4-1; Javier Bardem, "Before Night Falls," 15-1.

Dear Mark,

Does the slot machine know once I've won three or four small jackpots in a row to stop paying me because it has already paid me too much money? Roger B.

The machines are not programmed to say to themselves; "Oh no, I've been paying Roger way too much money. Time to stiff this loser." Slot machines, Roger, do not operate by artificial intelligence as you suggest in your question, but are preprogrammed to pay out a certain percentage on a random basis with all kinds of streaks-good and bad-appearing. All symbols are selected by a random number generator (RNG) and this small internal chip knows nothing about cycles. What the programming does tell the casino operators is that after millions and millions of decisions, "X" amount of money will be earned by the casino and lost by the players. But no one, Roger, not even the machine, knows what the actual "sequence" of wins and losses will be.

Visit Mark's website for more expert tips.

While it may have been easy for Mel Gibson to read women's minds, I'm willing to bet big money that you're not quite as lucky in that department. In fact, I doubt that there is a man alive today who knows exactly what his woman wants.

Tip #1: Don't wait until her birthday or until next Christmas to buy her something nice. But before you go running off to the mall to get something that you'll only end up returning, I've put together a list of 10 sure-fire suggestions to get you going in the right direction. Several of my intelligent and creative female friends (and a gaggle of women off the street) were asked for their responses to this question: If your man won a lot of money at an online casino and wanted to spend it all on you, what would you want?

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The new Barona Casino StarDome expansion, featuring a $1 million indoor neon sign, opened February 13. The casino unveiled 2000 new Las Vegas slot machines including including Elvis!, I Dream of Jeannie, The Addams Family, Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune.

The StarDome also features flat-screen televisions conveniently placed between back-to-back slots so guests can watch their favorite movies and television shows while playing their favorite slot machines. Barona Casino was the first California casino to feature Las Vegas style slots.

Hong Kong legislators have postponed a decision on banning Internet gambling. Hong Kong has only two legal forms of gambling; horse racing and the Mark Six lottery, both run exclusively by the Hong Kong Jockey Club. But more and more Hong Kong citizens are logging on to gamble. Visits to Internet casinos last year rose to 41% according to a study by NetValue Sales & Marketing. The Hong Kong Jockey Club, whose own site is now under construction, says that Internet gambling robs the government of tax revenue and makes the future of Hong Kong horseracing unstable. Legislators asked for a two month postponement to study the situation because some members questioned whether a government bill could control Internet gambling.

Barona Casino has been named "Loosest Slots in San Diego" in the February 2024 issue of Strictly Slots magazine. After doing independent research on the San Diego area casinos, John Robison, the author of the book "The Slot Expert's Guide to Playing Slots" and a Strictly Slots reporter said, "Since Barona had the best video poker offerings of the three San Diego casinos, I was anxious to test one of their Double Diamond machines."

In his article Robison explained his methodology for testing loose slots by running a mathematical series of bets through each casino's Double Diamond machines. He concluded, "My playing results matched what I had expected from inspecting the video poker machines. The casino that had the highest paying video poker machines also had the highest-paying slot machines. My conclusion for the San Diego-area casinos (is) the Barona Casino has the loosest slots in San Diego."

The most unshakable stigma for online gambling has been the fact that a majority of Net betting businesses still operate their websites in stealth mode. Many virtual casino operators (many, not all) run their sites very secretively; there's certain information they won't share with their customers. Following is a list of eight common things that online casinos often don't want you to know and why.

* Their Identities - Visit a dozen or so online casinos and go to their "About Us" pages. You'll probably notice that most of them don't reveal very much about the company and/or principal executives behind the operation. Despite how shifty this might make the operators(s) seem, in most cases, their decision not to identify themselves is predicated by the zero-tolerance policy taken by certain governments--particularly that of the United States. Thus they go to great extents to stay below the radar of authorities.

Read the full article at WINNERonline.com

Las Vegas visitors with cars who are looking for bargain rooms might well investigate Arizona Charlie's East on Boulder Highway. By registering for a room at the Card Club Booth, rooms are $29 weekdays which includes two free buffet coupons (breakfast, lunch or dinner). My wife and I found hundreds of full pay video poker machines (including 5 cent machines), and a mere 500 points added to the 1000 point sign-up bonus will get you another breakfast buffet. Separate cards are required for their East and West casinos.

Our room was a two-room suite with walk-in closet (not recently remodeled, however), the buffet was above average, the casino floor was clean and inviting, and the staff was unusually friendly. An authentic bargain. But I suggest you ask about the free buffet coupons before registering. They tend to come and go. - B.Lewis, Austin, Texas

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I just learned that Kiwi Casino, an online casino run by the Christchurch Casino Group in New Zealand, has cut the house edge on its roulette in half by offering single-zero roulette. For those who don't play roulette, the typical Amercian version has both a "zero" and a "double-zero". The player stands a better chance of winning when only the single zero is offered. Details at WINNERonline.

Your editor, Steve Johnson,

See you next week!

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