The Studio B Buffet at the M Resort on the south side of town is having an Eat Free For Life giveaway where 26 people will win the chance to get a free buffet for two every day for life. 52 others will win a free buffet for one year and 104 will win a free buffet for six months. Eat at the buffet and you get a free entry and then can get more entries by amassing points on their players' club card while gambling in the casino.

For more information visit the M Resort website.

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Harrah's started their big marketing push by bringing Planet Hollywood into the "No Resort Fee Zone" with a stunt that involved "Peepshow" star Holly Madison unveiling a pile of $12 million - the amount that Harrah's says visitors have wasted in paying the fees at other hotels in the last month. Then they announced the sweepstakes that will give the big winner $21,900, equivalent to $20 a day for three years.

They even put up a Facebook site that will allow you to "join the cause" against resort fees. Expect to be marketed to by Harrah's if you join it.

For those who haven't been paying attention, most hotels in Vegas are now charging a daily fee of anywhere from $6 to $20 per day on top of the room rate for things like gym access, wireless Internet service, and more. You have to pay the fee regardless of whether or not you use any of that stuff. Public reaction has been almost completely negative (at least what I've heard from my readers) and so Harrah's has siezed on that by banning the fees at all of their Vegas hotels including Harrah's, Caesars Palace, Paris Las Vegas, Bally's, Rio Las Vegas, Flamingo, Imperial Palace, and now Planet Hollywood.

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Up for bids are all of the Station Casinos properties like Texas Station, Aliante Station, Fiesta Henderson and Rancho, and others with the exception of Red Rock Resort, Palace Station, Sunset Station, and Boulder Station, which the company gets to keep under terms of the bankruptcy.

Boyd will probably be trying to pick up the other half of the Borgata resort in Atlantic City from MGM Resorts, which is looking to get out of the arrangement.

Penn National Gaming also dropped out of the bidding, citing similar concerns.

So who does that leave? Station Casinos... or rather the Fertitta family who ran the company. They put in the stalking horse bid of $775 million and have been insisting all along that they would do everything in their power to keep the company intact. If they are successful it would keep all of the company's casinos in one portfolio, although probably with a new name attached to it.

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The first one out of the gate will be the Las Vegas Mob Experience at the Tropicana, and although it isn't set to open until late this year, a preview center is opening this week. It will showcase the attraction’s floor plan, artist renderings of its interior, as well as a representative selection of artifacts from its vast collection.

Meyer Lansky II will open the preview center and will show off some rare artifacts from his father, the mob boss who took control of The Flamingo in 1947 after Bugsy Siegel's "unfortunate demise."

The preview center will be open daily from 10am until 10pm at the Tropicana and if you are so inclined you can purchase an annual pass to the actual museum for 2011. For more info, visit the website.

The Las Vegas Museum of Law and Organized Crime is the official name of the place that is being informally known as The Mob Museum. It will be located in Downtown Las Vegas in the former courthouse building that was the site of the 1950-51 Kefauver Committee hearings on organized crime.

Due to open in Spring of 2011 the building will feature more than 16,000 square-feet of exhibition space that will showcase artifacts, interactive displays, and profiles of significant figures in organized crime. Among the proposed exhibits: The Legacy of the Mob, which will examine the mafia in today's world; Notable Names in Mob History including Al Capone, Bugsy Siegel, John Gotti, and more; Mob Busters, about those who helped bring down major mafia figures; and Sin City, an in-depth look at the mob in Vegas. There will also be a retail store and event space in the 41,000 square-foot building. For more info, visit the website.

The Mob Museum has been championed by Mayor Oscar Goodman who was a lawyer for the mafia in the 1970s. He has spearheaded the fundraising drive, which has now approaching $9 million due to a recent grant from Centennial license plate fund.

So is there room in this town for two mafia museums? Guess we'll find out next spring.

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That could be the future if a bill currently winding its way through the United States Congress has anything to say about it.

Last week, the bill was approved by the Financial Services Committee and if passed and signed into law it would not only roll back current restrictions on Internet gambling but it would set up a process to allow companies to be licensed to operate online casinos - and for the US government to tax them.

Online gambling is technically illegal in the United States but that hasn't stopped many Americans from doing it. Loopholes in the law and lax enforcement have allowed overseas companies to reap huge rewards to the tune of nearly $6 billion from US citizens in 2008. Online poker is the most popular game but nearly all forms of casino gambling are available including slots, video poker, blackjack, pai gow, baccarat, and the list goes on and on.

What is causing the legal change of heart? Have you looked at the deficit lately? If online gambling was legal, that $6 billion could quadruple according to some estimates and Uncle Sam would be sitting there happy to take his taxable chunk of it. It's the same reason that real casinos are popping up in states around the country: the promise of revenue to help balance budgets.

There are a lot of powerful industries backing the new law also. The operators of those offshore casinos are obviously interested in seeing it happen and the credit card industry would love it since you have to have one in order to place a wager. Bui but you also have the US gaming companies watching closely.

It may seem counterintuitive at first glance. After all, why would a Vegas casino actively encourage you to stay at home, especially since studies have shown that most online gamblers wager less and less often than they do when they visit a casino in person.

But if it were legal in the US, you would most like see some big, familiar names in the gambling industry jumping in with both feet to launch online versions of themselves. The theory is that if they can get you to become a "regular" in their virtual casinos, you'll become more likely to want to visit their real ones. It's easy to envision a future in which you gamble online at home and earn points in your favorite players' club that you can then use to get hotel rooms and other freebies at the casinos in Vegas.

In fact, many of the big companies have been preparing for just such a scenario for years, actively developing technologies that would allow them to manage an online gambling presence if it ever became legal.

Remember that these same kind of conversations have been going on for the last couple of decades as it relates to the spread of Indian and riverboat casinos. At first they were seen as a threat to Vegas but they very quickly proved that there is more than enough gambling money to go around and for many people it actually increases their desire to want to go to Sin City. The evidence is clear: as the number of casinos in other states increased, the number of people and the money they spent in Vegas increased also.

So is it going to happen? The current bill is primarily being championed by Democrats in the House of Representatives with many Republicans against it for a variety of reasons (Federal overreach and the perceived immorality of gambling being the biggest of the bunch). If the November elections put Republicans in power in the House and/or Senate as they are widely expected to do, this entire thing could be a big old pile of moot. However, the big old piles of loot sitting around waiting for the government to take a chunk of may prove to be too irresistible of a lure.

Personally, I have nothing against online gambling but it's not something that really interests me all that much. I tried it awhile back when it was frowned upon as opposed to actually illegal and I found it kind of boring. It wasn't the fact that I lost a couple of hundred bucks quickly - I can do that at a real slot machine too - it was more about the overall experience. I don't like video based slots and if I'm going to play a card game I want to be able to actually touch my cards (which is one reason why I hate those virtual tables in some casinos - the scary fake dealers are another). Gambling should be a form of entertainment, which for me is fueled by the energy, excitement, noise, and fury of a real live casino. I like being able to move around and try different machines or tables; take a break and go have a great meal at one of the fantastic restaurants; see a show or hit a museum in my non-gambling hours. Sitting at my computer and occasionally taking a break for a Lean Cuisine or this week's episode of "American Idol" just isn't the same.

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