The Seminole Hard Rock Tampa is celebrating its five-year anniversary.

The casino has over 3,300 slots, 104 table games restaurants such as Council Oak Steaks & Seafood and Fresh Harvest.

Promotions include:

Every Tuesday, Pot of Gold guarantees a minimum of $2,500 per winner, and one pot contains gold valued at up to $25,000.

Win up to $50,000 every Wednesday in 21 or Bust.

Biker Bash returns from noon to 6 p.m. March 22.

On Sunday, March 29, the casino will hold a Kiss the Sky promotion, giving away five Saturn Skys from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

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The Isle continues its free slot tournaments, and is giving away a Ford F-150 on March 28.

Here are the casino's promotions for March:

$10K March Jackpot Sweepstakes: Win $5,000 or one of five prizes of $1,000. This is available to any patron receiving a taxable jackpot during February.

Slot tournaments noon to 6 p.m. Mondays: Each tournament has a Broadway theme.

Friday the 13th $25,000 Sweepstakes: 6-10 p.m. on March 13. Five winners from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. will each win at least $1,000 in IslePlay. At 10 p.m., one name will be drawn for the grand prize of $5,000 cash. The prizes double if your entry matches the symbol on the prize wheel.

$17K St. Patrick's Day Swipe & Win: 9 a.m. to midnight on March 17. Everyone is guaranteed a minimum of $5 in free play, with a max of $1,000.

2 p.m. – 6 p.m. March 28: Car drawing with prize punch board: Five winners each hour (2,3, 4, 5 p.m.) use punch board to win free play and cash up to $1,000. At 6 p.m. there will be a grand prize drawing for a Ford F 150 Truck.

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Gov. Charlie Crist has proclaimed the week of March 1-7 Problem Gambling Awareness Week in Florida, according to the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling.

The week coincides with a similar national week. The council gleaned the following numbers based on its helpline calls:

Almost one in every three callers (30%) admit to committing illegal acts to finance their gambling, committing crimes that are linked to money.

Almost two out of three callers (62%) reported committing fraud, writing bad checks or forgery

One out of five callers (21%) stated they had embezzled money for employers

One out of five callers (21%) claimed to have committed larceny or theft against friends, family members or strangers

One out of 14 callers (7%) stated they had been involved with other illegal activities such as selling drugs, prostitution, illegal gambling (booking) and others

Further legal actions had been enacted against the gambler for their activities in 20% of the contacts

For more information, call 888-ADMIT-IT, or go to www.gamblinghelp.org.

Council Executive Director Pat Fowler says there are more than one million Florida residents who struggle with gambling.

"As the number of people addicted to gambling increases, a new population of those committing crimes is created. Many of these individuals have no prior history of violating the law, and appear to have done so only as a result of their gambling addiction," she said in a news release.

She also cited some recent newspaper stories:

According to Fowler, here are recent headlines:

DCF SUPERVISOR gets 17 years in prison for embezzling $1.54 million. The money was used by the DCF supervisor and her two friends to gamble, each of whom were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

LUXURY AUTO DEALER embezzles $500,000 to fuel gambling habit (online and sports betting). He would funnel petty cash funds ($20,000 at a time) in his accounts.

CLEARWATER ACCOUNTANT steals 1.6 million dollars to fund addiction (horse betting). He was an accountant for a law firm and transferred firm funds to his personal accounts.

DELRAY BEACH PRIESTS embezzle over 8 million dollars to fund gambling trips and lavish lifestyles.

WEIGHT WATCHERS is suing a casino where ex-bookkeeper lost large amounts of money she embezzled. The branch she worked for was the main location for Southern Alabama and Northern Florida. The worker embezzled almost $1 million to fund her gambling addiction.

FLORIDA HIGHWAY PATROL TROOPER loses his job after admitting that he took money from people, he believed to be illegally in this country, during traffic stops. He admitted that he used the money because of a drinking and gambling problem.

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While researching an article about Asian gamblers and the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, I found myself hanging out at the baccarat and Pai Gow poker tables.

And learning about two games I hadn’t played before.

If you haven’t been to Las Vegas, you likely haven’t been exposed much to baccarat and Pai Gow poker. (Quick conversations with bystanders provided enough anectdotal evidence that many of us are unfamiliar with them.)

I’ve been practicing both games at the free site, www.wizardofodds.com. If you haven’t heard of it, you gotta go there. The site not only lets you play the games, but tells you afterward if you made the correct play or not.

So here’s the short version on how the games work:

Baccarat

Gamblers bet either on the banker or the player, both of whom receive two cards. The person closest to nine is the winner.

A third card is dealt if neither the player nor the banker has an 8 or a 9 (called a “natural”). Face cards and 10s count as zero.

There is no decision-making involved after the cards are dealt. You’re basically betting on a coin flip.

Casinos make their money by taking a commission on winning bets. The house edge is about 1.2 percent, compared to about 5 percent in roulette and about 8 percent in slots (depending on the house).

Pai Gow poker

Players receive seven cards and disperse them into a five-card poker hand and a two-card hand. The dealer does the same thing.

The five-card hand always has to be better than the two-card hand. That’s to prevent you, say, from putting a pair of aces into your two-card hand, and locking in that win over the dealer.

Like baccarat, the house commission comes by taking a small piece of your wins.

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My story appeared in Sunday's newspaper about Asian gamblers, their likes and how the Hollywood Hard Rock tries to meet their unique needs. Just as they serve, say, seniors' needs with an over-55 free slot tournament, they also make sure their Asian patrons are comfortable, as all casinos do.

The Hard Rock added baccarat and Pai Gow poker at the same time it added blackjack, last June.

I also have some videos on how to play the games, which are both fun. Anyone out there play Pai Gow or baccarat?

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John Knox, who retired this week, sent me a note today with comments about retiring.

Knox was with Dania for 38 years. He began in 1971 announcing the games during the winter months. ("I was in radio at the time WQAM/WINZ, it was a part-time gig that was fun," he writes).

In 1974 he went full time as promotions manager as Dania started construction.

When Milford Jai-Alai in Connecticut opened, he became VP of Marketing for Aragon Group.

In 1981 he became VP General Manager of Dania as year-round jai-alai started. Thirteen years ago, Dania added poker and has been making changes and additions ever since.

"I am proud of our innovative history with nine-point games, championships, webcasting, web data & information and online information. It has been an exciting and rewarding time with the management and employees of Dania all these years," he says.

When Dania was sold to Boyd Gaming in 2007 he remained with the fronton as General Manager.

"My personal goal was to see the transition to adding slots and growing the property into a full entertainment complex that featured gaming And jai-alai. The uniqueness of jai-alai as both a sport and entertainment is unmatched and totally in my veins," he writes.

"Now I have decided to take some time for myself and no longer carry the day to day load of the operation. I am at a nice retirement age of 61, have my health and friends and family that I want to enjoy. I will be assisting during the next 30 days to help with any transition issues that arise.

"Boyd Gaming has been a wonderful experience and is truly great organization from the founder Bill Boyd all the way through the company.

"I only wish that the deal given to them by the State of Florida was more balanced to allow the ability to compete with the non-regulated gaming that is so prominent in South Florida."

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Another hit to South Florida gambling: Dania Jai-Alai laid off about a half-dozen people, including poker room manager Frank Risi, officials confirmed today.

Business has been slow at the fronton. Dania can put in slots similar to other Broward pari-mutuels, such as Gulfstream, the Isle and Mardi Gras, but parent company Boyd Gaming has held off, citing the state's 50 percent tax as too burdensome. If the state dropped it to 35 percent, they'd likely rebuild the place and do it up right.

Assistant GM Marty Fleischman said Boyd Gaming made the cuts, as every business is having to do everywhere.

"Business is just down so much," he said. "We've never experienced this, either in the economy or in parimutuels." The Isle, Mardi Gras and Gulfstream also have trimmed staff in recent months.

Dania's card room business is about $100,000 a month, about one-sixth of Mardi Gras and Gulfstream and about one-tenth of what Palm Beach Kennel and the Isle do. Then there's the Seminole Indian casinos, which don't release their figures, but the nearby Hard Rock is the dominant spot in south and central Broward, if not all of South Florida.

Dania's jai-alai revenues also are minuscule.

On a related note (at this point I can't nail down how related), general manager John Knox, who was at the fronton for 37 years, retired. I have an email out to him for a comment. When a guy spends that much time in any job, you have figure he did some good things, and poker players I talked to said he was always there.

Human resources director Dave Winslow is the new GM, Fleischman said.

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Magna Entertainment Corp., which owns Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino in Hallandale Beach, is facing default on loans, according to a company statement.

Magna's parent company, MI Developments, denied a reorganization proposal this week that would have infused it with cash. Frank Stronach is chairman of both companies, but the MI board of directors rejected the plan.

Magna is in danger of defaulting on about $300 million in loans, all of which are due by March 20 or earlier. That includes a $100 million loan to help develop a $1.2 billion shopping center and entertainment complex at Gulfstream Park, called The Village.

Gulfstream vice president Steve Calabro said Thursday the news would have "zero effect" on Gulfstream. The company next week plans to announce more than two dozen of the 70 restaurants and shops that will go into The Village, which is expected to open this fall.

"The casino is still cooking, jackpots are being paid and our promotions are still exciting as ever," he said.

Gulfstream, which has hosted horse racing since 1939, opened a casino in 2006. Magna's stock had a 52-week high of $20, but has dropped to 38 cents per share.

Because the stock is below a buck, it faces delisting, the Toronto Star reports. And the Baltimore Sun target="new"looks at what could happen next.

Part of the problems go to Maryland, where Magna failed to include a required $28.5 million license fee as part of an application for slots at its track there. Noted horse racing writer Andrew Beyer tells about the situation in Maryland. One note: if you think Florida's 50 percent slot tax is bad, well, Maryland has a plan for a 67 percent tax when slots go in.

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Instead of suitcases, contestants pick coconuts.

Instead of pushing a red button and hugging Howie Mandel as the cash starts to flow, they grab a banana and shake hands with Seminole Casino Coconut Creek’s Gary Friedman.

“CooCoo for Coconuts,” the casino’s version of Deal or No Deal, is attracting a crowd.

Contestants pick one of 10 coconuts, which have values of $1, $5, $50, $100, $500, $1,000, $1,500, $2,000, $3,000 and $20,000. Then, just like in Deal or No Deal, they try to drive up the banker’s price by discarding low values.

Originally, the casino considered embedding sheets of paper with the dollar figures in coconut bras that the models would then peel off. (They’d have clothing underneath, too.) But, fearing a Janet Jackson Super Bowl moment, the models now merely hold the coconuts at chest level and shake them.

Still, Friedman implores the models to “show us your coconuts” and the crowd hoots.
The promotion is at 7, 8, 9 and 10 p.m. Thursdays.

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Nevada gambling regulators have warned casinos about a card-counting program for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch that can illegally help players beat the house in blackjack, according to a story by The Associated Press.

Card counting by players is not illegal in Nevada, but using a device to count cards is a felony. The Nevada Gaming Control Board warned of the program last week.

California gambling regulators said officials at an Indian casino found customers using it.

I have neither an iPhone nor an iPod Touch, so I don't know of the program. Anyone out there have one, and can tell me about it?

Of course, the only application here would be at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, which started blackjack last summer. So the felony threat wouldn't apply, but I'd bet they'd be pretty mad if someone was using one.

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Jasmine Schofill of Fort Lauderdale won Friday's High Heels Poker Tournament at Mardi Gras Gaming in Hallandale Beach.

She earned $1,805 in the $150 buy-in event.

Micheline Gajnon of Quebec finished second ($1,370), followed by Tammy Goldshteyn of Aventura ($1,063), Kelly Elliot of Lake Worth ($848), Peggy Penning of Miami ($670) and Danielle Tuvia Miami ($504).

Meanwhile, the High Heels Poker Tour founder, Lauren Failla of Hollywood, is featured on the March cover of Ante Up magazine, which is distributed in Florida poker rooms. The magazine profiled Jason Mercier and David Rheem in earlier issues.

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Gulfstream Casino and Racing is tapping into the popularity of the Broadway show Jersey Boys.

One player will be selected every 20 minutes between 5 and 11 p.m. Friday to win two tickets to see the play at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

The show runs April 8 through May 3.

Also at Gulfstream this month:

“Waterford Crystal”: From 9 a.m. to midnight Saturday, players who earn 100 Players' Club points get a Waterford Crystal item.

$20,000 cash on Sundays: On Feb. 22, five finalists will be picked at 7, 8 and 9 p.m. for a random drawing. Each winner picks from 20 cases. The amounts range from $50 to $20,000.

Free slot tournaments, at 7 p.m. Feb. 22 and at 4 p.m. Feb. 17 and 24.

“Hot seat” promotion, from 5-11 p.m. Thursdays. One player will be selected every 20 minutes to win $500 cash.

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The High Heels Poker Tour, the all women's poker tour, will hold a ladies-only event at Mardi Gras at 7 tonight. Buy-in is $150.

It's the first women's tournament event ever held at Mardi Gras Gaming in Hallandale Beach and has a $5,000 guaranteed prize pool.

The next HHPT event and academy after Mardi Gras will be held at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino March 6-8. The women who attend any academy will also receive promotional give-a-ways, prizes and more.

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Let's spit in the face of any Friday the 13th gods. Here are 13 places to test your luck today:

Palm Beach International Raceway: The go-kart track is almost a mile with 10 turns. Then there's the driving school for the more adventurous.

Skydiving: Take a leap off a plane and head toward the terra firma. Among the companies: SkyDiveMiami.

Pick up the phone: WKIS-FM radio (Kiss Country) is giving away Daytona 500 tickets weekdays. Just listen for the Chevy Impala to race across your radio. Then, um, just be the correct caller. No problem.

Take on the carnies: The 17th Annual Presidents' Fest in the Park is through Monday at Markham Park. Braving the rides is one thing; walking out of the Midway victoriously with a stuffed bear held high over your head is wholly another.

The nightclubs (OK, just for singles): It's Friday night and you just got paid. Try The Poor House, 110 SW Third Ave., Fort Lauderdale, or others at SouthFlorida.Metromix.com

Bingo halls: The North Collins Bingo Palace, 18288 Collins Ave. in Sunny Isles Beach, has bingo games starting at $15, as well as a video arcade. Bingo is noon-3 p.m., 7-10 p.m. daily; the arcade is open 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. Call 305-932-7185.

The Florida Lottery: Powerball came to the Sunshine State last month. Right now the prize is at $92 million. When you hit it, remember yours truly here.

The Great Urban Race: Feb. 21 in Tampa. Think of The Amazing Race, but in one day.

The places where you can hear a pin drop: Ever toss a bowling ball down the lane -- well off the lead pin -- only to have a disproportinately high number of pins fall? And how can Lucky Strike Lanes in Miami Beach not make a Friday the 13th list?

On the internet: The web site, 1SaleADay.com, for example, offers deals well below the norm, including a digital camera regularly priced at $200 for $80.

The stock market: The Dow Jones Industrial Average is barely half of its 52-week high of 13,000-plus. So it's due, isn't it?

South Florida casinos (of course): The Isle Casino and Racing has a Friday the 13th promotion, and all the others have regular giveaways. For a full list, check out SunSentinel.com/action.

Interstate 95: But only if you're really, really adventurous.

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Triskaidekaphobia relief, Valentine’s Day options and patriotic promotions:

The Isle Casino and Racing in Pompano Beach is having a Friday the 13th Sweepstakes, giving away up to $50,000 in cash and $5,000 in free play. Patrons pick up entry tickets for the $1,000 hourly drawings, set for 6-9 tonight. If the symbol on your ticket matches what is spun on the Isle’s Mystery Wheel, the prize doubles. At 10, one name will be drawn for the grand prize of $5,000 cash. It becomes $10,000 if the symbol on the entry matches the symbol on the prize wheel.

The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino poker room has four drawings for Valentine’s Day packages, at 10 a.m., 2, 6 and 10 p.m. Feb. 13. Talk about cutting it close. The winner of each drawing gets dinner for two at Council Oak ($160 value), a room for two in the hotel and concert tickets to a show in Hard Rock Live.

Seminole Coconut Creek has a “Break a Heart” promotion from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Break a heart balloon and get the prize attached. On Sunday, it’s a “Presidential Car Giveaway,” with 10 free-play winners and a grand prize of a Lincoln MKX.

On Monday, the Creek is going all George Washington on us. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., redeem 4,000 Players’ Club points for a cherry pie. But, of course, the pie is stuffed with a prize of cash or free play. Top prize: $2,000.

Gulfstream Casino and Racing is conducting a “hot seat” promotion from 8-11 p.m. on Monday (Presidents’ Day). The casino is giving away a $100 U.S. Savings Bond every 20 minutes.

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Vanessa Rousso, Wellington High's valedictorian in 2001, just keeps adding to her fame.

A photo of her in a bikini appears in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition that just hit newsstands.

UPDATED ON FRIDAY: I got my magazine and it's a two-page spread, with the headline "Swimming with the Sharks." Vanessa is wearing a short top, not a bikini top. And bikini briefs while standing in thigh-high water, with two sharks' fins photoshopped in the water. (Personally, it's a welcome contrast to the rest of this year's SI, which seems to center on women NOT wearing suits -- instead draping them over their shoulders, or slightly tugging them off of their body, or wearing half of them.) Also, a one-page Q-and-A with Vanessa.

"It was a great opportunity for poker in general and for me in particular," said Rousso, who was in Jupiter this week to visit family before heading out to Los Angeles for her next tournament. "You could say it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Rousso's sponsor, PokerStars.net, pitched the idea of a woman in poker being among the models. Rousso, 26, has long blonde hair, a quick smile and is an automatic mention on men-admiring-women web sites, such as PokerHotties.org.

She went to the Bahamas for a photo shoot conducted by SI on Jan. 4, but rather than appear in the editorial portion of the magazine, she is part of a PokerStars-sponsored "custom content" piece, which the online poker room paid for. In other words, it's advertorial copy.

She loosens up significantly from her table appearance, which includes a hat, sunglasses, earphones and shirts that go all the way up to her Adam's apple.

"But it was the opportunity to try something new, and I think it was done very tastefully," she said Wednesday, after seeing a copy of the magazine.

In recent years, she has been photographed for Maxim magazine, taught poker to Forbes magazine's 100 Most Powerful Women and written articles on game theory for American Poker Player magazine.

She attended law school briefly at the University of Miami after graduating from Duke in 2.5 years, and verbalizes poker strategy so well that the World Poker Tour Boot Camp often invites her as a guest instructor. She also has her own poker instruction course coming to South Florida soon, she said.

The SI swimsuit issue sells about 4.5 million copies, compared to the weekly's usual 3.1 million.

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The Seminole Casino Immokalee — the third land-based casino in the state with blackjack — has completed a $22 million renovation.

The west Florida casino, which more than doubled its space, unveiled it this week to patrons.

The tribe rolled out blackjack last June at the Hard Rock Hollywood, last November at the Hard Rock Tampa, and last December at Immokalee, about 90 minutes west of Broward County on Alligator Alley. The tribe, which is renegotiating a compact with the state, has not announced plans for installing blackjack at Coconut Creek and the original Hollywood casinos.

The casino will have “the most modern, full service and beautiful environment,” Tony Sanchez, general manager. Restaurants, entertainment and parking also have been expanded.

The casino increased its slot machines from 750 to 1,100, blackjack tables from 12 to 22 and added other card games, such as Three-Card Poker and Let It Ride.

The casino opened in 1994 with about 30,000 square feet for gambling. Now it’s 75,600 in response to west Florida’s population growth, Tribe officials said. The casino is about 30 minutes east of Naples and Fort Myers.

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Hooters girls will wash your car at the Hard Rock, and if you're a fan of the tight orange shorts and tank tops, they've upgraded (!?).

They'll wear bikinis.

It's for a good cause. A really good cause. Senior Troop Chief Thomas J. Valentine, a platoon leader for an elite Special Warfare Navy SEAL unit, was killed in a parachute jump on Feb. 14, 2007. He left behind his wife, Christina, who has worked for Hooters for 15 years, and two young children.

A man named Valentine dying on Feb. 14 ...

The car wash is from 1-3 p.m. Feb. 14 in the Seminole Paradise Parking lot adjacent to Hooters. It's technically free, but a $20 donation is encouraged.

There's also a “Take a Toss at the Boss,” Bruce Earle, Hooters Hollywood general manager, who will take on your water-balloon toss if you donate $5.

For more information, call the Seminole Auto Salon at 954-581-7188 or visit www.SeminoleAutoSalon.com.

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Gamblers who procrastinate on a Valentine's Day gift might do better this year, instead of pathetically trolling a card shop with other uncreative guys, then grabbing a stuffed bear and a heart-shaped chocolate box just as the mall locks up at 9 p.m.

And making a lonely walk to your car in the parking lot, knowing you bought a routine gift that forces your spouse into a fake smile and a half-hearted hug, not that you blame her.

Not that I've ever done that or anything...

The Hard Rock poker room has four drawings for Valentine's Day packages, at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Feb. 13. Talk about cutting it close. The winner of each drawing gets dinner for two at Council Oak ($160 value) restaurant, a room for two at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and concert tickets to a show in Hard Rock Live.

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Sometime next week I'm going to do 25 Random Things About Gambling, playing off the Facebook craze, but for now, I just want to alert your attention to Time Magazine's hilarious 25 Things I Didn't Want to Know About You.

I've been tagged twice by Facebook friends, so I'll have to do mine on FB over the weekend.

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Gamblers who procrastinate on a Valentine's Day gift might do better this year, instead of pathetically trolling a card shop with other uncreative guys, then grabbing a stuffed bear and a heart-shaped chocolate box just as the mall locks up at 9 p.m.

And making a lonely walk to your car in the parking lot, knowing you bought a routine gift that forces your spouse into a fake smile and a half-hearted hug, not that you blame her.

Not that I've ever done that or anything...

The Hard Rock poker room has four drawings for Valentine's Day packages, at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Feb. 13. Talk about cutting it close.

The winner of each drawing gets dinner for two at Council Oak ($160 value) restaurant, a room for two at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and concert tickets to a show in Hard Rock Live.

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Gamblers who procrastinate on a Valentine's Day gift might do better this year, instead of pathetically trolling a card shop with other uncreative guys, then grabbing a stuffed bear and a heart-shaped chocolate box just as the mall locks up at 9 p.m.

And making a lonely walk to your car in the parking lot, knowing you bought a routine gift that forces your spouse into a fake smile and a half-hearted hug, not that you blame her.

Not that I've ever done that or anything...

The Hard Rock poker room has four drawings for Valentine's Day packages, at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Feb. 13. Talk about cutting it close.

The winner of each drawing gets dinner for two at Council Oak ($160 value) restaurant, a room for two at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and concert tickets to a show in Hard Rock Live.

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Gamblers who procrastinate on a Valentine's Day gift might do better this year, instead of pathetically trolling a card shop with other uncreative guys, then grabbing a stuffed bear and a heart-shaped chocolate box just as the mall locks up at 9 p.m.

And making a lonely walk to your car in the parking lot, knowing you bought a routine gift that forces your spouse into a fake smile and a half-hearted hug, not that you blame her.

Not that I've ever done that or anything...

The Hard Rock poker room has four drawings for Valentine's Day packages, at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Feb. 13. Talk about cutting it close.

The winner of each drawing gets dinner for two at Council Oak ($160 value) restaurant, a room for two at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and concert tickets to a show in Hard Rock Live.

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Be prepared for bad name puns: Britney Spareribs, Arnold Schwarzenpigger and Hamma Montana. It's part of the Seminole Casino Hollywood "Hog Wild" promotion for February featuring (believed to be a local casino first) pig races.

The feature event is "the Swiftest Swine Off the Line," operated by the touring Arkansas company called the Ham Bone Express. The pigs, who presumably don't know they have funny names, are kept in a trailer near the casino, and the races are held outside.

The casino will conduct 14 drawings each Thursday through Sunday, with 16 gamblers' names pulled for each race. Drawing winners are divided into groups of four and the race off involves four heats of four pigs each.

The winner of each heat will select an envelope that contains up to $2,500 cash. The winner of the final race gets the cash.

Like the recent Tic-Tac-Doe Chicken at Mardi Gras Gaming, the animals are monitored round-the-clock, their keepers say.

Veterinarians also inspect the pigs every month and follow all the provisions of the USDA Animal Welfare Act, the casino says.

Seminole Hollywood will have a "circuit event" slot tournament from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, one of more to come.

The winner goes to the final, which will be at the Hard Rock.

The Seminole Hollywood and Seminole Hard Rock casinos combine for a $1 million slot tournament Sept. 11-13.

That seems like a lot of money for a slot tournament; still trying to gather the details.

Meanwhile, would a casino with pigs be something that entices you to visit?

More events at Seminole Hollywood include:

Other Seminole Hollywood promotions this month are also tied to the Hog Wild theme:

Pork Belly Buyout: Players who earn 500 points in a day can get one share of Pork Belly, Inc. Each day the casino will post a daily fair market value in free play. Guests can either trade in their share for free play or hold on to it for a better price.

Porky's $100,000 Payout: The casino will conduct 50 drawings for $1,000 cash each on Feb. 21 and 28.

"TV Tuesdays" from 5 to 9 p.m., with drawings every 20 minutes for a 42-inch digital LCD set.

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For those of you who have stuck with me the past couple of months, here's the big news: The 'Comments' and 'Permalink' portion of this blog are now operative again.

That means you can make snarky, or even not-so-snarky, remarks again about the material that's going up here. And thanks for showing the proverbial patience of Job.

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The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is giving away a car a day in February.

It's called the “Saturn Sky a Day” promotion and $18,000 Concert Night Giveaways.

On Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 1-5 p.m., the casino will award $500 in free slot play or a car during the grand prize drawing at 6 p.m.; on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays the times are 4 – 8 p.m. with the grand prize drawing at 9 p.m.

Player’s Club members 55 and over are eligible to join the Classic Rockers and participate in free slot tournaments on Tuesdays (3, 10, 17 and 24) from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Registration begins at 8 a.m. in the alcove across from the Hard Rock Café. Ten 20-minute sessions will be held with five minutes of play for 25 players per session. Cash and free-machine play prizes awarded to the top five overall scores per session.

The casino also is awarding $18,000 in free slot play or prizes after concerts in Hard Rock Live on Feb. 6, 8, 11, 12, 17 and 19 with three $1,000 free slot play or memorabilia giveaways at 11 p.m. Patrons must swipe their Players' Club card from 5 p.m. to 10:45 p.m.

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