WELCOME to Kimo’s Vegas ... The Player’s Edge!

KEEP YOUR fingers crossed ... Wouldn’t it be cool to see Big Island’s UFC World Champion BJ Penn move up a division and fight on the UFC’s annual New Year’s Eve card as a middleweight Dec. 27 in Vegas?

AUWE! The MGM Grand says someone hacked its web reservations system and offered folks $69, any-night-of-the-week rooms and 25 percent off KA! tickets. The hotel is cancelling and refunding all deposits booked under the “Ultimate Escape” offer ... Something smells fishy, and it’s not the Ala Wai.

HOWEVER, the discounts for Zumanity the Sensual Side of Cirque du Soleil, which features Kamehameha grad Melle Vasquez on lead guitar are real ... Get 35 percent off tickets now through Sept. 30 (some restrictions apply). Call the box office (866) 606-7111 or get the link from www.KimosVegas.com.

IT’S THE WORST May in 10 years ... The casinos in Nevada earned 15.2 percent less this past May than they did May 2007. The Strip was down 16.4 percent and Downtown is down 17.3 percent. The (Vegas) local casinos are down even more, North Las Vegas is off 29.4 percent and Boulder Strip is -30.2 percent. The slots were down 15.1 percent but revenue from penny slots was up 9.6 percent. Who’s playing less? Roulette was the big loser down 27.7 percent followed by the blackjack tables at 26.2 percent, craps at 7.3 percent and baccarat off 0.6 percent.

A BIG DAY for foodies will be Aug. 30. Not one or two or three, but eight James Beard award-winning chefs including Mario Batali, Thomas Keller, Charlie Trotter, Wolfgang Puck and Emeril Lagasse will be cooking up special menus for the first Carnivale of Cuisine happening at 30 restaurants all weekend long.

Actor and comedian Chris Rock brings his “No Apologies” tour to the Neal Blaisdell Arena July 26, or you can check him out at Caesars Palace Aug. 29 and 30.

REMEMBER WHEN computers weren’t smart enough to beat a human at chess? Well, now in the Man vs. Machine Poker Competition in Vegas, the University of Alberta’s (a university where you get to play poker in the classrooms and the dorms) computer poker research group Polaris 2.0 has beaten human poker pros 3-to-2 (with one draw). Like its 1997 victory over grandmaster Gary Kasparov, this is another notch on the computer’s CPU. To prove the win was not random, rematches are planned over the next year.

AS SPOCK SAID in Star Trek II, “It’s always been easier to destroy than create” ... Such is the fate of Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton. It closes for good Sept. 1. What may well be the last official Star Trek Convention held in Las Vegas starts Aug. 6 at the Hilton.

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