Tourism & Gaming:

Professionals who market Las Vegas as a destination have to be happy with the box-office performance of "21," the recently released film based on Ben Mezrich 's book "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions."

The film was atop the Hollywood box-office list for the second straight week last week, which is a testament to the public's fascination with Las Vegas , casinos and the fantasy that if you're smart enough, you can beat the house.

The film made $15.3 million last week and after two weeks has taken in $46.8 million at the box office.

Nearly every industry observer I've talked to, including one of the members of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology team depicted in the film, recognized the movie for what it is — a slice of entertainment that is no more believable than "Star Wars" or "Jurassic Park," but worth the escapism it provides.

Although Las Vegans will chuckle at some of the depictions, the bottom line is that "21" may be one of the best advertisements the city has gotten from Hollywood in a while.

The movie is about a gifted MIT student who learns the basic strategies of blackjack and works with a team to count cards to gain an edge against the house. During the week, team members toil as students, but on weekends, they fly to Las Vegas where they make a financial killing playing blackjack.

The book "Bringing Down the House" chronicled the activities of a real-life MIT blackjack team that operated in Las Vegas in the 1990s before biometric, face-recognition computer software became popular to track known casino cheats. But the movie is more of a composite piece set in present-day Las Vegas , based on a story out of the '90s involving characters from the '60s and '70s.

The glamour of Las Vegas is nicely depicted with beautiful night shots of a number of resorts and several shots of the interiors of some of the resorts that appeal most to college-age players — the Hard Rock Hotel, the Red Rock Resort and Planet Hollywood.

But I knew the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority would be absolutely delighted with one of the recurring themes of the film — that Las Vegas is a fantasy destination. Early in the film, the female lead in the film, Jill Taylor (portrayed by Kate Bosworth ) attempts to convince the gifted student, Ben Campbell (played by Jim Sturgess ) to join the blackjack team.

"In Las Vegas," Jill coos to Ben, "you can be whoever you want to be."

That line had to be music to the ears of the LVCVA, whose big marketing campaigns have centered around the fantasy of being someone you're not. One of the agency's highly successful "What happens here, stays here" ads uses a character who tells various women in different settings that he is a doctor, lawyer, author, actor, etc.

The producers of "21" gave the LVCVA an early peek at the movie and asked executives if they wanted in on the co-branding and marketing of the film.

"We reviewed the script and saw a preview last fall," said Vince Alberta of the LVCVA. "We felt that it reinforced the theme that you can express your adult freedom when you're in Las Vegas , and it depicted the city in a very sophisticated way and that there are many opportunities to do things here."

Alberta said the LVCVA's thoughts about the depiction were reinforced when officials went to the premiere at Planet Hollywood, and he heard people say the film "was a great commercial for Las Vegas ."

The online travel-booking company Orbitz ended up giving 21 trips to Las Vegas away in conjunction with the movie.

But what about the bad stuff depicted in the film?

"We felt that the good stuff far outweighed the bad stuff," Alberta said. "We weren't really in a position to say, ‘We didn't like that part of it, take it out.’"

The "bad stuff" in the film included the threat of violence to the MIT team by a character played by Laurence Fishburne .

Fishburne 's character was considered to be an "old-school" surveillance consultant who was on the verge of being moved out of his role with the advent of the new biometric software.

He was "old school" because he discouraged card-counting players by confronting them at the blackjack table, then taking them to the back of the house where he would beat counters to a pulp and warn them never to return.

I have no doubts that such characters existed in the days when the mob ruled the casinos. But if that kind of thuggery existed today, regulators would be onto them quickly.

In any case, that was one of the questions I asked David Irvine , who now resides in Naples, Fla. , and was one of the original MIT team members.

Did anybody in your team ever get beaten up?

"No, that didn't happen," he said. "I think that was thrown in to add some tension, some danger."

Irvine said there were a few other depictions in the film that weren't quite dead-on. He was recruited to join a team in 1993 and the team that "Bringing Down the House" was based on was formed in 1994. At any one time, there were about 25 people on the team and, over time, there were about 50 people associated with it.

The team was led by an experienced mentor — the Micky Rosa character depicted by Kevin Spacey in the film — but he wasn't an MIT professor.

Irvine said he played until 2000. He's no longer permitted to play in casinos, but he enjoys teaching players blackjack and poker strategies through a Web site he operates with his partner, Mike Aponte , called blackjackinstitute.com.

The release of "21" has changed Irvine 's life. He's now in demand and has "done a ton of speaking engagements" all over the country, including two recent gigs in Las Vegas and one, believe it or not, in gambling-free Utah , talking about blackjack and how his team beat the house. And, of course, about the film.

The Ben Campbell character, Irvine said, was a composite character based on the personalities of several team players.

"I think the movie really portrayed us well, in terms of how our lives were and how we made it into a real business," Irvine said. "We were living the lives of high rolling Vegas players on weekends and we were college students on weekdays."

C'mon, Dave, a brainiac at MIT wouldn't really hide hundreds of thousands of dollars above the ceiling tiles in a dorm room.

"Yeah, there really was some of that," Irvine said. "There was one guy who carried $30,000 around school. We were young, and there were some things we did that, looking back at, weren't that smart."

The card counting was depicted accurately and some of the code words were true to life.

"But we didn't have flash cards," he said. "The movie showed Ben studying code words with flash cards. We didn't do any of that."

Will "21" persuade more people to come to Las Vegas ? Will it attract more blackjack play?

Irvine is anxious to know.

Alberta says it's probably too early to tell whether Las Vegas received a bump in visitation in late March. It also will be difficult to quantify whether any increase could be attributed to "21" or if people were inspired to come to Las Vegas because of a recent LVCVA ad campaign or if they came for March Madness wagering or one of the big conventions in town this or next month.

Lori Nelson , who helped facilitate the three days of shooting at Red Rock Resort and escorted Spacey on a tour of the property, said it was a great experience to play host to a Hollywood production company. She and her Station Casinos bosses were happy with the way the property was depicted

"I think it really made Las Vegas look good, and it gave us some great exposure," she said. "A lot of the locals will laugh when the team checks into a suite at the Hard Rock and they look out the window and see the Bellagio fountains. But I think there's a lot of upside for Las Vegas in the future because it's a PG-rated film and I think the DVD rentals and video sales should be pretty strong."

Rob Stillwell , who handles publicity for Boyd Gaming, said his casino bosses haven't seen any noticeable bump in blackjack play on the heels of the movie's release.

"It'll be interesting to see if blackjack play is up when the Gaming Control Board releases its numbers," he said.

In Other Tourism News:

ATA Airlines shutting down after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection is that Southwest Airlines customers lost their ride to Hawaii . Southwest loses its ride – One of the sidebars to the story about

Since 2005, Southwest has had a code-share agreement with ATA that enables customers of McCarran International Airport's busiest carrier to book to ATA destinations on Southwest's Web site. In addition, Southwest customers were allowed to use the airline's Rapid Rewards awards to fly to and from Hawaii .

McCarran was one of four airports ATA and Southwest used to transfer baggage and passengers to ATA destinations.

ATA had only one daily nonstop round trip a day from McCarran, to Honolulu .

Southwest has implemented plans to rebook passengers who purchased tickets through Southwest and were scheduled to fly on ATA. The airline said it would rebook passengers on a new itinerary closest to their previous travel plans or offer a full refund for any unused portion of a ticket.

There was no indication of how many ATA customers are stranded in Las Vegas as a result of the shutdown. Customers were encouraged to call [phone] to rebook travel.

Southwest also indicated it would contact customers booked on ATA flights that it has sold through Aug. 22 to rearrange travel.

Customers seeking refunds from ATA have been directed to call [phone] for information on the bankruptcy claim filing process.

"ATA Airlines has been an outstanding partner for Southwest, and we are disappointed to hear this unfortunate news," Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly said in a statement. "We are sad to end our code-share relationship with ATA, but understand it's extremely difficult for an airline to flourish in today's arduous financial environment that has been plagued by soaring fuel prices."

ATA's closure also apparently ends Southwest's bid to begin international service in the future. Southwest officials had considered selling tickets internationally through its ATA partnership.