Under normal conditions, a blackjack player faces odds slightly favoring the house. But the gamblers at Harrah's Casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, have one additional problem: trying to concentrate on the cards they're holding when the lady on the other side of the table is someone as great-looking as K
...ristine Hanson. But we're sure nobody minds losing money to Kristine and, besides, she works at Harrah's only part time - when she's not attending class at California State University at Sacramento, where she majors in communications studies. "I'm learning all facets of television," she says. "I might start as a reporter in Sacramento and maybe eventually get my own local talk show or something like that." But that's only a contingency plan. Kristine's abiding dream takes her out of Sacramento, south on Interstate 5 and into L.A., where she'd become a dancer on a TV show. "If all the breaks fell the right way, I'd love to dance on a variety show." But there's one hitch: She prefers Northern California's woods and lakes to L.A. No problem. "I know of a girl who lives in Tahoe who danced on the Dean Martin show. She commuted to L.A. for tapings, so it can be done." When Kristine works at Harrah's, she lives with friends, including a special one, Jim Cooper, in a large house surrounded by the finest Northern California scenery; so with her man and nature so close, it's understandable why she loves Lake Tahoe. "I decided to try to be a Playmate before I met Jim, who also works at Harrah's, and frankly, it has taken him a while to get used to the idea. I guess he thought that once my pictures were published, all kinds of guys would be trying to get in touch with me." We appreciate his concern.
