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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The end is finally near for America's favorite mob family, and Las Vegas is cheerfully setting odds on who gets to sleep with the fishes.

After a 22-month absence, the hit gangster drama "The Sopranos" returns on Sunday to cable TV network HBO for the first of what its creator swears will be the last 20 episodes.

The show is supposed to end in 2007 with Tony Soprano and family finally out of business after six seasons that created a social phenomenon and added a new cast of characters to modern American folklore.

In interviews leading up to the series' return, creator David Chase seemed to be saying: "If you want any more, you can fuggetaboutit."

But no matter how loudly Chase protests that his arm can't be twisted to keep the series going, or that there are offers he can refuse, speculation continues that there will be an encore. One of the first characters he introduces in the new season is a mobster who wants desperately to retire to Florida but can't get approval from his bosses.

"There's no retiring from this," Tony Soprano tells him.

Certainly there is no retiring from America's love affair with mob stories, and Chase has virtually sparked outbursts of national mourning by killing off some memorable characters.

Betting Web site PinnacleSports.com has created odds on which of the show's 18 main characters will be "whacked" first in this season's 12 episodes and next year's special supplement of eight shows.

The two favorites so far are Tony Soprano's near-demented uncle, Junior, and his murderous nephew, Christopher.

Chase refuses to speculate on how the series will end -- a series of whacks or whimpers, Tony alive or dead. He claims he doesn't know yet.

Few programs have won as much praise as "The Sopranos," and few have luxuriated in a more morally bankrupt and ruthless cast of characters, men for whom killing is their day job.    Continued ...

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