Ahoy Muggles!
The meta answer is
"POKER", and the "straight" out of Vegas is an ace-high straight formed by the last words of 1A - Air Force
ace; 24A - German
king; 40A - Honorees of the
queen; 55A - Western actor
Jack; and 71A - Graded on a scale from one to
ten. The first letters of the answers to these five clues spell the meta answer -
"POKER" (see below).
I was a little concerned that the poker hand would stand out like a sore thumb among the clues, so I included a few gaming red herrings in the grid (e.g. LOTTOGAME, SALEMSLOT, BETTHERANCH, KNIGHTS (as in Golden Knights of the NHL), etc.) The ATFACEVALUE entry at 63A was intended to hint at the "face cards" in the straight, and the "Make straight" - ALIGN clue/answer at 11D was intended to hint at the linear poker hand descending from the NW to SE corners of the grid.
Thanks for solving, everyone!
Until next time,
Cap'n Rick