Gold Investors Undeterred

Gold investors undeterred by high prices. Gold might be a luxury most can live without when times are hard, but for cautious investors, it has become a matter of necessity. Gold is the most popular precious metal investment. Investors generally buy gold as a hedge or safe haven against any economic, political, social, or fiat currency crises. The gold market is also subject to speculation as other commodities are, especially with futures contracts and derivatives. The history of the gold standard, the role of gold reserves in central banking, gold's low correlation with other commodity prices, and its pricing in relation to fiat currencies during the financial crisis suggest that gold has features of being money. Gold has been throughout history as money and has been a relative standard for currency equivalents specific to economic regions or countries. The most traditional way of investing in gold is by buying bullion gold bars. In some countries, like Argentina, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, these can easily be at the major banks. Alternatively, there are bullion dealers that provide the same service. Bars are available in various sizes. For example in Europe, Good Delivery bars are approximately 400 troy ounces. 1 kilogram is also popular, although many other weights exist. Bars generally carry lower price premiums than gold bullion coins. However, larger bars carry an increased risk of forgery due to their less stringent parameters for appearance. While bullion coins can be easily, weigh and measure against known values. Most bars cannot, and gold buyers often have bars re-assayed. Larger bars also have a greater volume in which to create a partial forgery using a tungsten-filled cavity, which may not be assay. Gold coins are a common way of owning gold. Bullion coins price according to their fine weight, and a small premium based on supply and demand. The Krugerrand is the most widely held gold bullion coin, with 46,000,000 troy ounces in circulation. Other common gold bullion coins include the Australian Gold Nugget (Kangaroo), Austrian Philharmoniker (Philharmonic), Austrian 100 Corona, Canadian Gold Maple Leaf, Chinese Gold Panda, French Coq d’Or (Golden Rooster), Mexican Gold 50 Peso, British Sovereign, and American Gold Eagle.

Poker Pineapple

Pineapple Poker

Pineapple is played with a standard 52-card deck. All players receive three cards dealt face down (hole cards) as their personal hand and then must immediately discard one of the three cards. The first round of betting occurs. Three cards are turned face up in the middle of the board simultaneously (flop). The second round of betting occurs. At this time players must discard one of their hole cards. One more card is dealt face up on the board (turn). A third round of betting occurs. The last card is dealt face up on the board (river card). The fourth round of betting occurs. Board cards are community cards for all players to use. A player may use any combination of five cards among the board cards and hole cards to form a poker hand. A player may choose to use all the board cards (playing the board) and no hole cards to form a poker hand. The highest five card poker hand wins the pot. In the event of a tie, the pot is split equally among the tied winning hands.

The video slot machine is a more recent innovation, with no moving parts at all – instead a graphical representation of one appears on screen. Since the player is essentially playing a computer game, the manufacturers are able to offer more interactive elements, such as advanced bonus games and advanced video graphics. In addition, because there are no mechanical constraints on the design of video slot machines, most display five reels rather than three. This greatly expands the number of possibilities: a machine can have 50 or more symbols on a reel, giving odds as high as 300 million to 1 against – enough for even the largest jackpot. As there are so many combinations given by five reels, the manufacturers do not need to weight the payout symbols although some may still do so. Instead, higher paying symbols will typically appear only once or twice on each reel, while more common symbols, earning a more frequent payout, will appear many times. Video slot machines typically encourage the player to play multiple 'lines', so rather than simply taking the middle of the three symbols displayed on each reel, a line could go from top left to bottom right, or any of the other patterns specified by the manufacturer. As each symbol is equally likely, there is no difficulty for the manufacturer in allowing the player to take any or all of the possible lines on offer – the long-term return to player will be the same. The difference for the player is that the more lines he plays the more likely he is to get paid on a given spin – though of course he is betting more in the first place. To avoid the feeling that the player's money is simply ebbing away whereas a payout of 100 credits on a single line machine would be 100 bets, and the player would feel they had made a substantial win, on a 20 line machine, it would only be 5 bets and would not seem significant, manufacturers commonly offer bonus games, which can return many times their bet. The player is encouraged to keep playing to reach the bonus: even if he is losing, the bonus game could allow him to win back his losses.

Las Vegas Strip

The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately 4.2-mile 6.8 km stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester. Most of the Strip has been designated an All-American Road.

Many of the largest hotel, casino and resort properties in the world are located on the Las Vegas Strip. Nineteen of the world's 25 largest hotels by room count are on the Strip, with a total of over 67,000 rooms. One of the 19, the Las Vegas Hilton, is an off-Strip property but is located less than 0.5 miles 0.8 km east of the Strip.

One of the most visible aspects of Las Vegas' cityscape is its use of dramatic architecture. The modernization of hotels, casinos, restaurants, and residential high-rises on the Strip has established the city as one of the most popular destinations for tourists.

Historically, the casinos that were not in Downtown Las Vegas along Fremont Street were restricted to outside of the city limits on Las Vegas Boulevard. In 1959 the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign was constructed exactly 4.5 miles 7.2 km outside of the city limits. The sign is today about 0.4 miles 0.64 km south of the southernmost entrance to Mandalay Bay the southernmost casino.

In the strictest sense, the Strip refers only to the stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard that is roughly between Sahara Avenue and Russell Road, a distance of 4.2 miles 6.8 km.6 However, the term is often used to refer not only to the road but also to the various casinos and resorts that line the road, and even to properties which are not on the road but in proximity. Certain government agencies, such as the Nevada Gaming Commission, classify properties as Las Vegas Strip for reporting purposes, although these definitions can include properties which are 1 mile 1.6 km or more away from Las Vegas Boulevard such as the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Phrases such as Strip Area, Resort Corridor or Resort District are sometimes used to indicate a larger geographical area.

The Nevada Gaming Commission considers the Strip's northern terminus as the Sahara Casino. At one time, the southern end of the Strip was Tropicana Avenue, but continuing construction has extended this boundary to Russell Road. Mandalay Bay is located just north of Russell Road and is the southernmost resort considered to be on the Strip by the Nevada Gaming Commission.

Because of the number and size of the resorts, the Resort Corridor can be quite wide. Interstate 15 runs roughly parallel and 0.5 to 0.8 mile 0.80 to 1.3 km to the west of Las Vegas Boulevard for the entire length of the Strip. Paradise Road runs to the east in a similar fashion, and ends at St. Louis Avenue. The eastern side of the Strip is bounded by McCarran International Airport south of Tropicana Avenue. North of this point, the Resort Corridor can be considered to extend as far east as Paradise Road, although some consider Koval Lane as a less inclusive boundary. Interstate 15 is sometimes considered the western edge of the Resort Corridor from Interstate 215 to Spring Mountain Road. North of this point, Industrial Road serves as the western edge.

The Nevada Gaming Commission defines the Strip gaming area as encompassing all resorts located on Las Vegas Boulevard South between Russell Road and Sahara Avenue, as well as several nearby properties not directly located on Las Vegas Boulevard. This includes The Rio, The Palms, and several other smaller resorts west of Las Vegas Boulevard and Interstate 15, but does not include The Orleans one block further west. Properties located east of Las Vegas Boulevard on Paradise Road, such as the Las Vegas Hilton, Terrible's Casino, Westin Casuarina Las Vegas Hotel, Casino & Spa, Hooters Casino Hotel, and the Hard Rock, are also included in this area. The Stratosphere, however, is not included in the Nevada Gaming Commission definition of the Strip which includes it in the downtown area. The Stratosphere and other properties not on the Strip are frequently shown on maps as being Strip casinos.

The famous Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign is located in the median just south of Russell Road, across from the now-defunct Klondike Hotel & Casino; another similar sign is in the median at the north end of the Strip near the intersection of East St. Louis and south Main Streets.

Newer resorts such as South Point and the M Resort are on Las Vegas Boulevard South as distant as 8 miles south of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. Marketing for these casinos usually states that they are on southern Las Vegas Boulevard and not Strip properties. However this area is frequently referred to as the South Strip.