Gold coins are made mostly or entirely of gold. Gold has been for coins practically since the invention of coinage, originally because of gold's intrinsic value. In modern times, most gold coins are for collectors, or as bullion coins. Gold Bullion Coins whose nominal value is irrelevant and which serve primarily as a method of investing in gold. Gold has been as money for many reasons. It is fungible, meaning that it trades easily, with a low spread between the prices to buy and sell. Gold Coins are easily transportable, as it has a high value to weight ratio, compared to other commodities, such as silver. Gold can be into smaller units, without destroying its value; it melts into ingots, and re-coined. The density of gold is higher than most other metals, making it difficult to pass counterfeits. Gold is extremely un-reactive. The scarcity of gold stabilizes its value. Precious metals in bulk form are bullion, and trade on commodity markets. Bullion metals cast into ingots, or minted into coins. The defining attribute of bullion is that it is valued by its mass and purity rather than by a face value as money. While obsolete gold coins collected for their numismatic value, gold bullion coins today derive their value from the metal content and viewed by some investors as a "hedge" against inflation or a store of value. Many nations mint bullion coins. The European Commission publishes annually a list of gold coins, which are as investment gold coins in all EU Member States. The list has legal force and supplements the law. South Africa introduced the Krugerrand in 1967 to cater to this market; this was the reason for its convenient and memorable gold content — exactly one troy ounce. It was the first modern, low premium gold bullion coin. Bullion gold coins are also in fractions of an ounce – typically half ounce, quarter ounce, and one-tenth ounce. Bullion coins sometimes carry a face value as legal tender, the face value is on the coin, and in order to bestow legal tender status on a coin, which generally makes it easier to import or export across national borders, as well as subject to counterfeiting. However, their real value is as dictated by their troy weight, the current market price of the precious metal contained, and the prevailing premium that market wishes to pay for those particular bullion coins. The face value is always significantly less than the bullion value of the coin. Legal tender bullion coins are a separate entity to bullion gold. One enjoys legal tender status; the latter is merely a raw commodity. Coins are usually made of an alloy as other metals are into the coin to make it more durable. Fineness is the actual gold content in a coin or bar and expressed in grams or troy ounces. Karat weight is a unit of fineness for gold equal to 1/24 part of pure gold in an alloy. Pure gold is 1000 fine. Below is a karat weight to fineness conversion chart. There is a correlation between karats and fineness: 24 karats = 1000 fine, 23 karats = 958.3 fine, 22 karats = 916.6 fine, 21 karats = 875.0 fine, 20 karats = 833.3 fine, 18 karats = 750.0 fine, 16 karats = 666.7 fine, 14 karats = 583.3 fine, 10 karats = 416.6 fine.

Pan

Pan is short for Panguingue

Playing Pan

Panguingue is a rummy-type game played with eight standard 52-card decks with the 8's, 9's, and 10's removed, for a total of 320 cards. No jokers are used. Cards in each suit rank king (high), queen, jack, seven, six, etc. with aces being low. The cards are dealt counterclockwise

Players strive to meld eleven cards in valid sets of three or more cards. There are two kinds of melds: a rope which must be string of cards of matching suits, squares consisting of the ranks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Jack or Queen. Squares must be either all cards of different suits or all the same suit. Squares consisting of Kings or Aces qualify regardless of suit. There are no betting rounds in the game.

Each player is dealt 10 cards to meld into sets and sequences with certain cards having special values. Each player, in turn, draws either a card from the top of the remaining deck or from the top of an adjacent discard pile. This sequence of play continues until one player goes out with a total meld of eleven cards, including the card(s) just drawn. Melds (or spread) must be at least three cards, and it may be as many as eleven. The melds are classified as ropes and squares. The rope is any three cards in sequence of the same suit. A square is a set of three cards in the same rank and of different suits or of the same suit. All 3s, 5s and 7s are valle cards (cards of value). Cards of other rank are non-valle. Any three aces or any three kings form a set, regardless of the suit.

Low Ball Poker

Ace-to-Five Lowball

Lowball (Ace-to-five), also known as California Lowball Poker, is played with a standard 52-card deck and one Joker. The Joker is considered to be the lowest card not present in a hand. Straights and flushes do not count against the player. All poker players place their ante in the pot.

Poker players are dealt five cards face down, in turn, in rotation. A round of poker betting occurs. Players are required to bet or fold. The poker players who remain in the pot have the option to improve their hand by replacing cards in their hands with new ones. A player may draw up to five consecutive cards. After all players have drawn players a round of betting occurs. The best possible low hand is A, 2, 3, 4, 5. The lowest five card poker hand wins the pot. In the event of a tie the pot is split equally among winning hands.

Deuce-to-seven low is often called Kansas City lowball the no-limit single-draw variation or just low poker. It is almost the direct opposite of standard poker: high hand loses. It is not as commonly used as the ace-to-five low method. As in all lowball games, pairs and trips are bad: that is, any hand with no pair defeats any hand with a pair; one pair hands defeat two pair or trips, etc. No-pair hands are compared starting with the highest ranking card, just as in high poker, except that the high hand loses. In deuce-to-seven low, straights and flushes count for high and are therefore bad. Aces are always high and therefore bad. For example, the hand 8-5-4-3-2 defeats 9-7-6-4-3, because eight-high is lower than nine-high. The hand 7-6-5-4-2 defeats both, because seven-high is lower still. The hand 7-6-5-4-3 would lose, because it is a straight. Aces are high, so Q-8-5-4-3 defeats A-8-5-4-3. In the rare event that hands with pairs tie, kickers are used just as in high poker but reversed: 3-3-6-4-2 defeats 3-3-6-5-2. Since the ace always plays high, A-5-4-3-2 is not considered a straight; is simply ace-high no pair it would therefore lose to any king-high, but would defeat A-6-4-3-2. The best possible hand is 7-5-4-3-2 hence the name deuce-to-seven low, followed by 7-6-4-3-2, 7-6-5-3-2, 7-6-5-4-2, 8-5-4-3-2, 8-6-4-3-2, etc. Hands are sometimes referred to by their absolute rank, e.g. 7-5-4-3-2 #1, said 'number one'. When speaking, low hands are referred to by their highest ranking card or cards. Any nine-high hand can be called a nine, and is defeated by any eight. Two cards are frequently used: the hand 8-6-5-4-2 can be called an eight-six and will defeat an eight-seven such as 8-7-5-4-2. Another common notation is calling a particular low hand smooth or rough. A smooth low hand is one where the remaining cards after the highest card are themselves very low; a rough low hand is one where the remaining cards are high. For instance, 8-7-6-4-2 would be referred to as a rough eight, but 8-5-4-3-2 would be referred to as a smooth eight. Wild cards are rarely used in deuce-to-seven games, but if used they play as whatever rank would make the lowest hand. Thus, in 7-6-Joker-3-2, the joker plays as a 4, while in Joker-5-4-3-2 it would play as a 7 a six would make a straight, and an ace would make ace-five high.

Wagering is Gambling

Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value as the stakes on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and or material goods. Typically, the outcome of the wager is evident within a short period.

Gaming refers to instances in which the law permits the type of gambling. Gaming and gambling are not mutually exclusive. A gaming company offers legal gambling activities to the public and a gaming control board may regulate the gaming company, like the Nevada Gaming Control Board. However, the English-speaking world does not acknowledge this distinction often. For instance, in the UK, the regulator of gambling activities is called the Gambling Commission not the Gaming Commission.  In addition, the word gaming describes activities that do not involve wagering, especially online.

Gambling is also a major international commercial activity, with the legal gambling market totaling an estimated $335 billion in 2009.

Under United States federal law, gambling is legal in the country and states are free to regulate or prohibit the practice. Gambling has been legal in Nevada since 1931, forming the backbone of the economy of the state. The city of Las Vegas is perhaps the best known gambling destination in the world. In 1976, gambling became legal in Atlantic City, New Jersey and in 1990, under state law, gambling became permissible in Tunica, Mississippi; both of those cities have developed extensive casino and resort areas since then. Since a favorable United State Supreme Court decision in 1987, many American Indian tribes have built their own casinos on tribal lands as a way to provide revenue for the tribe. Because the tribes are sovereign nations, they are often exempt from state laws that restrict gambling and are instead regulated under federal law.