With all of this in mind, it’s clear that the cooler months are an excellent time to take advantage of this relaxing craft activity. We’re highlighting some of our best diamond painting kits for winter below so you can soak up all of these fabulous benefits while the snow quietly piles up outside. Grab one for yourself or give them as thoughtful holiday gifts for the creative folks on your list.

1. White Christmas Morning—“White Christmas Morning” by Claudia McKinney paints the picture of a classic wintry scene after a big snowstorm. The white-capped trees and towering steeple give this one a truly quaint feel.

2. Space for Reflection—This enchanting scene created by Chuck Pinson takes us to a rustic mountain cabin at the peak of fall. The snow-capped mountains in the background give it a distinctly wintry feel that makes you want to cozy up.

3. Black and White—The drama and contrast in this work of art by Deborah Lewis will take your breath away! It features a proud black stallion amidst snow-capped branches, creating a striking scene between dark and light. Because the colors mostly stay within two families, this one is perfect for beginners.

4. Winter Sparkle—Prefer something a little more abstract? This brightly colored winter scene features a vibrant backdrop that plays against the stark winter tree and whimsical snowflakes dotting the entire canvas. The moody sky swirls in shades of purple, orange, blue, yellow and green.

5. Hope Runs Deep—This utterly delightful winter scene by Chuck Pinson paints a picture of a small town during the peak of the holiday season, complete with snow-capped roofs, billowing chimneys and happy townspeople milling about. The stunning woodland creatures tie it all together.

6. Starry Night Santa—A classic holiday scene created by Dona Gelsinger, “Starry Night Santa” shows Santa and reindeer gazing at the North Star surrounded by snowy trees and a brightly lit town below.

7. Frosty Forest Friend—Who doesn’t love Frosty? This pleasant winter scene, created by Dona Gelsinger, showcases the carrot-nosed snowman in the calm, snowy forest surrounded by chipper woodland creatures, including bunnies, squirrels and an array of winter birds.

8. The Joy of Christmas—Designed by Lisa Frances Judd, this cartoon-inspired work of art features a diamond painting tree piled high with all the most famous symbols of the season, including candles, bows, candy canes, gingerbread men and gifts.

9. Tabby Cat—Created by The Macneil Studio, this winter diamond art kit makes the perfect holiday gift for your feline fancier friends who also love to create art! It features a gray tabby peering out the window at a winter bird, with a wood-burning fire and a dazzling holiday tree glimmering in the background.

10. Santa Face—This festive diamond art and Ravensburger Puzzles kit features artwork by The Macneil Studio. Santa is depicted looking as jolly as ever with a wide grin and a sprig of holly on his hat! He’s shown, surrounded by snow, carrying his bag of toys.

11. The Snow Queen—This gorgeous stained-glass inspired creation by Mandie Manzano is giving us serious Frozen vibes! The icy blues, grays and whites make this the perfect diamond art kit to create throughout the coldest months of the year.

12. Fireside Christmas—Cozy up by the fire at home with this remarkably warm and inviting scene made by Nicky Boehme. It features a row of carefully hung stockings, a raging fire and a room decked out with holiday cheer.

13. January Owl—The majestic barred owl is the perfect animal for getting you into the spirit of the season. This striking scene by Claudia McKinney showcases the elegant creature perched atop a bare branch as a snowstorm swirls ahead. This one makes a great gift for anyone in your life who loves or collects owls.

14. Seasons Change—This stunning work of art, designed by JoJoes Art, reminds us that the seasons are constantly changing and winter will be gone soon. It depicts a massive buck and fawn with antlers representing all four seasons of the year.

15. Ho Ho Ho Card—What better way to get in the spirit than with a diamond art card featuring Santa himself? This scene showcases Santa’s beard, suit and boots over a snowbank and wording that reads “ho ho ho.” Perfect for sending wintry cheer!

16. Three Penguins Card—This cute-as-can-be diamond art card features a trio of bundled-up penguins before a classic winter scene in shades of icy blue and white. The back of the card says “Merry Christmas,” so it’s great for holiday greetings.

17. By the Christmas Tree Card—Another dazzle-it-yourself holiday card featuring the famous Mr. Claus, this charming winter scene allows you to bedazzle Santa from head to toe as he visits a home with a traditionally decorated tree and gifts.

18. Happy Dog Card—This one is an ideal homemade holiday card for your favorite dog-loving celebrant! This diamond art card features a wide-eyed canine wearing a Santa hat surrounded by holly, candy canes and more classic Christmas symbols.

Happy Dog Card19. At the North Pole Card—Featuring the world-famous red-nosed reindeer, this pretty card lets you bedazzle Rudolph and the moon in the backdrop for a fun, multi-dimensional alternative to the typical holiday card.

20. Gifts from Santa Card—If you’re looking for a bedazzled holiday card option that has a typical greeting card feel, you’ll love this one that features a bedazzled Santa and wording that says, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.”…

I finally got one after 16 years of playing video poker: a naturally drawn royal flush. Now that I finally did it, how tough was it getting a natural royal? Connie S.
Try, once every 650,000 hands. Even four cards to a royal hand is a tough beat, appearing once every 130,000 hands.

The frequency of a “played out” royal flush is once every 40,000 hands. For that, you will need to play video poker at a pace of four hands a minute, nonstop for seven days before you hit a royal flush. But there’s no guarantee; we’re talking probabilities here, not certainties.

Thanks, Connie, for sharing your video poker fluke, oops, I mean fortune.

Dear Mark,
What is a hopping bet in craps and how much does it pay? Yogi S.

A “hopping” bet is a one-roll wager that the dice will show exactly what you call. For example, a call of, “One dollar, ace deuce on the hop (hopping),” will win only if one die shows a one spot and the other a two. The payoff on hardway hops (matched numbers) is 30 to 1; and on easy-way hopping bets it is 15 to 1.

Dear Mark,
The casinos where I play, have many 25¢ Double Diamond machines. Are these decent machines to play? Clare J.

Yes and no, Clare. You can have two Double Diamond machines parked side-by-side and one could be programmed to return 98 percent to the player, and the other will return only 85¢ of each dollar played. Unfortunately, you cannot tell which is the good machine and which one will have you purse for lunch. The only true way you can find out which is paying better is to insert your coins, pull the handle, and take you chances. (Or watch someone else do it and save a bundle.)

Dear Mark,
In your interesting discussion on 3-card Login Sbobet poker, you didn’t mention what the house advantage is on the Pair Plus bet. Or is the 2% advantage you mentioned for both bets? Dirk B.

I apologize for the omission. The house edge when using optimum playing strategies is 2% for the Ante/Play wager. For the Pair Plus wager, automatically winning if your three-card hand contains a pair or better, losing if it does not contain a matched pair, the casino edge is 2.3%.

Dear Mark,
Can you please explain the difference between betting the Pass Line versus betting the Don’t Pass Line? I do appreciate when you help us new players. Caroline F.

When the “shooter” rolls a 7 or 11 on the “Come-out” roll, it is called a “natural” and the Pass Line bettors automatically win. But if a 2, 3 or 12 rolls, it is called “craps”, and all Pass Line bettors lose. Otherwise, if any other number rolls (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10), that number becomes your “point.” You win if the point repeats before the 7 turns up, and you lose if the 7 shows before your point is made.

Betting the Don’t Pass Line is almost the exact opposite of betting the Pass Line.” You lose on a natural- 7 or 11- and win if a 2 or 3 rolls. There is a slight difference in that 12 is a “standoff” number on which no one wins. If the dice roll 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10, that number becomes the point, and you win if 7 rolls before your point is repeated. But you lose if your point is made before the 7 rolls.

Gambling thought of the week: “I don’t think I will ever bet on anything Jockey Scroon rides even if they pay off in advance.” – Damon Runyon…

According to an announcement from PRNewsWire, Facebook has raised an additional $1.5 billion in venture capital funding from Digital Sky Technologies and Goldman Sachs. The $1.5 billion increase now puts the overall value of Facebook at a cool $50 billion.

The breakdown is composed of $1 billion from Goldman Sachs as a part of their offering to non-U.S. clients. The other $500 million came from Goldman Sachs and DST in December as part of their Class A Common Stock addition.

“Our business continues to perform well, and we are pleased to be able to bolster our cash position with this new financing,” said David Ebersman, Facebook’s CFO. “With this investment completed, we now have greater financial flexibility to explore whatever opportunities lie ahead.”

So was it necessary? Well, Goldman Sachs and DST approached Facebook with the investment offer and the prospect of additional revenue and flexibility in the market would be silly to deny. Considering the $1.5 billion represents 3% of their post-transaction worth, that’s a hefty chunk of cash.

As far as the Non-U.S. offering is concerned, PRNewsWire had the following to say:

Under the transaction’s terms, Facebook had the option to accept between $375 million and $1.5 billion from the Goldman Sachs overseas offering, at the discretion of Facebook. While the offering was oversubscribed, Facebook made a business decision to limit the offering to $1 billion. More about Flic Social Media

At the moment there are no plans for the funds to be directly apportioned to.

Internet and SMS Blackout in Egypt

On-site reporters, journalists and protesters alike are reporting that Egypt is currently experiencing a total online blackout. The blackouts, which started with Twitter, have how expanded to all internet access and the majority of service provider’s SMS capabilities.

One of Egypt’s primary ISPs, Seabone, is reporting that no traffic is entering or exiting the country some time after midnight.

Throughout the course of the protests, social networking and blogging has been critical in gathering more protesters, informing the public and keeping the rest of the world in the loop as far as what the protesters are fighting for. The original protest, which was mostly formulated through Facebook, saw over 90,000 people join and collaborate in a relatively short period of time.

Likewise, Twitter hashtags such as #jan25th, #egypt, #cairo and #egyptprotest have been flooding the network, inspiring others to keep up with the latest news and stories surrounding the progress of protesters and the government’s attempts to keep them contained.

At the moment, Al Jazeera has the most up-to-date information regarding government reaction, and they’ve managed to keep a live stream going since the protests first started to unfold.

It’s pretty difficult to judge just how much of an effect the blackout will have on protester collaboration and the overall effort, but it looks like the snowball is already so massive that their is no stopping the voice and actions of Egypt’s unrelenting citizens whose momentum is fueled by the prospect of overthrow.…

Franken Stadion, Nuremberg 1800h, Saturday 25th June 2005. Attendance: 42,187

Two goals from super-striker Adriano and a penalty from Ronaldinho ended Germany’s challenge and sent the World Champions into Wednesday’s Confederations Cup Final after a hard-fought clash in Nuremberg.

It was another sweaty day and another hot contest with Jurgen Klinsmann’s Germany out to avenge the 2002 World Cup Final defeat in Yokohama and Brazil on a mission to ensure the world knows who really remains the team to beat with their title defence less than a year away.

Billed as “The True Final” by the press beforehand, in the end it was Brazil who fulfilled their pre-match objective, proving they can win matches when not playing particularly well, the hallmark of good sides, and in challenging environments such as against the hosts and a hostile crowd. Today, as against Japan earlier this week, they faced determined opposition but accelerated away from them with moments of sublime skill.

The contest did take a while to catch fire with the Germans expertly smothering the talented Brazil attack with Ronaldino instantly surrounded by up to four red shirts as soon as he showed signs of advancing and Kaka in particular almost played out of the game. Brazil for their part were as rugged defending as they always are, and have in Gilberto and his pendular runs to snuff out attacks, an unsung hero.

Adriano however was far from anonymous and Germany looking back will rue their inability to keep the Inter hitman under lock and key. After twenty-one minutes he gave Brazil the lead courtesy of a deflection off a free-kick thirty yards from goal. Ronaldinho, the expected taker, ran over the ball and it was hit left-footed by Adriano, skimming off the unfortunate Sebastian Deisler to leave Jens Lehmann stranded on the other side of the goal.

But within a minute the Germans were back in the Bitcoin Dice game as Fabian Ernst’s cross-cum-shot almost beat Dida before Podolski made no mistake with a thumping header from the resulting corner from Deisler, who must have felt a sigh of relief after his ‘own-goal’ at the other end.

Adriano still lurked with intent however and Germany’s young and fresh-faced centre-back pairing of Robert Huth and Per Mertesacker, with only forty years between the pair of them, looked vulnerable and in need of the support of the retreating Fabian Ernst and Torsten Frings, amongst others.

With four minutes to go before the break the Brazilian goal-machine struck again, steaming past Huth on the right with an explosion of pace and strength that the Chelsea man could only stem by a two-handed push over the end line, granting Brazil a penalty in the process. Ronaldinho stepped up and duly dispatched it, only for Germany to show their hunger by clawing back a second equalizer deep into stoppage time.

Deisler whipped over another dangerous cross and in the penalty-box melee that ensued, Kevin Kuranyi, Roque Junior, Huth and Ballack all went tumbling, the referee correctly spotting a push by Emerson on the Germany captain. Ballack stepped up and tucked the spot-kick away to make it 2-2 and conlcude a most entertaining half.

The second half failed to match the first in terms of incident although Germany should have made more of a sixty-second minute break. Kuranyi and Ballack raced up the field against only one Brazilian defender but the Stuttgart striker delayed fatally until Brazil had got enough numbers back to defend.

Gerald Asamoah replaced Kuranyi moments later and set-up Ballack for a shot saved by Dida on the sixty-four minutes. Ballack overall was again majestic and the German most likely to create something special, moving all the way from left-back to left-wing and the centre as required and exciting the crowd with anticipation whenever he touched the ball. ‘Where would Germany be without him?’, as a newspaper headline asked this week.

On the seventy-two minute mark Adriano was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle had blown following an offside call and a long period of Brazilian inactivity. With Klinsmann off the bench fully animated the crowd seemed to sense it could be Germany’s moment to seize the initiative, as they intoned over and over, “Deutschland, Deutschland!”

How cruel then that the sleeping tiger Brazil should spring into life again four minutes later with a sucker punch to kill the game. Once again it was that man Adriano, firmly established as the one to mark next summer, who let rip with a powerful shot low past Lehmann to make it 3-2. Roque Junior had beaten Asamoah to a clearance and with the next touch Robinho laid it on for Adriano’s third in four games, a rapier-swift two-pass scoring movement.

Renato replaced the strangely anonymous Kaka on seventy-six minutes before Brazil began to tighten the screw. Robinho was denied point-blank by Lehmann with eight minutes to go after Arne Friedrich and Mertesacker collided in the box and a minute later Adriano fed Cicinho who steamed up the right flank before pulling the trigger and forcing Lehmann to tip over.

Klinsmann threw the dice for the last time in bringing on Mike Hanke as an extra striker but the hosts were clearly fading in the face of their formidable opponents, who were too wily and experienced to let them come back and equalise a third time.

In the final minute of normal time substitute Julio Baptista could have made it three when clean through but Lehmann, who performed heroics despite the three goals conceded, was quick off the mark to steal it from him. The three minutes of time added on then passed quickly and without incident as the Brazilian artists shut up shop and put the finishing touches to another impressive piece.…

Kiwi Casino is following up their highly successful Adventure Getaway giveaway with another special offer for players. Kiwi’s Choose Your Paradise Escape Competition, which begins tomorrow (July 20), offers one lucky player and a companion the chance to win an exciting holiday in New Zealand.

The contest winner will be able to choose from three paradise escapes: Spa Decadence, Adrenaline Heaven, and South Seas Cruising.

The Spa Decadence escape is a weeklong stay at the Hanmer Springs thermal resort on New Zealand’s South Island. The lucky guests will be able to relax in the thermal pools and receive special beauty treatments at the spa.

Evening activities can include trips to the city of Christchurch, where the winners can gamble at Christchurch Casino or stroll through the city’s beautiful downtown gardens. This getaway package also includes a car rental.

The Adrenaline Heaven package offers a slightly different type of Kiwi holiday, and as it sounds, this isn’t for the faint of heart. The adventure tour begins in Queenstown, which is also on the South Island. Queenstown is known at the adventure capital of New Zealand, so this is a fitting starting point for the Adrenaline Heaven holiday.

Contestants who chose this holiday will stay at Joker123 Slot Gardens Park Royal, one of the city’s premier hotels, before they take off for their adventures. Activities will include a jet-boat ride on the Shotover Jet, a 440″ bungy jump from The Nevis Highwire, a helicopter flight of the area, and a whitewater rafting trip down the Shotover River.

The final treat in this adventure is a five-course meal at the Skyline Restaurant, located in the hills above Queenstown.

The final getaway option is a little more sedate. The South Seas Cruise offers two days of cruising around world-famous Milford Sound. The ship anchors in Harrison Cove during the evening, and people have the opportunity to explore the scenic coastline in kayaks.

Guests will stay at The Gardens Park Royal Hotel when they return to shore, and will have a chance to tour the region’s wineries, play a little golf, and try their hand at fly-fishing in local rivers. The package also includes the choice of either a helicopter trip or car rental.

All players need to do to enter the Choose Your Paradise contest is place a bet at Kiwi Casino. Every $10 wagered puts them into the draw to win, and the more players wager, the better their odds of winning. The lucky winner will be drawn October 15, 2001.…

The Bitcoin economy has now surpassed 2 billion USD and transactions sizes between USD and BTC continue to rise. Just this morning, lead Bitcoin payment processing company, BitPay, announced the processing of the largest Bitcoin merchant transaction ever of 1 million USD. BitPay not only set a record, but also processed, cleared and settled this transaction next business day for Butterfly Labs. BitPay, unlike PayPal, the lead USD payment processing company, guarantees no reversibility or chargeback of payment.

BitPay issued the following press release:

BitPay Processes $1 Million Bitcoin Merchant Transaction

Processes, Clears, and Settles to Merchant’s Bank the Next Business Day

ATLANTA — October 29, 2013 — BitPay, the world’s largest payment processor for virtual currencies, announces that it has processed its largest bitcoin merchant transaction ever, a single order for $1,000,000 for Kansas City-based bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer Butterfly Labs. BitPay processed, cleared, and settled the transaction within their normal one business day time frame directly to Butterfly Labs’ bank account.

“The speed, reliability, and certainty of payments over the bitcoin network is expanding at a rapid pace, and in many regards has already surpassed the functionality of our 60-year old credit card networks,” states Tony Gallippi, co-founder and CEO of BitPay. “Butterfly Labs can now ship this merchandise with confidence that there will be no reversibility or chargeback of the payment, which is a significant risk found when accepting credit cards online or PayPal.”

Butterfly Labs sells bitcoin mining hardware, which is part of the distributed computing network that secures the bitcoin accounting ledger. The amount of computing power of the bitcoin network has grown exponentially this year, from 20 Terahashes per second (Th/s) on January 1, 2013, to 3000 Terahashes per second today. The network took 4.5 years to reach 1000 Th/s, then one month to reach 2000 Th/s, then and week to reach 3000 Th/s. Learn more about SKYBLOCK MONEY

BitPay has also expanded the translations of its checkout process into 40 languages, with new additions including French, Chinese, and Portuguese. Customers making a bitcoin purchase with BitPay can now view and complete the entire checkout process in their native language. Business selling electronics, jewelry, and computers can now increase their exports to emerging markets as these items tend to be the most often purchased internationally.

For businesses reaching international customers, accepting bitcoin through BitPay offers a tremendous value. The business can accept a payment from customers in any country on earth, with no risk of fraud or chargebacks, which makes it ideal for businesses selling high-priced items online.…

Hopefully, last month’s i-gaming summit in Toronto will open some people’s eyes to the opportunities that lie in the world of online gambling. And by some people, I mean the Canadian government.

Online gambling is growing faster than ever, but most of that growth is taking place in the Caribbean where the casinos can operate outside of the confines of North American gambling restrictions.

That situation may be changing, however. Nevada has just passed legislation that opens the door for online casinos in the Silver State. But should Nevada be the first – or only – jurisdiction in North America to allow legalized online gambling?

The answer to that question is an emphatic ‘No’. The Americans seem to be unable to reach a consensus on the issue, and that has opened the door for Canada to capitalize on this rapidly growing industry by legalizing and regulating Internet wagering in the Great White North.

Legalized Internet gambling isn’t a new topic for the Canadian government. Toronto-Danforth Member of Parliament Dennis Mills introduced a bill four years ago calling for regulated online gaming. Unfortunately, the bill died when the government refused to take a stand on the issue.

So why should Canada legalize Net betting at this point? Well, there are several reasons.

The most obvious is money. Online gambling was a US$1.5 billion dollar industry last year, and that figure could grow to US$6 billion a year by 2003. That’s $9 billion Canadian dollars at the current exchange rate.

Federal regulation of online gambling, and the taxation that inevitably follows, would mean hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue for the Canadian government. The money could provide additional funding for schools, hospitals, Singapore Online Casino sports programs, cultural initiatives, and gambling addiction facilities – should the need arise.

Then there’s the obvious opportunity for Canada to establish itself as a world leader in the e-gaming industry. This would create hundreds of new high tech jobs, generate additional tax revenue, promote secondary spending in the community, and support Canadian gaming software manufacturers such as CryptoLogic, Chartwell Technologies, and Dot Com Entertainment.

Regulated gaming would also protect Canadian citizens from unlicensed, unregulated overseas operations. It would also mean a safer gaming environment for American players, in spite of the fact that they’re not supposed to be gambling online in the first place.

Who benefits from legalized Internet gambling in Canada? Well, just about everyone. The Canadian government gets much-needed revenue, casinos are able to establish themselves as legitimate businesses in a first-world nation, gamblers know the casinos they are playing at are accountable, and Canadian software manufacturers will have clients at their doorsteps.

There have to be losers in the equation, so who loses out if Canada legalizes Net betting? The U.S. federal government will lose potential revenue if it chooses to ban online gambling. Nevada will also have a smaller slice of the pie if it has to compete with Canadian-licensed casinos – assuming its gaming legislation goes into effect.

The real loser, however, will be the offshore, fly-by-night casino operators. Regulated gambling, along with the accountability it brings, will put these companies out of business. What a shame.

Some people have argued that the Canadian government can’t and shouldn’t regulate the Internet. But the issue here is regulating an industry – the online casino business – rather than regulating the Net. The federal and provincial governments already regulate land-based casinos in Canada, and they should regulate online casinos as well.

Internet wagering is a rapidly growing, legitimate business, and it’s high time that the Canadian government capitalizes on that growth. So, Canada, wake up and take control of the online gambling industry by legalizing it – before the opportunity passes you by.…

Johannesburg, Aug 29, 2001 (Moneyweb/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX)– While local companies continue to blame gambling, cell phones and the lottery for the deterioration of trading conditions, the casino operators themselves are also coming under pressure. Shawn Stockigt says keep Sun International, but another analyst expects it to continue to Pengeluaran HK underperform.

It is a little disconcerting when one of South Africa’s biggest casino operators claims that decreasing disposable income is affecting its business as well. For Sun International, gaming revenues increased for the year but this was as a result of three new casinos Pengeluaran HK being opened. Without these, revenues and margins would have fallen. The company will have new operations helping to prop up the financials for the next two years, but thereafter organic growth will take over as the main contributor to earnings.

The waning local tourism industry does nothing to instill investor confidence either. With hotel occupancy rates remaining low, companies like Sun International will not easily replace reduced gaming revenues with higher income from hotel operations.

The expansion of the gaming industry in South Africa has brought with it huge employment opportunities, and in some cases requirements that company’s undertake upliftment projects, but new legislation has also meant that fierce competition has become the norm in the casino industry, making it increasingly difficult to generate strong and sustainable earnings growth.

While the larger listed gaming companies on the JSE, including Kersaf, Sun International and Gold Reef, all showed increased revenues in their latest results, the figures for gaming revenues alone are not always given. Sun International grew through new business, Kersaf showed a loss in attributable earnings in the six months to December, and Gold Reef grew headline earnings per share by 18% at the expense of negative operating cash flows. Kersaf and Gold Reef are both due to release results to June shortly.

A Hotels and Leisure analyst says that the increase in competition in the industry has impacted Sun International’s existing business far more than the other casino operators as it was the only company with an extensive structure prior to the new regulations. Casinios such as Gold Ref City and Tsogo Sun have a different profile to Sun International’s operations. She adds that the company has had to restructure its operations in order to accommodate empowerment partnerships, and that it has extremely high interest charges due to the cost of building the new casinos.

Although top line growth can be expected to continue for Sun International, the analyst expects earnings and margins to remain under pressure for at least the next two years. The company has, however, remained a strong generator of cash, and this is expected to continue.

Shawn Stockigt of Gryphon Asset Management has a different opinion on Sun International. He believes that the new operations will provide a good base for growth in the company, and says that “going forward we’re expecting strong growth in both headline earnings and cash flow. Next year gearing should be at its peak, so we’ll stick with the stock for the meantime.”

Another analyst estimates that Sun International has approximately 40% market share in South Africa, with 13 out of the total 29 issued licenses. This would suggest that, with Sun International’s casino revenues of R2bn for the year to June, total casino revenues in South Africa are approximately R5bn.

It is difficult to estimate whether the amount spent by consumers at casinos is growing or declining, as the National Gaming Board does not supply any figures to the public, but certainly as the number of casinos grows, the amount of money being spent at each venue is likely to decline. In addition, it would appear that growth in total spend should decrease since most of the casino sites have been built and the initial rush to gamble is beginning to stabilise. Another analyst agrees with this sentiment saying that the growth in spending going forward should be in line with or slightly below growth in inflation.

Total casino spending of R5bn amounts to less than 1% of total disposable income in South Africa. But add that to the spend on cell phones, the lottery, betting on horse racing and the high petrol price, and it will come as no surprise if consumers begin to tighten their belts on leisure spending.

Industry changes indicate where the future of relevant companies might lie, but when management has a gloomy outlook, shareholders should sit up and take notice. Peter Bacon of Sun International said on an interview with Classic Business last week “we’re very concerned about the overall growth rate here in South Africa, and in fact in markets like Gauteng. If you take the month of July, which is after our year-end, 30 June, the market grew by just under 3%. So when you take inflation into consideration, it actually went backwards, which is quite concerning.”

Perhaps it is time to concede that the casino operators are going to be hard pressed to keep their earnings growth at reasonable levels for the foreseeable future. The huge increase in competition, the potential for a decrease in total spend on gambling and the unabated dearth of foreign tourists to South Africa will add to the long-term concerns of these operations.

Sun International looks set to be the hardest hit with its holding company, Kersaf likely to feel the heat as well. But if you believe Shawn Stockigt, it is one to keep – at least for the short term.…

You might have seen a lot of publicity on Penis Enlargement Lubricants/Oils (and lotions) that on regular use they will enhance your penis to give you more sexual power and control, better stamina, stop premature ejaculation and improve erection hardness. So the question is do they really work?  Well, in our experience they do work but it is important to choose the right product for it to deliver the required benefits.

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Important Things to remember about VigRX Oil and Sex :

1. It does not have any foul smell
2. It is 100% condom safe
3. It is 100% safe for oral Sex
4. It does not leave behind any oily residue as it gets absorbed within 60 seconds

Frequently Asked Questions about Penis Enhancement Oils

Who can use these Oils?

The Oil is the ideal choice for men of all ages. It was formulated to give men the extra staying power they need and deliver the results they want.

How do I apply these Oils?

It can be placed in the palm of the hand then messaged onto the penis or applied directly to the penis and then gently massaged into the skin.

How much Oil should I apply?

The benefits of Oils can be achieved by using 10-12 drops

How long will it take for the Oil to take effect?

Users have reported feeling the tingling sensation as early as 1 minute after application and lasting up to 3 hours. Some users may take longer as well.

Are these Oils safe?

These Oils are formulated from all natural ingredients that are not only safe, but also the ideal choice for men who want to use an all natural product. You should not use them if you have a known allergy to any of the Oils’ natural ingredients.

How Does It Compare With Viagra?

This is all natural. It’s a herbal formula. No side effects. And you get the added benefits of having the herbs nourish other parts of your body too. No waiting for a drug to take effect. No “missing the moment”.

Are these Oils condom compatible?

Yes, they are water based and 100% condom compatible.

Will it leave a greasy or oily residue?

No, these Oils are scientifically designed to provide immediate absorption into the tissue of the penis without an oily or greasy feeling.

Are these Oils safe to use for oral sex?

Definitely! They are safe for oral sex, as they contain no synthetic chemical or petrochemical by-product, artificial colors or fragrance. The natural base with the therapeutic ingredients offer the safest, most effective product available to date.

How is this different from an oral tablet?

It is scientifically designed to penetrate the deepest layers of the penile tissue instantaneously giving noticeable results within 90 seconds. 95% of the therapeutic ingredients are absorbed compared to approx 5-10% with a herbal capsule or tablet.

Will this increase penile and sexual performance?

Yes, one is most likely to notice the benefit in the areas of strength and rigidity of the penis and also a reduction in the occurrence of premature ejaculation.

Will this oil increase the size of my penis?

VigRX Oil™ will allow for greater blood flow to the penis which will help circumference and strength of your erection. SO you could see a bigger penis!

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