Calvin Johnson recently became the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL, after putting pen to paper on a contract worth a potential $132m over eight years. The footballer, whose efforts to turn the Detroit Lions into something other than a laughing stock have earned him plaudits from fans, says that he is “so comfortable” in Michigan.

‘Megatron’, as Johnson is otherwise known, owing to his enormous 6ft 5in 235lb physique, now owns the 21st largest contract in sports history. He is, rather notably, ahead of greats such as Michael Vick, of the Atlanta Falcons, ice hockey player, Alexander Ovechkin, and racing driver, Michael Schumacher, in the cash stakes.

Jim Schwartz, the Lions’ coach, intimated that the Georgia-born star, who will get $60m guaranteed from his new contract, was a priceless asset. “Calvin’s one of those guys – we’ve said this about a few guys that we have in our building – whatever they pay him is not enough. He’s truly a special player.”

The Lions can now be thankful that one of their most difficult challenges for 2012 – keeping Johnson in Detroit – has been settled
early. The partnership of Johnson, quarterback, Matthew Stafford, and defender, Ndamukong Suh, helped the Lions take their place in the play-offs during 2011.

Detroit’s most recent season stands in stark contrast to their 2008 campaign, when they were beaten in every match of the season, for a total of 16 losses. Despite their obvious turnaround in fortunes, the Lions have yet to qualify for the Super Bowl, and have not won an NFL Championship since 1957.

Last term, the Lions’ Calvin Johnson caught 96 passes for 1,681 yards, scoring 16 touchdowns. Only two other players in NFL history can match his 2011 tally, namely Jerry Rice and Randy Moss.

For those looking to bet on NFL these developments should be noted.

Serious players at multi table poker tournaments view the game of poker in the long run. To the elite, the game of poker never ends. Each cash session is just simply a piece of the longest cash game session in the world. Each tournament is just a small leg in a series of never-ending tournaments.

Having a long-term view allows you to manage the short-term crises that will inevitably appear. A winning player in the game views his online poker playing time in terms of his hourly rate and not necessarily the amount of money he has won or lost in a session. This is because they reserve the long-term view that poker goes on forever.

A serious cash game player for example will understand how much money he earns per hour i.e. $30 per hour. Lets imagine the same player plays for four hours and loses $100. Using the long-term view the player will tell himself that he has won $120 and not lost anything.

If you tell yourself that the game of poker goes on forever then it opens up your game to a whole new world of possibilities.

The scratch cards have since evolved and can now be found online. The online version is much faster than the live version thus allowing you to play even more cards per minute. Most online casinos will offer a variety of scratch card games and you can even find sites dedicated to the scratch card alone.

One really fun version available online is called Freezing Fuzzballs. As all scratch cards seemingly offer the same formula the only difference between the games becomes the way they are presented. Graphically, Freezing Fuzzballs is a truly beautiful looking game. The game is set next to a snow heaped little cottage next to a huge lake and there are six different characters stood on pieces of ice in that very lake. The characters are very Ice-Age-esque and each character is worth a certain denomination ranging between x2 and x2500 multipliers.

You select your wager and then choose NEW CARD. This produces nine ice cubes on the right hand of the screen, and as you press each one the ice cube melts to reveal a hidden character. If you manage to uncover three of the same characters then you win a prize. For an even quicker thrill you can just press the REVEAL ALL button and all the ice cubes are melted at the same time revealing your win or loss.

This article was written by Alex, a keen online casino player. She loves to try her luck at everything from the slots to blackjack and she’s always on the lookout for her next big win!

John Harbaugh’s team has a relatively soft schedule through the end of season facing division rivals the Bengals and Browns, before that traveling to San Diego to face the Chargers, making them highly fancied in the football betting. The only concern for Baltimore is their annoying habit of playing to the level of the competition that has resulted in losses to Tennessee, Jacksonville and Seattle this season. It’s a perplexing situation for the Ravens who have beaten the New York Jets, Houston Texans and San Francisco 49ers

this year.

The Steelers travel to those same 49ers on Monday night as John Harbaugh’s brother, Niners head coach Jim, attempts to bounce back from a poor performance against the Arizona Cardinals this past week.

Pittsburgh will be without James Harrison, suspended for a hit on Brown’s quarterback Colt McCoy and due to scheduling quirk those two will meet again in the final week of the season after the Steelers play the St. Louis Rams. Pittsburgh clearly has the easier schedule and should win at least two games in the final drive to the post season and while it is possible for either team not to make the playoffs, with a three game losing streak, that seems highly unlikely and one of the more optimistic NFL bets.

The Cincinnati Bengals remain in contention for the wild card and have winnable games against the Rams and Cardinals before playing Baltimore the final week of the season. But regardless of how they play the Bengals need the Jets to lose which is probably not on the cards. Ithas been a good season for Cincinnati starting a rookie quarterback and with two additional first round draft picks from the Carson Palmer trade with the Oakland Raiders then the gap between themselves and the
Steelers and Ravens is likely to close rapidly.

Top online casinos have made it their priority to make the most secure and safest sites available. They make an effort to really make the experience totally enjoyable and fun. Never doubt the integrity of online casinos unless it has a reputation for bad pay outs and poor security. The biggest concern of players is security and safety. Always make sure that your choice of online casino uses RNGs (Random Number Generators). RNGs make sure every number that pops on the screen is random and coincidental. There’s no cheating when an online casino employs RNGs. There’s no need to worry about this.

Organisations like eCOGRA also do their part in ensuring the safety of their users. The organisation certifies that a website does need to commit to its payouts and do that in time. This is one of the first things players want to know. Financial security is the biggest priority for both the player and the online casino.

Another thing that should be considered is the jurisdiction which the licence of the online casino has been granted. Gibraltar is one of the strictest licences to obtain. If you see their stamp of approval, there shouldn’t be any doubt. Other recognised licences are Kahnawake, Antigua and Malta. If you see any of these licenses, you’re sure to be safe and secure. Nothing should endanger your money and identity.

This article was written by Alex, an online bingo fan who often writes about her latest wins and losses on her blog. When she’s not playing bingo, you’ll often find her looking for new poker and blackjack sites to play on.

The question presented may be simple and unassuming but it has been debated upon by legislators as the answer to this question would surely lead to poker, both online and offline to be regulated by established laws.

To be more specific, if poker is indeed purely a game of luck, then the gambling laws should apply to it. Otherwise, the casino laws that regulate gambling does not have jurisdiction over it. The consequences of answering this simple question entails a huge amount of money as some people and companies might be charged for violating gambling laws.

There is never a universal answer to this query, it depends on a lot of factors that are mostly subjective and differ from person to person.

Others would like to explore this mathematically saying that the more hands you play in a poker game, the more does skill become the dominant factor that will lead you to victory or defeat. Therefore, the key to understanding how much of poker is down to luck is to look at it in terms of time. That is to say that over time a game of skill should reward those with expertise relative to their opponents.

The thing is that the two sides in the debate of whether poker is a game of chance or luck often state their propositions to defend their political stand.

Those who want to keep online poker and live poker rooms running in places where gambling is prohibited would argue that poker can be a game of skill and is not pure gambling and thus must still be allowed. Those who fight for the enforcement of the law would say otherwise.

Written by Alex Corcoran, a fan of online blackjack and poker.

The first thing you need to know is that there are two types of different bluffs and you will see both on any online poker site. The first is the standard type where you have very little in your hand, and you are literally hoping to steal the pot by eliminating everyone around the table with the size of your bet. In this instance, the hand needs to be won before the showdown, otherwise you are certain to be beaten by your opponent. A large bet is placed to suggest strength and fool your opponents into thinking you have a stronger hand than you really do. If you get caught though, you will quickly lose your poker bonus.

The other type of bluff gives you two different ways of winning and is described as a semi-bluff. The difference between this type and a standard bluff is that there is the possibility of improving your hand, if the community cards fall in your favour. When making a bet, you will currently have nothing in your hand, but you know that you would not be totally out of the pot if someone makes the call.

The ideal scenario would be that your opponents fold and you take the pot uncontested. However, if one of them decides to call your bet, you at least have the opportunity to make a hand with the help of the extra cards.

At the start of the game a country is selected and the league you want to play from that country. For example in England, you have the opportunity to play in the Premier League, Championship, League 1 and League 2.

Once you are inside your specific league, you will select the home and away side you want to take part in a fixture. The odds for each team winning will vary from the home side and away team in the game. For example, Manchester United v Blackburn in the Premier league, United have odds of 1.4, the draw is 4.8 and Blackburn are 7.5. These odds would adjust if Blackburn were playing Manchester United at home. People used to Monopoly slots should familiarise themselves with the rules first.

The clock will continue until the game reaches 90 minutes, but the contests are not played in normal time and each game should not take more than one minute to complete. The key information from the game is provided from a text service and will include when there is a goal, card received and the full time whistle. If you don’t like sports, you may want to try a Cluedo slots machine instead.

Bets can be placed on the correct score in the game; all the odds are priced up for the home team, away side and the correct score of the draw.

There are also special bets which include total goals, red card in the game and penalty scored.

You have the option of changing the odds to decimals or fractions, depending on your preference.

There are a maximum of 20 different pay lines that all go from left to right in this game. Symbols include a stocking, a present, bells, a Christmas tree and Santa Claus himself.

The top prize in the game is 10000 x your stake and this is generated by finding five Santa Claus symbols on either of your pay lines. Anyone who doesn’t want Christmas to come early may want to try Monopoly slots instead.

Finding three or more consecutive bonus symbols, which are squares with a Christmas tree on, will active the Christmas gift bonus round. In this feature, you will have a choice of picking from the five gifts under the Christmas tree that Santa Claus has left for you. For each bonus symbol you found on the reels, you get to choose a gift, therefore the minimum you will take is three, and the maximum will be all five. All the presents will reveal a cash prize that will be collected.

Three or more free games squares will give you 10 spins without cost. In this round everything you win will be tripled. If you find three more of the symbols, another 10 free games will be added to your balance and there is no maximum amount of free spins you can trigger. Similar features may be available on a Cluedo slots machine.

In the final gamble round you have the option of doubling your winnings from a turn of a card. By correctly guessing the colour of the next card, red or black, you can generate twice your prize fund with the even money bet.

Software developers Rival Gaming have created a three-reel, one-pay line slot machine and very cheekily used the Chicken Little theme, perhaps to attract those who are new to online gambling. The game screen is cartoon-like with the pay table on the left hand side of the screen, the reels in the bottom right and a graphic in the top right showing a collection of farmyard animals chasing a chicken with the moon in the background.

Chicken Little can be played for free or for real money, is available in a wide selection of online casinos that offer slots online and can be played in flash and downloadable format. If you choose to play for real money then you are in luck. Chicken Little allows you to play as low as $0.05 per bet or as high as $5 per bet. To increase your betting higher then simply take advantage of the maximum three coins per line bet that Chicken Little offers you. In fact, in order to take advantage of the 4,000-coin jackpot, you must be playing for maximum coins.

Chicken Little doesn’t contain a special bonus feature but it does have its own wild symbol. The chicken symbol represents it and it substitutes for all other symbols to create winning combinations. Chicken Little also has an autoplay feature allowing you set your predetermined number of spins, press a button, sit back, relax and play.