Online Gambling could be good for your health. At least that is what a recent study conducted by Yale University has concluded. According to the study, people in the United States, aged 65 and over who occasionally play at online betting websites, appear to be in better health than their non-gambling counterparts. No doubt, gambling seniors all over the U.S. are cheering the news.
The study was conducted via a series of phone interviews with 2,147 adults. The interviewees were broken up into two groups: ages 18 to 64 and age 65 and above. Associate professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine at Yale University, Rani Desai, found that occasional gambling is a common denominator in adults over the age of 65. The results of the study showed that older people who gambled from time to time were indeed healthier than adults of the same age that did not gamble.
''Although the underlying reasons remain hypothetical, proposed reasons included
the increased activity, socialization, and cognitive stimulation that are related
to engaging in gambling,'' Desai and her co-authors said. ''Such a mechanism
would be consistent with the literature on healthy aging, which indicates that
more socially and cognitively active elders are, in general, healthier.''
Simply put, gambling is good because it requires thought and interaction with
other people. The health benefits do not lay in the potential to win an online
casino bonus or even multiple online casino bonuses -- nor does it matter what
casino game is played (it could be online
blackjack, online
slots, online poker,
bingo etc). What does matter is the social interaction. Other studies have shown
that social interaction among the elderly has a very positive effect on their
overall mental and physical health.
For example, playing poker helps stimulates cognitive functions and playing bingo provides social stimulation. Thus, the benefits of gambling lay in its ability to stimulate social and mental activity. Many of us who have seen seniors go at it at the slot machines in Las Vegas casinos may not be so surprised to hear this, but researchers were. They actually expected the study to show the opposite effect. In conclusion, a little bit of moderately gambling is not only fun for the elderly it is mentally and cognitively beneficial as well.