Can Gambling be Good for you?

Author: Ron Daniels - All Casino Bonuses

Who knew gambling could be good for you? According to a study done recently at Yale University in the US people 65 and older who gamble moderately online for recreational purposes seem healthier than their non-gambling counterparts. Blue haired women with bingo cards were heard cheering throughout the country at the news.

The study was done through phone interviews of 2147 adults broken down by age into two groups: ages 18 - 64, and 65 and above. Rani Desai, associate professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine at Yale University, found that moderate gambling is a common denominator in adults above the age of 65. The older people who gambled were in fact healthier than the non-gambling adults of the same age.

''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.'' In other words, gambling is good because it is engaging. It requires the player to interact with others socially, which has a positive effect on the older section of the population.

Playing poker online helps cognitive thinking. Playing bingo gets you out and about and active. The benefit in gaming for older people is the increase in social and mental activity. This seems logical for anyone who has watched sprightly little old ladies playing slots in Las Vegas, but it surprised the researchers. They originally expected to find opposite results. Gaming as a hobby helps the aging population stay active both socially and mentally.

Rani also states that her study is not conclusive and more research needs to be done on the topic.