While most people look at gambling as a recreational activity and focus only on the superficial aspects of playing casino games, like the winning possibilities or the dangers of getting hooked and playing beyond your means, we did some research and managed to find out some interesting facts. But are there benefits of gambling too?
We know that most casino players already know everything there is to know about the downsides of gambling and how it may affect their lives if they are not careful. What most people don’t know though, is that gambling also has a series of benefits that are not as obvious as winning big and multiplying the investment.
Casino games can have a beneficial effect on our mental state, our health and can even help us develop skills that non-gamblers are struggling with.
Here are the most important benefits of playing casino games, according to experts. Brace yourself, some of these might surprise you.
1. Playing casino games improves your mood
Studies have found that all casino games, but especially slots, have a beneficial effect on our overall state of mind. The constant release of dopamine (the pleasure hormone) with each spin of the reels, the flashing lights, the colors and the sounds create an environment that positively affects our mood.
And while you may think that this is just a temporary effect, a study which compared gamblers and non-gamblers has determined that people who engaged in casino related activities are generally happier than those who don’t. The explanation is that people who enjoy the occasional casino game or slot expose themselves to a level of excitement that has a positive impact on their wellbeing.
2. Online slots and other casino games help you develop important skills
Gambling, whether it’s done online or offline, can help you pick up or improve certain skills. Casino games (especially card games) require a certain level of attention, mathematical skills and keep your brain engaged.
Whether you’re trying to calculate your chances of winning a blackjack hand and you’re required to make the decision to get a new card or not, or if you’re applying a strategy on the Roulette table, your brain is constantly in overdrive.
That translates into better mathematical skills, a smoother and more precise decision making process, discipline and a healthy brain. We all know that our brain is like any muscle in our body. The more you exercise it, the stronger and healthier it becomes, constantly improving its performance.
3. Blackjack can help reduce stress
Stress is affecting billions of people all over the world and has an incredible number of negative effects on our health. That is why scientists have studied it for decades and have tried to come up with hundreds if not thousands of possible remedies.
Surprisingly, some researchers have found that while most casino games help us improve our mood, Blackjack has a considerably positive effect on our levels of stress. A clear explanation hasn’t been provided for the way Blackjack helps reduce our stress, but it has been speculated that it might have something to do with how much attention the Blackjack game requires.
Basically, the supposition is that Blackjack has a better chance of distracting us from our day to day problems than other casino games. The constant decision making, the attention required for applying winning strategies, calculating the odds of receiving the cards we need to get as close to 21 as possible without going over it, could be responsible for how much we manage to distance ourselves from reality while playing.
4. Casino games teach you to be patient
Most casino games, and especially online slots, require you to wait through long phases of wins or losses. Believe it or not, this can help you improve your patience in other aspects of life as well.
Slots force you to push through the losses, waiting for the winning spin that can turn things around for you and your bankroll. Getting impatient and constantly changing games or strategies is a bad habit when it comes to pokies and luckily you will learn that rather quickly.
It’s a well known fact that the biggest wins in online pokies come from the special games, bonus rounds or free spins rounds. This means that as soon as you learn how a pokie operates, you will be forced to also learn to wait for the special feature to trigger. This can sometimes happen after a good couple of hundred spins.
Being patient is a key skill for riding the losing streaks and casino games provide you with a great opportunity to practice it over and over again.
5. Gambling improves the memory function
Another one of the gambling benefits that requires your attention is the fact that it affects the way your memory works. While our brains continue to baffle scientists to this day, there are certain aspects of how our brains operate that are pretty well known and documented. Our memory still holds a good deal of mysteries, but one of the things that scientists have managed to find out for sure is that casino games have a positive effect on how well and quick we manage to remember things.
Card games are especially resource-heavy when it comes to using our short term memory, because we are required to constantly know which cards have been dealt, how many are still required to complete our winning hands and what our odds of winning are.
As I mentioned before, our brain works like a muscle. The more we use it, the better it will be. That is why constantly forcing it to make the effort to remember numbers and strategies or plays has a tremendously positive impact on how it operates in our day to day lives as well as at the casino tables.
6. Casino games can help us improve our financial abilities
Managing your bankroll in an online casino is quite similar to managing your finances in your day to day life. The required bankroll management skills for being a successful casino player are rather complex and force us to learn from our mistakes, to make calculations and to “ration” our funds in a manner that gives us the best gaming experience. So, one of the most important gambling benefits is the fac that it helps you with real-life skill development.
On a larger scale, managing your finances is rather similar. The benefit of learning to manage your casino bankroll is that the mistakes you can make will cost you a lot less than the ones you might make from your monthly salary for example. Learning to manage a 100$ bankroll in an online casino can be a great way of learning to manage your monthly 2000$ budget without risking any huge amounts.
Conclusion on gambling benefits
As you can see, gambling can have a series of benefits for those who take it seriously and constantly try to improve their performance. While for some, casino games are just a way to pass the time and blow off some steam, others make it a personal goal to get the most out of the experience. And, as usual, those who put in more work are the ones who reap the most benefits.
