Bingo Is Actually Good For You!

As any regular will be only too happy to tell you, playing bingo online can be a lot of fun. The excitement of seeing your numbers come up one by one and the anticipation of winning are both very enjoyable emotions. But there are other benefits over and above the obvious "fun factor" of entertainment. In fact, science has discovered that bingo is actually good for you!

There are two reasons why bingo is good for you. One is because it provides you with an increased level of "social interaction" and the other is because it boosts your brain power. Both aspects are important, so let's look at each one in turn:

Social Interaction
Human beings are social creatures. This means we don't usually fare very well when we spend lots of time on our own. Instead, we tend to thrive only when we interact with other people on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the modern world doesn't always make social interaction as easy as it used to be. Whilst it was commonplace to have a good gossip over the garden fence twenty or thirty years ago, most people today tend to keep themselves to themselves, and only communicate regularly with a small circle of close friends.

Playing bingo online is a great way to reverse this trend. The chat facilities at most online bingo sites allow us to make a variety of friends - many of whom we can speak to on a daily basis as we play. This element helps us to keep socially active - something that scientists at New York's Columbia University say could decrease our risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in later life. And, of course, having a good old natter with our friends is a great antidote to stress!

Brain Boosting
The more we engage in activities which require our thought and attention, the healthier our brains will be. Most people think that it's only extremely challenging games such as chess and sudoku that can keep our brains in good shape, but according to research carried out by Julie Winstone of the University of Southampton, bingo is also very good for helping to prevent a decline in cognitive abilities. This is probably because, despite the simplicity of the game, it requires attention to detail (listening to the numbers being called and recognising them on a card, for example) and a good level of hand to eye coordination (to dab numbers).

Although this study concerned the world of traditional bingo, online bingo can be just as mentally engaging as its offline cousin - especially when you consider that we often use the keyboard to hold conversations in the chat rooms at the same time as actually playing the game.

So there you have it. As well as being heaps of fun, playing bingo online can actually be good for you. And that's not just our opinion - even top scientists agree!

30th January 2008