After a wide range of studies testifying on the positive effects of online gambling such as improving memory capacity and increasing social activity, the December 2009 issue of a British Science Journal, Perception, has revealed that playing online games at online casinos can actually have a beneficial effect on the development of the brain and can improve a player’s cognitive abilities.
The goal of the experiment, which was conducted by American researcher Rolf Nelson, a professor of Psychology at Wheaton College near Chicago, was “to understand the way in which video game play affects subsequent perception and cognitive strategy”.
Twenty students were challenged in Nelson’s study with a spatial relation riddle before and after playing a strategy and an action game. Those who played the action game succeeded in solving the riddle much faster while those who played the skill game had more accurate results. According to these findings, playing action games can improve cognitive speed while strategy and puzzle games can enhance cognitive accuracy in the long-term.
Online casino games such as poker is one of the most challenging skill games on the internet and Nelson’s study has strengthened the argument that online gambling can be mentally beneficial to players.