In contrast with our previous article about the addiction to games and the destructive effect of online gambling, this article will tell you about the benefits of playing online games. It is not about the obvious benefits like you can get rich. The post is about mental health benefits. With the information in the text, we want you to look at online gambling from a different angle and to see that games can have a positive effect on your health too.
Safe Gambling Sites in Canada
If you are looking for a good gambling site in Canada, we recommend playing at legit online casinos only. These sites are safe. So if you have any trouble with your gambling habits, they will certainly help you with different responsible gambling tools.
You can choose a site from the list above or look through casino reviews on our website. Pay close attention to the license of gambling sites and if they support responsible gambling.
Regular enjoyment and excitement
We all know the feeling when you hit a nice win. At that moment, our brain experiences excitement. But the thing is that not only winnings make us enjoy the pastime.
Most casino games are created in such a way that our senses get pleasure. For example, some slots have interactive features where you need to click, pull, move something. Or games with a nice-to-ear sound accompaniment, or just a starting screen of a game that we enjoy. These feelings of excitement are just the same as if you were standing outside Disneyland in anticipation to get in.
Many people suffer from a lack of dopamine meaning their brain cannot release the chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin in a proper way. These hormones are responsible for positive feelings like pleasure, enjoyment, relaxation, and excitement. We’re not saying that all gamblers have problems with releasing hormones of happiness. But some individuals can suffer from certain mental health complications, which is why it can be challenging to get their minds to produce these important chemicals.
Online games are designed with the goal of stimulating the human senses for an exciting and fun experience. This is why most games are colorful, their sounds and music are so enjoyable, and the game itself is so easy to navigate and play.
Even when you don’t win often, all other aspects of the game are still engaging your brain. And when you hit the jackpot, you get the major feeling of excitement and triumph.
Where’s the catch?
However, the story with dopamine is not that positive in some cases. At the point when the dopamine is released in your brain, it makes you get used to the enjoyment. Every time you play you want to play more meaning having a 15-minute session is not enough. Next time you want to play for half an hour. Later, for an hour, and so on. And this is where you risk crossing the line and getting into a gambling habit.
This is why some individuals may have a positive experience with the dopamine effect, while others that have their hormones function optimally can be vulnerable to gambling addiction.
Stimulation of brain activity
Casino games help players think better. Especially when it comes to card games such as poker and blackjack, players use their brains at maximum by calculating and predicting the next moves and scenarios. Sportsbetting activity works in the same way, too.
But according to studies that were conducted on online games, our brain remains active from the moment we choose a game to every time we see the outcome. Especially if you are trying to make heads or tails of online casinos games, you constantly stimulate your brain. For example, when you are looking for the best winning slot by considering its RTP, winning potential, etc; or when you are using a strategy to win roulette, and so on.
Things like seeing payout rates, calculating the next hit of a jackpot, checking paylines and paytables, understanding the rules, applying strategies, and more require you to think consciously. Hence, your mind stays active even when you have rest and fun.
Social component
Human beings are relational. It means that they need to socialize in order to feel complete. Of course, if we’re talking about land-based casinos, they are the best places to socialize, meet new people, and acquire the social component. But with the development of technology and online casinos, social interaction has become possible even when you are alone.
From the comfort of your home, you can chat with other players and live dealers. Although it’s possible only in live casino games, there is a big variety of live games that will suit anyone. You can open a live roulette, blackjack, baccarat, poker, and even bingo and wheel-of-fortune type of games.
Fortunately, technology allows us to enjoy high-quality games that have no lag between player input and playback of a video. Therefore, players can have a genuine in-person experience when staying at home or being in any place in the world.
Interaction and engagement with other players at the table are great for our mental health. In one place, we can meet people from all over the world and share the same interest. Text messages can do wonders for our brains. And if you are looking for the continuation of conversations, many online casinos have different immersive methods to meet our tablemates. For example, you can join different online forums or, if you are a member of some VIP casino club, your casino can invite you to a private party for VIP players only.
By the way, when you are competing with other players in slot tournaments, you also fulfill your social component. Read our gambling blog to learn about the latest online casino tournaments.
Focused mind and trained attention
Almost every online casino game increases your ability to focus your mind. Slots, bingo, card games, and even sports betting require you to concentrate on certain things. While you are making decisions of your next move, you constantly train your attention
When playing, you always ask yourself:
- What’s my last number for a bingo card?
- What hand should I go for?
- What do I need to roll to win the jackpot?
All these questions racing through your mind when you are taking a risk, accomplishing your goals, and gaining rewards, can develop your attention skills.
When you are playing casino games over a long period of time, you get to learn the ins and outs of the games you play the most. In other words, you teach yourself to strategize, memorize, and focus on little things.
People with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) are recommended to do activities of the same kind. As a result, they learn to create short-term memories and maintain long-term ones. Besides, these activities help focus on a single subject for a long time.
Acquiring new skills
While having fun and playing casino games, you develop new talents. For example, you challenge your brain by analyzing different patterns and numbers. You learn to be more aware of things that surround you. You strive to win by using different tactics and strategies. By practicing new types of games, you learn to play more complicated games and master them.
In order to reach your aim of winning, you put your own strategy into action. For example, when you play a blackjack game, you need to understand the rules of a particular blackjack variation and create a specific strategy to win it. Over time, it helps you maintain your mental health.
When you are betting on sports, you develop your prediction skill. To place a winning bet, you need to know the rules of sports you are betting on, you need to learn the latest news about sports teams and sportsmen. Plus, you need to collect all this information together and analyze the winning potential of a certain team. As a result, you can predict the outcome as closer to winning as possible.
At the bottomline
There are numerous benefits of playing online casino games, be it emotional regulation, social ability, cognitive thinking, or maintaining attention. So it’s not just a nice entertainment that helps you relax after a tough working day, online gambling makes your mental health remain positive.
However, you should not take all these positive effects as excuses for your gambling habit. Once you cross the line, your mental health hurts and you no longer benefit from online gambling. Just the other way round, you get stressed and put all aspects of your life at risk, be it relationships, finances, physical health, and so on.
What we’re trying to say is that when you gamble online for entertainment purposes only, you maintain mental health and even develop new neural connections. In other words, you need to see the boundary between these two patterns. To check how online games affect you right now, you can take our gambling addiction test and see the results.
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