As reported by BBC News, a recent study suggests that playing bingo helps to ward off the decline of cognitive functioning.  The study also suggests that the older one is, the more agile one's mind.  Conducted on a total of 112 British people, the subjects were split into two groups separated according to age.  One group was composed of 18 to 40-year olds, while the other was composed of 60 to 82-year olds.  Half of both group's subjects had been playing bingo (both online and in bingo halls) for several years.

Mental activity, such as pattern recognition, accuracy and the overall speed of mental processes was improved amongst the two halves of both groups, with the older group showing better performance in accuracy and the younger group showing better performance in speed.

The study was conducted by Julie Winstone, from the University of Southampton's Centre for Visual Cognition at the Department of Psychology.  Mrs. Winstone said that her findings further validate an expanding body of research that suggests taking part in continual mental tasks helps to maintain and improve cognitive performance in the latter years of one's life.

Mrs. Winstone was particularly interested in identifying the exact mental processes used while playing bingo and how that specifically benefits the brain.  Her findings show that since bingo requires players to identify and check off numbers within time constraints, their hand-eye coordination was markedly better.  Backgammon and bridge players did not have as sharp a degree of coordination as the bingo players either.  Winstone concluded, "Bingo is just as valuable an activity to take part in as bridge, or doing puzzles.  Requiring the use of different mental processes, bingo should not be dismissed, as it has been in the past."

Another study carried out by a cognitive psychologist in England found that when the elderly participate in playing bingo games, their memory loss is minimized, while hand-eye coordination is strengthened.  Other studies confirm that even in old age, the brain can continue to develop neurons, thus expanding the preexisting neuro-net.  Doctors say to think of the brain as a muscle.  The more you flex it, the stronger it becomes.  Activities like television cause the brain to go into a "neutral" mode, while brain-stimulating exercises like reading will help contribute to cognitive reserves and to ward off brain-damaging diseases.  There were no comparisons made with the action of gambling money or in playing similar games, such as those found in casinos.