It has taken the guys in the white lab coats to tell us what we’ve since known since online poker burst onto the scene in the mid 90’s – poker played on the internet is good for our mental wellbeing. (Well for some at least)

A research team at the prominent McGill University in Canada have studied the blood pressure and blood sugar levels of players and found that online poker actually de-stresses us.

It works likes this: Our bodies’ adrenal gland secretes a stress hormone called cortisol in certain situations. The academic team found that when we play online poker, the level of cortisol in our bodies actually decreases.

The researchers monitored cortisol levels of players over a prolonged gaming session and watched in amazement as the stress hormone dipped as much as 17% in the average player.

While any novice online poker player could have told these boffs that this form of entertainment naturally causes them to feel better overall, it is still good to know that online poker gets endorsement from the scientific camp for a change.

The McGill guys stressed that it wasn’t only online poker that would make players’ cortisol levels drop. They noted that in fact any form of online gambling would produce the same results. (We think that the results of this study should definitely be appendixed to Rep. Barney Frank’s proposal to overturn the UIGEA).

So how do the scientists explain the decrease in the stress hormone in their own language? Apparently, when we focus on our games, after a while we become so immersed in them that our brains manage to block out everyday thoughts and happenings. When this happens, we start to feel more tranquil and thus our stress hormones drop.

This isn’t the first scientific study done on internet poker and gambling and others have also outlined the benefits of this form of entertainment. The long term benefits of poker are also well documented, including the improvement of cognitive functions and sharper brain activity as we age.