LONDON, October 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

New independent research commissioned by leading entertainment website Jackpotjoy.com, reveals that Brits are experiencing a 'laughter recession'. In the last 60 years 2010 has been voted the least fun decade. This is why Jackpotjoy launches its new £250,000 FUNdation that will grant FUNds to daft ideas submitted by the public to make the UK laugh more!

According to the researchers, the amount Brits laugh on an average day is only 7.2 times. This is more than half the amount that psychologists have benchmarked we should at 15 times a day, dropping from the 300-400 mark as a child.  People in Leeds were revealed to have the highest daily laughter quota of 8.7 times a day, followed by Plymouth (8.6 times a day) and Newcastle (8.5 times a day)! People Norwich were shown to be laughing the least at 5.4 times a day, nearly three times less than the recommended daily dose, followed by Brighton (6.1 times a day) and Glasgow (6.2 times a day).

A staggering 66% of Brits claimed they were in desperate need of more fun in their lives with lack of money (55%) and the spate of bad weather this summer (46%) cited as the main factors for the lack of fun and laughter. Other obstacles to having enough fun included work pressures (30%), family pressures (23%) and the end of the summer events (Jubilee and Olympics) and Bank Holidays (20%).  

Consultant psychologist, Anjula Mutanda M.A (ed), comments on the fun and laughter deficit happening in the UK: 'Psychological  studies have found  that children of pre-school age may laugh as much as 300-400 times a day but that this frequency comes down to about 15 times when we grow up. Only 4% of people think the current decade is the most fun, are quite shocking statistics.'

Patron of the Jackpotjoy FUNdation, Barbara Windsor, comments: 'It can be really easy to forget about having fun when dealing with all the pressures of everyday life but we all know how good it feels to have a good old giggle or a proper belly laugh and that's what we're aiming to do with the Jackpotjoy FUNdation.'  

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SOURCE Gamesys