To borrow from the famous Mark Twain quote, it seems as if the demise of Scottish Bingo after the introduction of the public smoking ban earlier this year has been greatly exaggerated. From this article it would appear that fans of Bingo North of The Border are finding it harder to beat their Bingo habit than the ‘baccy they can no longer smoke in Scottish clubs.

It may be too early for Scot’s operators to start touting the positive health benefits of playing Bingo, but I was heartened to read that Florence Cox, of Hilltown has found that her love of Bingo has had a positive impact on her consumption of cancer sticks;  

“It saves me money and you cut down. We went on a bingo trip to Glasgow and I went with 60 cigarettes and came back with 54, so in that sense it’s a good thing.” (I assume she smoked the six fags on the journey there and back.)

Still, it seems that some players are finding the continuing situation difficult. Theresa McKelvie, a regular at her local club every night has clearly found the conflict between her love of Bingo and smoking unbearable. Banished to a roofless smoking room she is quoted as saying, “It’s terrible. Prisoners get it better.” I think this is a bit strong myself. After all, I’ve never been to a Bingo hall yet where I’ve been expected to ‘slop out’ the toilets . . .