We’ve all heard of this expression.. and there’s no reason why a win at bingo café shouldn’t also bring with it the whiff of winning!  That got me to thinking about another difference between land based or real Bingo, and online Bingo.

My mis-spent youth as a junior Bingo player and later Bingo caller brings with it many memories. And some of those are irrevocably tied with olfactory senses (that’s a posh way of saying a sniffing nose!).

At the Bingo games staged at the Rivoli ballroom, near Crofton Park, South East London, the most striking impression was when, after a Summer break, you came in for the first game of the season. The wooden floor had received a coating of some sort of industrial varnish, and the smell was strong, very distinctive, and to me, not that unpleasant!  Many schools’ Assembly Halls would have had the same treatment during the Summer holidays, and therefore the smell triggered off junior school days memories for me, and was somehow reassuring. 

My games at Dreamland (later renamed Benbom Brothers Amusement Park) at Margate, on the Kent coast, were always against a backdrop of noise and lights. The wooden rollercoaster, the clash of dodgem cars and the sirens in the Ghost  Train, all near the Bingo area where I played and called.  But on top of that was the smells…   an exotic mixture, of popcorn, candy floss, frying chips and doughnuts, all tinged with something like the smell of  electricity flowing through inferior fuse-boxes! That may have been something to do with the generators or the sparks generated from the top of dodgem cars’ aerials, but I’ve rarely come across it since!

Contrast and compare with the smells of the seafront palace at Herne Bay (we’re still in Kent here) where the overwhelming smell was from the fish market next door! While I like fish, I have to say the smell was not conducive to concentrating on one’s Bingo cards!

So what about the smells when playing online Bingo? Well unless someone is going to tell me different, you can create your own olfactory ambience! Whether you like scented candles or oil burners, your own perfume or after-shave, freshly baked bread or freshly brewed coffee, it’s down to you. I guess there may be exceptions.. if you happen to live next to a strong smell source (good or bad) then you may not have a choice! I have to say that I‘d prefer the smell of ozone coming in through the window from surf crashing on rocks, rather than the next door glue factory! 

Anyhow, take a deep breath.. through your mouth or through your nostrils, commence playing and may the sweet smell of success be yours!

Good luck!