THERE were few sales for the elderly man selling scratch cards outside the National Stadium. The new anti smoking laws have left a bitter taste with bingo fans and few wanted to know about the lung foundation fund raiser as they raced to get their lucky seats before the Thursday night game.
Inside the door about a score of women drew heavily on their last cigarette before going in. The young man on the keyboards was playing the Bingo Anthem, The Number on your Ball. The bingo was about to begin.
It would be their last fag until the half time raffle when smokers would congregate again in the corridors leading to the downstairs dressing rooms and exits of the boxing stadium. Some would not wait that long and would nip down for a drag as a full house was checked. Others would brave the wrath of the anti smoking campaigners and, with their cigarette half hidden under their seat, puff away regardless.
Attendance at the stadium on South Circular Road, where bingo is played three nights a week, has fallen sharply since the tough anti smoking measures were introduced earlier this year. Management say they are now lucky to fill 950 seats compared to 1,200 a year ago.
Before the first number is called the bingo manager, Tony McMahon, reminds the crowd of the smoking ban. Anyone caught smoking at the National Stadium could be fined £100 while he, as manager of the premises, is liable to a £500 fine or a six month jail sentence under the regulations.
"The law is the law," he insists. His warnings are greeted with a mixture of laughter, protest and applause.
Some 27 per cent of the public smoke, but the national statistics are not reflected among bingo goers, at least 60 per cent of whom smoke.
"People do not realise the tension here," Tony explains. "The stakes are high. Sometimes a woman may only be waiting for one more number to win £6,000 or a new car. She probably has never seen that kind of money before she probably never will again. As the tension mounts the fags would come out. Now they can't do that any more, and some find it hard to cope. Smoking and bingo go hand in hand."
A large brown envelope full of signatures lies beside the night's takings. "We didn't organise the petition," he insists, "but they want me to hand it on to the Minister for Health. People feel they have had their rights taken away from them and many are very angry."
Patricia from Bluebell believes the new regulations are a "disgrace". She smokes 80 cigarettes a day and is also a big bingo fan. Over a John Player Blue she explains how bingo has been her saviour since the death of her 11 year old son in an accident.
Patricia goes to bingo in the National Stadium Tuesday Thursdays, and Sundays. She goes to Macushla on Buckingham Street on the four remaining night of the week and to her local school for afternoon and morning bingo sessions.
On an average night she has two cigarettes while waiting on the bingo bus, two on the bus, two before she goes into the hall and two more during the interval. Sometimes she smokes the Superking brand because she says she gets three extra pulls out of them.
"I think it's a total disgrace, the smoking ban," she says. "We have sent in loads of petitions but it's no use. What is good for the goose is good for the gander, so why haven't they banned smoking in pubs? I don't drink, I play bingo and I am discriminated against.
"A lot of people have stopped going to bingo because of the ban. There is talk of at least 200 missing from here you can see the drop off in the hall. Church Street is supposed to be worse. Even in Liberty Hall the numbers are down.
"I've been going to bingo since my marriage broke up in 1974. I am a deserted wife, I live on my own. This is all I have. I come here to win money to pay the bills. Sometimes I win. When I don't economise. I don't know the last time "I had a roast," she muses between pulls. "Egg and chips and tea is about all I eat. I suppose I'm addicted to bingo, it gets me out of the house. But it's not as good any more because of the ban."
Margaret from Drimnagh smokes about 20 cigarettes a day and goes to bingo three times a week. "I don't see why the people who don't smoke can't go somewhere else. Smokers are not being treated fairly. I like the old bingo. I want to sit down and play in a bit of comfort but instead I have to listen to them giving out.
"Smoking and drinking is pleasure. It's the food that is the cause of the complaints if you ask me there is no taste off it or anything anymore.
Long before the 8.30 p.m. start, people drift into the stadium. "By 6.30 p.m. there are normally 50 people here by 7.30 p.m. there could be as many as 250. They come to talk. It's sad but that's life," says Tony.
"People don't realise just how many lonely people there are in Dublin. Bingo gives them a chance to get out of the house, to do themselves up, to meet other people. Because of the smoking ban about 200 people are now staying at home."