For some people, there's no better way to yell "Bingo" than with a cigarette dangling from their lips.
That guilty pleasure may now be extinguished in Hamilton, but not at the Six Nations Bingo Hall, where you can puff away to your heart's content -- in full violation of provincial anti-smoking laws.
The province's Smoke-Free Ontario Act prohibits smoking in enclosed workplaces and public places, including bingo halls.
It is considered a "law of general application," said Gillian MacDonald, spokesperson for the provincial Ministry of Health Promotion, which means it applies to all of Ontario, including native reserves, unless a band council has enacted a superceding bylaw of its own.
But the ministry also acknowledges that it won't enforce its smoking legislation on native reserves that don't have their own bylaw.
Public health unit officers will provide support and educational resources, attend meetings as requested and respond to questions about the implementation of various aspects of the act, MacDonald said, "rather than engage in active enforcement on First Nations land."
"We feel that approach best captures our desire to work with First Nations but also achieve our goals as set out in the act," MacDonald added.
Six Nations Police Deputy Chief Rocky Smith said there is no band bylaw that supercedes the Ontario act.
Smith also said he hasn't received any instructions to enforce provincial anti-smoking legislation.
"The only provincial statutes that we enforce here on Six Nations, with consent of the band council, are the Liquor Licence Act and the Highway Traffic Act," Smith said.
On this cool June afternoon, there are about 120 players sitting in the smoking section of the bingo hall, and about three-quarters of the crowd are puffing away. The hall is eerily quiet except for the monotone delivery of the bingo caller and the incessant clicking of cigarette lighters as players fire up their smokes.
By the time the matinee intermission arrives, the air has turned blue -- not from the cursing of failed bingo players, but from the fog of stale cigarette smoke.
Off in one corner of the bingo hall is a much smaller glass-walled room that's reserved for non-smokers -- a topsy-turvy twist on the designated smoking rooms that were once common across the province.
Inside, about 30 players dab their cards in hermetically-sealed comfort.
Jeannie Beckerson occasionally makes the trip up from Simcoe on weekends to play bingo at Six Nations.
She admits that she'll take advantage of the lack of smoking enforcement and light up a cigarette when she plays.
"But if I come with my niece, we'll sit in the no smoking section," Beckerson said.
"It's almost too smoky in the other part."
Beckerson doesn't understand why smoking is permitted at the Six Nations bingo hall. She pointed out that Ontario's ban on smoking in public places proved to be the death sentence for non-native bingo halls elsewhere in the province.
"They just seem to do whatever they want down here," Beckerson said.
She doesn't think smoking is the main reason people are here "but I'm sure it does attract a few.
"They don't seem to have any problem getting people out," she added.