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Bingo is nothing new to Britain. For decades bingo halls have been bustling with people eager for a full house, or just eager for some healthy banter with like-minded people.

After a dip in form, bingo halls are once again as popular ever, bolstered by the cyber revolution and the progress of Google making free bingo games available to all online. While there are obvious similarities between the two forms of Europe's favourite pastime, there are also key differences that make physically heading down to a bingo hall a fresh experience that stimulates our minds and souls, and one difference in particular that seems impossible to surmount.

The main - and obvious - difference lies in the very description "physical". Travelling to a bingo hall requires just that - getting your coat and hat and humming your way along a journey of hope and expectation.

We have all been on such trips as children; stacked up in the back of the car, struggling to find room amidst the pillows and packed lunches to be had along the route. It is in the same manner that the act of travelling creates a visceral emotion deep inside our very being.

Our minds associate travelling with excitement, with the possibility of adventures yet to be had. Thus, by heading out from our regular domain, the very act of heading to the bingo hall is an adventure new to the senses, even if this is a regular adventure upon which we traverse. After all, simply because we did not win a "full house" last week does not mean that the same will happen this week. With every new adventure there is the new hope of returning victorious, holding aloft our prize and transforming the world into which we return as heroes.

This feeling of excitement when heading to the bingo hall is renewed each time. With the way technology stands, it is impossible to replicate the same feeling at home.

However, advances in this area are moving forward rapidly every day. With virtual technology on the rise, there is nothing to say that the feeling achieved from strapping in to a computer-generated bingo game will not emulate that of physically heading down to the bingo hall down the road. For now, at least, the real experience has the upper hand for the bingo ladies and gents across the land, albeit with the online version of the game bringing innovations and variations to the table on a daily basis. The good news, at least, is that every single adult in the country is free to enjoy the excitement of either.