Gambling establishments are experimenting with scents to encourage players to stay and play for longer. While most of the big casinos already use scents in the ventilation system enhance the ambience, in future this likely to be more focused to increase the risk-taking behaviour in players.

Gambling establishments in Macau are taking the idea very seriously. "Our sense of smell is the only [sense] that circumvents our rational sense of thinking and connects directly to the emotions," Sudhir Kale a marketing consultant for the gaming industry in Macau told local media

The "gut feeling" you get when you are about to place a bet is just the chocolate perfume they're pumping from the air-cons.

The using of scents for marketing purposes is nothing new in Las Vegas and the first experiments were conducted in the Las Vegas Hilton in 1994. Dr. Alan Hirsch, neurological director of the US-based Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, was involved in the initial trials and added that while vanilla works well in the US different countries may need to experiment with different scents based on their own cultures.

Smells should "remind people of their childhood or induce a feeling of safety and security that would be more appropriate for Macau than Las Vegas."

Hirsch's suggested that Jasmine tea and cooked rice would be more suitable for Macau. There is no evidence that bingo clubs have tried such techniques and in the past prior to the smoking ban in UK bingo clubs were associated with smoky environments with some clubs also being tarnished with the smell of burgers and chips. Scents is certainly an interesting idea going forwards……