Play Gala Bingo Here!

At the recent Chartered Industry of Public Relations annual ceremony, Gala Bingo received a Gold Award, and you may be wondering why they receive a PR Award, but it was for their Mrs Obama PR campaign. If you are a regular online bingo player and you happen to be a member of Gala, you may remember that when President Barak Obama was being inaugurated. This site happened to recall that his step-mother is a big fan of playing bingo (she plays every night).

They contacted her with regards to offering her name and support for a special game for Sue Ryder Care. This is the charitable partnership which Gala Bingo is involved in. Kezia Obama loved the idea and gave her full support for it. The outcome was that £10 000 was raised from the special game and Gala Bingo also donated a cash match of £10 000.

This specific award piggy-backs on the fact that they spotted she was a big bingo fan and were audacious and imaginative enough to approach Mrs. Obama for her support in the fund raising initiative. It was very cheeky but it was all for a good cause and it delivered good results too, the judges liked this fact.

The Award is the CIPR Pride Gold Award and it showcases the best PR work being done in the UK, it also sets industry standards, and one of the most coveted PR awards to win. This surprise award should get some good press for Gala Bingo, who have been suffering a little under the wrong kind of spotlight in recent times what with the ongoing speculation regarding a potential sale of shares to refinance debt. Perhaps this positive press will have a positive influence and detract from the recent slew of bad press.

In the meantime, keep playing at Gala Bingo, Christmas is coming and that means nothing short of BIG money prizes.

I am not sure if the latest Gala Coral foundering news is real, or a case of everything is available at the “right price” kind of scenario. But whatever it is, it looks like another US company is trying to get a slice of the lucrative UK bingo/gaming industry through a cash injection into Gala Coral for 40 – 60% of the shares.

As far as I am concerned I am very supportive of the UK online bingo industry and the US UIGEA did a lot of this damage to this industry, I say don’t let the yanks get a share. Gala, offer it to anyone else but them if you really need the money. If we are unable to conduct ethical gaming business in their country, why should they have that right in ours. UIGEA has already been determined as being contrary to the tenets of free trade.

Now that I have finished my soap box tirade, it is Blackstone who is offering a bid of £300m for 40 – 60% of the shares; that is absolute madness, they would have controlling shares! They are a private equity firm and they are also currently conducting a due diligence on Gala Affairs. If this bid is accepted, it is going to cause a hornets nest with junior lenders. But I suppose we have to wait it out and see what happens. I believe Gala has reached critical mass and this is the problem – nowhere new to expand.

I wish Cashcade would make them an offer, and have done with it they have done damn well with online bingo, just take a look at Foxy and Think Bingo for examples of how bingo sh

Play Gala Bingo Here!

A Gala Bingo caller has been sent behind bars after it was revealed the crafty caller was fixing the numbers so that his girlfriends could pocket thousands of pounds. Christian Grant, of Sunderland, was sentenced to nine months prison for the scheme, in which he managed to override the random number generator at the Gala Bingo hall he worked at.

In an elaborate scheme that we feel is begging to be made into a film, Grant managed to fool players and other employees at the Sunderland Gala Bingo Hall, calling out the numbers he knew were on cards bought by two different girlfriends, Samantha Temple and Nandi Ndebele.

Jailing Grant for nine months at Newcastle Crown Court, Judge Esmond Faulks said: “You were clearly in a position of trust.

“You deliberately overrode the random number generator and turned it to manual input to deliberately make winners of your two co-accused then took your share.”

Newcastle Crown Court heard Grant, 29, who was working at Gala Bingo in Sunderland, had overridden the random number generator on two occasions and read the numbers manually. As a result he ensured Ndebele, 29, won a £7,830 windfall on September 5 last year and fixing a £1,040 win for Temple, 28 on March 15 this year.

The court heard Grant had halved the £7,830 with Ndebele but had been given just £100 from Temple’s winnings.

It was a customer at one of the games of bingo that raised concerns about Grant’s integrity, nothing that during the games Grant’s behaviour was somewhat suspicious. The woman had mentioned to staff that Grant often moved the microphone away from his mouth when calling out the numbers, and that there were also “long pauses” between each number. Smelling something distinctly rotten, Gala immediately launched an investigation, uncovering Grant’s less than honest antics, as well as those of his accomplices, who had been ironically employed as claim checkers by the firm.

Bridie Smurthwaite, prosecuting, told the court: “Grant accepted he was the instigator. He said he approached the other two defendants and suggested they bought a bingo book and showed it to him so he could override the system and call out their numbers.

“Grant had been in a relationship with both the other defendants and he and Temple have a child together.”

Michael Rose, defending Grant and Temple, of Birch Road, Blaydon, said the couple now live together on benefits after losing their jobs because of the scam.

Richard Bloomfield, for Ndebele, of Pattenson Gardens, Felling, said her winnings paid off debts, including a bank loan.

All three admitted conspiracy to defraud. Temple was sentenced to a community order for 12 months with supervision. Ndbele was sentenced to a community order for 12 months with supervision and 100 hours’ unpaid work.

No Gala Bingo representative commented about the verdict, but it is understood that the bingo operator immediately repaid the winning amounts back into the winners’ pot so genuine customers would not lose out following the results of their investigation.

Those familiar with our news section will know that Gala Bingo have been working closely with Sue Ryder care, a charity that supports people with specialist palliative, terminal and long-term neurological care needs for quite a while. The money raised by the Gala bingo hall in Southampton will be going towards a company wide national drive to raise money for the charity, which provides over 4 million hours of care to those living with cancer, multiple sclerosis, Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

The bingo operator has been busy over the last few months raising vital funds for the charity. Numerous bingo halls in the chain have been putting on a range of fundraising events to show their support, and once again, the bingo community have been quick to open their hearts and wallets to support a fantastic cause. The £1,500 total from Southampton came from a series of special prize draws and Tombola, with staff and regulars happy to get involved in some eyes down action for the greater good! Local businesses apparently got on-board with tons of prize donations to ensure the draws were really something special. Among the prizes on offer at the Gala Bingo club were a mini break for two in the historic city of Bruges in Belgium.

Gala Bingo recently hit the headlines in the bingo world with the news that they were sending some of their employees to indulge in some high altitude bingo action, with a fundraising trip to Mount Everest, again in support of it’s nominated charity Sue Ryder Care. The numerous initiatives really show the best about bingo, with a huge emphasis on having fun whilst helping others. Despite turbulent financial difficulties recently, it is really wonderful to see Gala are still determined to give back to the community as well as offering some fab prizes as well!

Sue Ryder Care is always dependent on other people’s generosity in order to be able to provide compassionate care to people with long-term and end of life conditions, as well as their loved ones and carers. Individuals can still donate to the charity in many ways, with Sue Ryder Care encouraging the public to hold their own fundraisers and take part in their numerous events. More details are available on their website, and we for one will definitely be keeping our eyes peeled to see what Gala bingo will be doing next for the charity!