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Saturday, 31 May 2008

Gala pull out of national bingo game this september

Well as promised this month is all about the national game. As you may have read, Gala have recently announced that they will be withdrawing from the National bingo game on the 31st of August and replacing this huge game with a new and improved in house link game (the Hi Five).

In a statement Gala felt that: 'With 2 national jackpot games now in place alongside each other, it clearly made sense to review our position. Our customers consistently tell us that they love our High 5 game since it gives them more chances to win great prize money. We now want to focus exclusively on High 5' I can understand where this is coming from and I sort of agree. The Hi five game gives you a chance not only to win a huge prize, but it also gives the chance for everyone playing that game in that specific club to all share in that jackpot prize! If your club wins the jackpot of £1million lets say; the winning ticket holder receives half of that and the rest of the ticket holders in the club share the other half. This could mean that on any session, ANY player in a bingo club could walk away with literally thousands of pounds and in today's climate that is a very attractive incentive for a punter to prefer one bingo club over another.

Now there's the big Gala plug over, now for the nitty gritty of it all! We all know that bingo is in an unhappy place at the moment. Gaming restrictions and taxes and the smoking ban have all meant that the bingo industry is trying even harder to recoup the lost revenue and customers. I think we are getting to the stage where the bingo clubs are deciding to think about there own interests and making sure that they are going to be OK above everything else. Self preservation seems to be the key word here from the big boys in the bingo world. The people that may suffer from this in the long run though are the smaller bingo companies and independents. With Mecca and Gala dominating the marketplace with their huge jackpot prizes on offer the smaller bingo clubs may go the same way that the corner shops and retailers did when huge multi-purpose supermarkets appeared outside every town and city! Especially if come September the National game prize money suffers from Gala's absence.

I have heard from managerial figures in Gala clubs that the National game was not making any profit for the clubs. Most of the money went back on the prize board (and the jackpot prize) and any remaining would go to the national game and the government. I have even heard reports that some customers are opting out of the national game so that they can have an extra 5minutes of smoking time outside before the second half begins! (this does not surprise me from the 'professional smokers' that frequent the bingo!)

But what I am worried about more than anything from a callers point of view is that now Gala callers will be ineligible for the NBGA bingo caller of the year competition. To be an entrant for the COTY you need to be calling in a bingo club that calls the National game: so potentially every Gala caller that has entered this year will not be able to take part! This is a big hit to the competition. The one thing that I was proud of when I won the title in 2006 is that I was the 'best' caller in the whole industry: out of over 600 clubs (at the time!) I was top of the pile. Will this years champion feel the same way when over a third of the bingo callers cannot take part?

In conclusion I have a funny feeling that this is not the end of this story. Do you know all about chaos theory? Basically, a butterfly flaps its wings in Sidcup and a tornado blows through Florida (bizarre I know!) I think Gala have just flapped their wings! Keep watching this blog............

Posted by Brett at 12:30 | Add your comments [0] | Links |

Monday, 26 May 2008

re. recent VAT news..........

congratulations to the clever lawyer-type people who spotted the loophole which could mean that the bingo industry could get millions back from the tax man!!!!

The government have been routinely screwing the bingo industry (with other, more profit making, gambling areas being 'overlooked') for a number of years now.

It just goes to show that when bingo clubs are backed into a corner, we are willing to fight back by any means how!

Posted by Brett at 01:53 | Add your comments [1] | Links |

Thursday, 22 May 2008

gala pull out of national game!!!!!!!

BIG NEWS in the bingo world!!!! More of which I will mention in my main blog post next week.......Gala are pulling out of the national bingo game and it is in the national press!!!!! I'm sure lots of comment will be posted in the coming weeks but from this bingo caller: I can now say that I am the LAST Gala bingo caller to be the NATIONAL bingo caller of the year!!!! Put your bets on now for a Mecca caller to win the prize this November!

Read my next post to find out some more of my opinion on this contentious issue!

Posted by Brett at 02:58 | Add your comments [1] | Links |

Tuesday, 13 May 2008

NOT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!

here we go again. It looks like my recent couple of posts are still ringing true check this story out about the bingo employee who stole £16,000!!!!!!!!

The manager was done as well!!!!!!!!!!

It reminds me of the time when I was first working in bingo and I put my pinny on to give out some change at the start of the session and found £5 in one of the pockets............"keep it" said the cashier that was with me at the time "the bosses will never know!"
"I can't do that" I said. I handed it in to the manager and carried on with my change-giving with a clear conscience. The cashier left not long afterwards after rumours of money going missing!!!!!!!

Even if its only a few quid, its not worth risking your job (not to mention your freedom) for.

(oh and by the way the picture is me visiting my local club in Bristol waiting for one number to win £10,000 on the link game...............DAMN the caller.............DAMN him to hell!!!!!!)

Posted by Brett at 01:11 | Add your comments [0] | Links |

Wednesday, 7 May 2008

more tales of stealing.....in the press recently.

with regards to the recent post about illegal activities in the clubs, two contrasting stories caught my eye today. Firstly the tale of a lady who stole from her dead bingo partners account goes to show how low some people can go. And the award for 'serves you right!' goes to the robbers of a bingo club in sunderland recently who whilst making a getaway and torching there car managed to set fire to themselves in the process!!!!! shouldn't take long to catch them then.......there the ones smouldering in the police line up!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Brett at 00:45 | Add your comments [0] | Links |

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