Gala Bingo

[4][5] Combined with Bass's 91 clubs, the chain was tied with the Rank Organisation for the largest bingo operator in Britain.

[4] A united brand for the combined operation, "Gala", was chosen by John Murphy of Interbrand as a simple word incorporating letters from "Granada" and "Coral".

Gala diversified outside bingo for the first time when it purchased 26 Ladbroke Casinos for £235 million from the Hilton Group in December 2000.

[8] The owners sold the whole business for £1.24 billion in February 2003 to the private equity firms Candover and Cinven.

[13] Gala Coral won 403 betting licences in Italy in an open market tender in December 2006, under its Eurobet brand.

[14] In 2011, a decision was made to move substantial parts of the business to Gibraltar, including almost all of the remote gaming division.

[21] Nectar points were originally awarded for club admissions, and additionally for slot machine play from 1 September 2007, a first for the bingo industry.

On 31 July 2007, pensioner Pauline Clarke, 62, became Gala's first GBP millionaire, after winning a tie break against another online player.