Massive ‘glitch' plunges Gala Bingo into chaos as players LOSE a staggering £20,000 in winnings

Scottish Sun

a day ago

UNLUCKY FOR SOME Massive 'glitch' plunges Gala Bingo into chaos as players LOSE a staggering £20,000 in winnings
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THOUSANDS of bingo players are fuming after winning up to £10,000 each from a mega £1.6m prize pot - before it was snatched away by Gala Bingo who blamed a 'technical glitch'.
Punters playing bingo online on Monday night were shocked when they scooped big prizes, thinking their 'lucky day had finally come'.
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Single mum Natasha Varcoe, 23 was affected by the 'technical glitch'
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Players thought they had won big only to be left disappointed
Thrilled business owner Jacqui Norrish thought she'd bagged £9,599.47 while playing the game Monday night.
But the 41-year-old from Torbay, Devon, received an email from Gala Bingo stating: 'Unfortunately, due to a technical error on Monday 4th August 2025, your account was incorrectly credited with Bingo winnings.'
Fuming, Jacqui told The Sun: 'It's absolutely outrageous how big companies can play with people's lives like this, it's disgraceful.
'I'm a fairly regular player with Gala Bingo, but I don't pay big stakes or anything.
'I started playing at 4.30pm on Monday and got my first big win at about 7.20pm, for well over £1,200, I couldn't believe my luck.
'Then I got another win 20 minutes later for £2,280 and was already spending the money in my head.
'Then I won £1,600, £2400 and then another prize of £1,800.
'I won a few more prizes before it stopped, I had almost £10k in my account.'
Jacqui said she saw other 'winners' asking the Gala chat host whether the prizes were genuine and it responded that they were, adding, 'enjoy your winnings'.
She immediately withdrew the cash from her Gala account only to discover the money never made it to her bank account
'I was going to pay to get my daughter tested for autism because the NHS wait is so long and I'd planned to pay the rest of my husband's car off,' she said, adding: 'I'm absolutely gutted. When you've been told you've won something and then it's snatched away, it makes you feel terrible.'
Pensioner Jill Douthwaite, 72, from Edenbridge, Kent, won £2,700 on the online game and hoped to use her winnings to pay for an op for her Collie-cross Cooper.
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The winners desperately contacted Gala Bingo to resolve the issue
'I was so relieved because I thought I could spend £500 to save my dog's eyesight,' she said.
'We're a family who can't afford to go on holidays and we've been struck with a lot of bad luck in the past too.
'My daughter even phoned her dad to say she could repay his loan for the car, but then she had to go back on her word because Gala Bingo did.'
Banking customer service agent Joseph Morphus, 21, said he clocked an unusual amount of people winning big in the chat on Monday.
He said: 'It was extremely weird, people were getting such big amounts, and as a runner up I got £1,000 having literally bet pennies.
'The withdrawal process went normally, but then it never arrived and in the morning my account had been closed.'
Last month, Joseph, from Nottingham, Notts, suffered a brain bleed after he was injured playing football, so had been surviving on sick leave pay.
'It's been really tough, I've been really short of cash, and the win was like a breath of fresh air,' he said.
But now he's fuming, adding: 'It's ridiculous, it's their problem, the fat cats are sitting in their mansions and now they're not paying what's ours."
Single mum Natasha Varcoe, 23, from Sherborne, Dorset, is also gutted after bagging £5,000 having bet just a fiver.
She planned to spend the cash on driving lessons so she could see more of her parents who live an hour away.
Disappointed, she said: 'It might not be much to other people, but we've just moved into a council house and I don't have any carpets.'
While mum Victoria Geer, 28, said when her screen flashed a runner up reward of £2,400 on Monday, she screeched to her partner Ryan, a drainage engineer, that she'd won.
'It was bananas, it then happened twice more, I just couldn't believe it,' she recalls.
When she won £7,200 off a £15 stake, she decided to cash in and planned to take her family on holiday, but no money arrived.
Since the false prize bonanza, angry customers have taken to TrustPilot to rate Gala Bingo one star and hundreds have vented their anger in online groups.
One user wrote: 'Like a lot of people last night who apparently won big money absolutely disgusted at how this can happen. We paid to play, didn't we!'
While another said: 'They like taking your money but don't like paying out.'
Gala Bingo sent a message to customers informing them they would not receive their winnings, but would be refunded what they spent on Bingo Tickets.
The firm says the technical glitch happened on Monday night, causing chaos for around two hours.
It has contacted the Gambling Commission over the incident.
A Gala Bingo spokesperson said: "We apologise to customers for a technical error which occurred during our Summer Nights Bingo promotion for a short period of time, resulting in all players receiving incorrect payouts.
"Our customer Terms and Conditions clearly state that in the event of a malfunction, winnings can be voided.
"Affected players have been contacted directly with a gesture of goodwill."