Tag Archives: million
Gala Bingo Considers Rescue Plan
It is no secret that land based bingo in the UK is in real trouble financially. The draconian national smoking ban hit bingo clubs hard and then came a rise in taxation. For some reason bingo is taxed at a higher rate than any other form of gaming. For gaming companies that operate internet bingo websites the passage of the internet gaming ban in the US caused a drastic drop in revenue and a serious decline in publicly traded gaming stocks. A recent Reuters report states that UK bingo industry giant Gala Coral Group is presently saddled with about 2.7 billion pounds of debt.
Gala was forced to let hundreds of valued employees go and close many of its popular bingo halls across the UK. In 2009 reports of gala bingo club closures became common in the press. Gala also operates a highly successful internet bingo website. Without private investment Gala faces a bleak future indeed. A few years ago when reports said Gala was foundering US gaming giant Harrahs made a bid for shares of Gala. At the time Gala was able to repel any hostile takeover.
In November it was reported that private equity firm Blackstone made a £300 million pound bid for 40 to 60% of the shares. Despite denials from Gala it has been reported that Gala is actively seeking private equity investors to stave off collapse of the company. A recent report from news agency Reuters said the bingo giant had been approached by US private equity firm Apollo. Apollo submitted a plan to Gala which said Apollo would pay 250 million pounds ($405 million USD) for half of the company. The conditions of the Apollo deal say that 250 million pounds would be paid to Galas senior lenders and junior lenders would receive the other half of Gala.
Gala has entered the world of internet bingo with some success. Gala provides players with a generous bingo deposit bonus and free play options. Gala also offers a bingo sign up bonus to players. Like most other UK based bingo sites Gala has increased the size of its bingo bonuses to compete with others in the internet bingo industry.
Galas situation highlights the troubles of the brick and mortar UK bingo industry. Internet bingo, on the other hand, remains a thriving and growing industry. Internet bingo has defied the global recession and remains profitable for internet bingo providers. Gala may want to consider focusing on its online operations.
Is There Such a Thing as a Guaranteed Way to Win the Lottery?
Imagine for a moment that a mind that was smart enough to acquire a Ph.D. in mathematics had devised a probability engine that is so powerful it can predict winning lottery numbers. Would you be interested in learning more?
I’m sure that you are just the way I was once and believe that winning the lottery is all about being lucky.
Well I can tell you that while winning the jackpot does require a certain amount of luck it is surprising that people who manipulate the mathematics of choosing lottery numbers seem to be a lot more lucky than everyone else!
Without the foresight of a good mathematical system almost everyone who plays chooses their lottery numbers at random. This includes picking birthdays, significant dates etc.
Unfortunately, when you buy a ticket, or even a dozen tickets, in this manner you have a mere 14 million to one chance of winning the jackpot.
Regardless of how many tickets you buy these odds remain mostly unchanged. So, it’s no wonder most people believe that winning on the lottery is a matter of pure, blind luck.
With such a low chance of winning, fourteen million to one, it seems almost pointless to play.
However, these odds only apply to random tickets.
Anyone who realises that the lottery is a game of probabilities and not a game of chance uses a good lottery system – like “wheeling”. The wheeling of numbers is often employed by lottery syndicates (because you have to buy multiple tickets).
However, wheeling lets you pick more numbers. You then buy tickets that have ever combination of those numbers thus allowing you a better chance of choosing the winning ones (because you get to choose more numbers).
Wheeling just 7 numbers (instead of the standard 6) costs only £28 a draw yet increases the odds of winning the jackpot from 14 million to 1 to 500,000 to 1!
This is the only reason we are told that syndicates have a better chance of winning and the only reason why they win more often than single players!
Wheeling numbers is a great way to guarantee yourself consistent wins on the lottery.
However, although this is the most known of all the reliable lotto systems it is far from the best!