Bingo! £86,000 pay-out to two winners at Mecca Club in Brierley Hill
04 July 2008

A 21-year-old trainee accountant, playing bingo for only the third time ever, scooped more than £16,000 at the Mecca Club in Brierley Hill. And just four days before, a local factory worker had won £70,000 there, also on the National Bingo Game.

Both lucky winners, who live not far from the Club, want to remain anonymous.

Good fortune struck first on the evening of Sunday, 22 June when the 45-year-old man won the National Game prize of £67,420, plus the Regional prize of £3,160 and the house prize of £130. He completed a full house in 43 numbers, the lowest call in any of the 470 clubs playing nationwide.

He has been a member of the Mecca Club in the High Street since it opened and plays there once or twice a week, along with his wife, who also works in a factory.  He said his previous best win was £750.

“Our two grown-up children will be looked after first,” he said. “Then we will invest the rest and use the interest for such things as holidays.”

On Thursday, 26 June Lady Luck returned to the Mecca Club when the young woman won £15,267, £1,147 and £106 on the National, Regional and house prizes respectively. The National prize that night was £30,534, but she had to share with a player in Torquay, Devon who also completed a full house in 41 calls.

“A work colleague of mine told me playing bingo was great fun so I decided to try and this was the third consecutive week I had gone. The second occasion I won £15 and was hooked. On the night I won, my mum was with me and it was only her second time in a bingo club.” She added that she doesn’t yet know what she will do with the money.

Her mother added: “We will still carry on playing bingo. It is a nice evening out in a safe, friendly environment.”