Rollover Jackpots
In September 2007, bingo operators were allowed to introduce rollover jackpots for the first time and the National Bingo Game introduced the "Big N" - an optional £1 jackpot charge to players which gave them a chance to play for a gold, silver or platinum jackpot which could exceed £1 million.
Ticket sales for the jackpot were lower than anticipated and the prize was not won for a number of months, before the National Bingo Game decided to reduce the participation charge to 50p, but make it compulsory from January 2008. As a result of this move 3 millionaires were created in the 6 months that followed, but Gala Bingo's decision in September 2008 to withdraw from the National Bingo Game to launch a competing jackpot product meant that further revisions to the game became necessary.
In November 1997, the first Gold Prize winner won the first "Big'N" prize of £556,000 by getting 6 of the 7 Big'N numbers, in Gala Club, East Ham, London. The winner, a married mother of three, used the proceeds to leave Newham and start a new life in suffolk in a three bedroomed house. When she won the prize, the room room went wild, with players clapping and cheering while the winner herself, stunned by her success, sat motionless at the table.
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