Gala Bingo - Coral Group- Releases Annual Report

In the recently released Annual Report from Gala Bingo, who is part of the Coral Group, it was interesting to note that there had been a decline in profits of the bingo sector of their business with Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA), being down by 10.7% from the years 2006. This figure in 2006 was £153.1 million dropping to £136.7 million in 2007.

The group is certain that the drop in revenues is due to the fact that there have been several new regulatory and legislative changes that have impacted significantly on the operating environment of the company. In laymen's terms, the smoking ban and the removal of the very popular Section 21 Machines, together with the fact that although bingo is one of the softest types of gambling it is the most heavily taxed, has been cause for the drop in revenues.

Gala Bingo does not see that this is a major hurdle to overcome and with the newly emerging success of their online bingo operations hopes to combat any shortfall, the online bingo operation has grown steadily and they now have more than 57,000 active online bingo players paying 13 million visits to their sites and are also offering online bingo in Italy.

Once they have opened their new Bingo club in China, there is strong possibility for the division's growth.