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Gala Coral Group Ltd is a British betting shop, bingo and casino operator owned by private equity houses Candover Investments, Cinven and Permira. In October 2005 it merged with Coral Eurobet for ?2.18 billion. The acquisition made it the UK's third largest bookmaker and largest bingo operator. It also owns over 30 casinos. Coral will remain a brand and trading division of the new group.
The Group headquarters are in Nottingham Gala Bingo and Casino, Barking Coral & Woking Gala Coral E-commerce.
The Group through acquisitions and new developments have over 1630 Licenced Betting Offices.
Coral Eurobet History
Joe Coral (born Joseph Kagarlitski, 11 December 1904) began his bookmaking business in 1926 and, although primarily concerned with operating betting pitches at racecourses, he did open a credit office in the West End of London in 1943.
He was, though, one of the first to take advantage of the new legislation and duly opened his first licensed betting office in 1961. The new law was, however, not intended to encourage betting and therefore shops were positively unattractive in appearance and devoid of any comforts.
By 1962 there were 13,340 betting offices of which Coral owned 23. During the seventies the situation changed completely and by 1977 four major bookmakers had evolved (including Coral) who owned nearly 24% of the 13,254 shops operating. Coral's number had originally grown to 589 as a result of a merger with another bookmaker, Mark Lane in 1971.
By 1975 the company had become the Coral Leisure Group and had diversified to include a variety of other leisure activities comprising social clubs, casinos, hotels and later holiday camps.
| Adress |
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| Founded |
Coral (1926), Gala (1991) |
| Total gaming space |
17,189 (2005) |
| Theme |
Private |
| Casino type |
- |
| Owner |
- |
| Previous names |
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| Website |
www.galacoral.co.uk |
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