Young punter bags £21k bingo jackpot

12:38pm Monday 9th June 2008

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A TWENTY-YEAR-OLD Basingstoke man has proved bingo is not just for oldies after scooping a £21,000 jackpot.

George Carter was dumbstruck when his lucky numbers were called at a Saturday night session in Basingstoke Leisure Park's Gala Bingo club.

Now he says he will be treating family and friends and looking forward to sitting back and toasting his winnings in sunny Lanzarote.

He said: "It's more than a year's wages, tax-free, in one go - it's unbelievable."

The former Brighton Hill Community College pupil said that before his windfall he had only played bingo on two occasions.

And he only dropped by the Gala club after his friend Mark Styles suggested trying their luck before hitting the town for a night out.

He described being stunned as he won the house prize of £120, racked up the regional prize of £1,004, and marked off the National Bingo Game Prize of £20,000 after a full house in just 46 numbers - the lowest call out of 470 clubs playing nationwide.

He said: "I did not actually know what to say to anyone. Even now, I don't think it's real."

The days of bingo being solely for the blue-rinse brigade are over, he says.

George, who lives with his parents in Brighton Hill, said: "Bingo's losing its old image - younger people are starting to go because of the sort of money you can win."

With his bank balance boosted by his tidy winnings, his summer holidays are now looking brighter. He had already booked a holiday in Lanzarote and his takings will now swell his spending money.

George is an accounts assistant at the Basingstoke headquarters of bank-note makers De La Rue - a firm that is licensed to print money.

And he is determined not to fritter away the cash and intends to get financial advice from colleagues and use most of it as a deposit on a flat.

Until he got the cheque in his hands, he admitted he was struggling to believe his luck.

Yet he is not the only one who needed convincing, for when he announced his good luck to his parents, they thought he was joking.

He said: "My parents didn't believe me when I told them, even when I showed them the form the club had given me.

"They thought I had been to a mate's house to make it up."

Apart from the odd flutter on the races, he said he was not much of a gambler and had never won more than £10.

He confessed he might now be tempted to try his luck with a Lotto ticket.

However, he added: "If I win, I will be getting hate mail from my relatives."