Good Times Roll


Let the


Alan Campbell talks to Simon Wykes, Managing Director for Gala Bingo, about the past, present and future of bingo.


W 22


ill you tell us a bit about your early life and how you become involved with bingo?


I left school at the age


of 16 and then did a multitude of jobs from laying tarmac to ice cream man before joining the Royal Navy when I was 18. I rose to the dizzy heights of Able Seaman before deciding that it wasn’t for me. Before I left I did a couple of A-levels via correspondence course and became a student at Nottingham-Trent University in 1990 studying for a degree in Business Studies.


While I was at Nottingham-Trent, I was required to do a placement and ended up at Mecca Bingo. I first worked at Levenshulme in Manchester in 1992 before undertaking some new site and competitor analysis. I instantly fell in love with the business and joined Mecca Bingo as a trainee manager at their Salford club after leaving university in 1994.


I worked my way up to General Manager at Mecca Bingo Birkenhead in 1996 before leaving a year later to join First Leisure, who had gone into bingo and were having a few problems. Riva Bingo was sold off from First


Leisure in 1998 and subsequently acquired by Gala two years later. At Gala I became a Regional Manager looking after a couple of regions in bingo and, briefly, one in casinos before joining Leisure Parcs in 2003 as their Operations Director.


In 2005, I rejoined Mecca Bingo as their Bingo Life


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