![\"Sarah](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_couple-gutted-1-1413493.jpg\")
Sarah Nicole Thurgood with her husband Mark Thurgood<\/p>\n“I was just saying to my husband over and over that this is totally surreal. I was elated.”Sarah Nicole Thurgood with her husband Mark Thurgood<\/p>\n
A couple who thought they’d won nearly \u00a318,000 on Gala Bingo were “devastated” when they were told it was a technical glitch, and their winnings were cancelled. Sarah Nicole Thurgood, 49, from Chichester, West Sussex, says she and her husband Mark, 56, believed they had won the “life changing” sum between them during an online bingo session on Monday, August 4.<\/p>\n
But within hours, their accounts were frozen, their balances reversed – and they were told the massive payouts were an error. The couple were one of hundreds of players who believed they had scooped big wins only to have their \u201chopes dashed\u201d by a technical glitch.<\/p>\n
Sarah said: \u201cThe money would have changed our lives dramatically. It\u2019s a total cock up on their behalf. They have messed with a lot of people\u2019s minds. I just don\u2019t see how they can get away with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarah, who works in an art gallery, logged onto the Bargain Room on Gala Bingo at 7pm on Monday. Within minutes, they each won \u00a340. Then came \u00a3200 wins.<\/p>\n
Then the numbers started to climb even higher.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: I went to bingo for the first time and called someone’s nan a d*******<\/a>READ MORE: Man to open new \u2018luxury bingo\u2019 after trips to seaside town<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI didn’t really think too much of that, I just thought we had got lucky,\u201d she said. \u201cIt did seem a bit surreal because we have never won that much before.<\/p>\n \u201cMark has won \u00a370 before and that was the most we have made.\u201d<\/p>\n Mark began playing on Gala Bingo in April 2024, and Sarah joined him in November. Between them, the couple had only ever deposited \u00a310 – using free games and bonus credits to play.<\/p>\n When the couple withdrew \u00a3230 and \u00a3275, the funds arrived instantly in their bank accounts – adding to the sense that their wins were genuine.<\/p>\n Sarah even checked with a chatroom host, who told her the money \u201cwas legit.\u201d<\/p>\n She said: \u201cThen in the next game it said that I had won \u00a3600. I actually did have tears in my eyes and my head in my hands thinking this isn\u2019t right is it? Is this for real?\u201d<\/p>\n Soon, dozens of other players in the chatroom were reporting similarly large wins.<\/p>\n Sarah and Mark maxed out the number of tickets for the following rounds, and were each shown \u00a32,400 wins multiple times.<\/p>\n At one point, their accounts showed a combined balance of nearly \u00a318,000.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cThat felt a bit surreal. I was just saying to my husband over and over that this is totally surreal. I was elated.<\/p>\n \u201cI was quite sceptical at that point but still excited thinking bloody hell we\u2019ve pretty much won the best part of 18 grand between us and for us that\u2019s quite life changing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe weren\u2019t thinking about spending it on flash things.<\/p>\n “We live in a motorhome, we have to pay for places to stay. I only work part time and unfortunately Mark can\u2019t work at the moment because he suffered with shingles and he\u2019s got post-herpetic neuralgia.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would have spent it just on living. We haven\u2019t got any big ambitions. I don\u2019t need a new car. I don\u2019t want to live in a house. That money would have just made life easier.<\/p>\n \u201cMy life would have changed. I had \u00a3400 in my bank at the time and you\u2019re thinking I could have another few grand in my bank yeah that would be sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n But the joy was short-lived.<\/p>\n When Sarah attempted to withdraw a \u00a31,000 win, the transaction remained pending.<\/p>\n By 3am, she checked her account – and found it had been shut down. Mark\u2019s account was closed shortly after.<\/p>\n The next day, when both accounts were reinstated, the money had vanished and the money they withdrew cancelled. Sarah\u2019s account showed just \u00a380 remaining – and her previous withdrawal request marked as \u201ccancelled.\u201d<\/p>\n She said: \u201cI was angry.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarah says the prize pot should only have been around \u00a3150 shared between the winners – but due to an error, the system had inflated the prize total to over \u00a31.6m.<\/p>\n Gala later messaged users to say: \u201cUnfortunately, due to the technical error, your account was incorrectly credited with bingo winnings. We apologise for any inconveniences this may have caused.\u201d<\/p>\n All affected players were offered a \u00a320 bingo bonus as a \u201cgesture of goodwill\u201d – but Sarah says it felt like a slap in the face.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cI just think if we weren\u2019t more stronger minded then this could send people into quite deep depression and I\u2019ve read some messages where it actually has for people with mental health problems and money problems.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople were saying oh my god I can\u2019t believe this I\u2019m able to take my kids on holiday, I can afford my vets bills and then for that to be snatched away it\u2019s just ruined people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have literally raised people\u2019s hopes and then dashed in a matter of hours.\u201d<\/p>\n A Gala Bingo spokesperson said: “We apologise to customers for a technical error which occurred during our Summer Nights Bingo promotion for a short period of time, resulting in all players receiving incorrect payouts.<\/p>\n \u201cOur customer Terms and Conditions clearly state that in the event of a malfunction, winnings can be voided.<\/p>\n \u201cAffected players have been contacted directly with a gesture of goodwill.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“I was just saying to my husband over and over that this is totally surreal. I was elated.”Sarah…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,378,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-328733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-in-the-news","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114994966156879325","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sarah's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_couple-gutted-1-1413486.jpg\")
Sarah’s Gala Bingo app screen shots<\/p>\n![\"Sarah](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_couple-gutted-1-1413497.jpg\")
Sarah Nicole Thurgood, who thanks to a glitch thought she’d won \u00a318,000 on Gala Bingo<\/p>\n