Back in May 2013, Rank Group PLC (Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casino) completed its £179m purchase of 19 Gala Coral Casinos (Gala Casino) and three non-trading licenses to become the largest casino operator in the UK.
They originally wanted to purchase all 23 of the land based casino sites owned by Gala; however, the Competition Commission believed this would put them at an unfair advantage and would; therefore, only allow them to purchase 19. This left 4 land based casinos in; Teesside, Cardiff, Bristol and Aberdeen, as well as a ‘cold’ casino license for Dundee that Gala would have to sell to another company.
The good news is that these properties have now been sold to Double Diamond Gaming for an undisclosed amount of money. Double Diamond Gaming currently own and run the popular Rainbow Casino in Birmingham, and are pleased to be branching out across the UK.
This sadly means that Gala will no longer have a land-based casino presence in the UK; however, they do still have their popular online casino and bingo sites.
