No mortgage worries for courier after collecting £410,000 Platinum Bingo win

One lucky man who will no longer have any mortgage worries in the current financial crisis is a courier driver from Upper Norwood.

He is going to pay all his off after scooping more than £410,000 playing bingo.

“This will really change my life and make things so much easier for me and my family,” said the 58-year-old winner, who has asked not to be named. “It is a great feeling and a big relief not to have to pay the mortgage each month.”

It was on Saturday, 3 May that good fortune struck and he won the National Bingo Game at the Gala Club in Camberwell.

He completed a full house in 41 numbers, the lowest call in any of the clubs playing nationwide and because the last number on which he called house was 90, he won the Platinum roll-over jackpot as well.

His total prize-money of £410,907 was made up of the Platinum prize of £343,539; the Saturday National Game prize of £63,640; the zone prize of £3,065; the club prize of £263 and the £40 house prize

“I am still in shock,” said the man this week. “I nearly had a heart attack when they told me how much I had won and I didn’t sleep at all that night. I have been playing bingo since the 1070’s and usually play at the Gala in Crystal Palace. But I ha d been shopping in Brixton on Saturday afternoon and left it too late to get there so decided to go to Camberwell instead. That certainly must have been fate.”

He said that his wife, who is a council worker, also plays bingo but usually goes with her mother. They have two sons aged 14 and 24, and the winner says he will now pay off his son’s student loan he had for university.

7 May 2008