Thousands of online bingo players have been left enraged after having their mega winnings from a glitched £1.6 million prize pot snatched away.
Gala Bingo blamed a "technical error" which caused the overall prize pot to skyrocket, when the correct sum was supposed to be just £150.
Players were left gobsmacked on Monday night when they received a message saying that they had won big.
Accounts displayed winnings of thousands of pounds, but the money never landed into their bank accounts when they tried to withdraw the funds.
The punters received a devastating email from Gala Bingo shortly afterwards explaining they would not be receiving their winnings due to the prize pot experiencing a "technical error".
Jacqui Norrish, 41, from Devon, thought she had won over £9,500 after playing Monday night's game, but received the devastating email shortly afterwards.
The email read: “Unfortunately, due to a technical error on Monday 4th August 2025, your account was incorrectly credited with Bingo winnings."
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|Players' accounts displayed winnings of thousands of pounds, but the money never landed into their bank accounts
Norrish said: “It’s absolutely outrageous how big companies can play with people’s lives like this, it’s disgraceful.
“I was going to pay to get my daughter tested for autism because the NHS wait is so long and I’d planned to pay the rest of my husband’s car off.
“I'm absolutely gutted. When you’ve been told you’ve won something and then it’s snatched away, it makes you feel terrible.”
The Summer Nights Promotion cost just a penny to enter and had a £150 maximum prize pot.
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|Edinburgh pensioner, Jill Douthwaite, 72, was led to believe that she had scooped a whopping £2,700 on the game.
She said: “I was so relieved because I thought I could spend £500 to save my dog’s eyesight.
“We’re a family who can’t afford to go on holidays and we’ve been struck with a lot of bad luck in the past too.
“My daughter even phoned her dad to say she could repay his loan for the car, but then she had to go back on her word because Gala Bingo did.”
The gambling website confirmed that they have been in contact with the Gambling Commission over the unfortunate glitch.
A spokesman for Gala Bingo 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.
"Our customer Terms and Conditions clearly state that in the event of a malfunction, winnings can be voided.
"Affected players have been contacted directly with a gesture of goodwill."