Gala Coral History

The Gala Coral gambling group has changed hands numerous
times over the years, but the company’s history dates back to
1926. It all began with Joseph Kagarlitski who was born in
Poland and then migrated to the UK where he changed his name to
Joe Coral.

Joe started taking his first bets in 1926 as a bookmaker who
specialized in the local horseracing scene. He stuck with
smalltime bookmaking until UK law changed and legalized actual
betting shops in 1961. He opened his first shop in 1961,
effectively establishing the Coral Group.

The first shop was successful and Coral quickly expanded. By
1962, Coral owned 23 betting shops throughout the UK. The
company saw a decade and a half of rapid expansion and by 1977,
the Coral Group operated hundreds of betting shops. Coral
continued to grow from this point as it expanded into bingo
shops, casinos, hotels, and leisure clubs.

In 1981, the Coral Group was acquired by Bass plc. Coral was
integrated into Bass’ existing betting shops, but retained the
Coral name. Under Bass management, the Coral Group acquired a
number of other betting chains and continued to grow.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Coral Group changed hands
several times. The group eventually merged with Gala and formed
what we now know as Gala Coral. All through this time, Coral and
later Gala Coral continued to acquire other betting shop chains
and bingo parlors throughout the UK.

These various mergers and acquisitions helped propel Gala
Coral to its current status as one of the largest bookmakers in
the UK. The company now operates 1800 betting shops in the UK,
25 brick-and-mortar casinos, and more than 300 betting shops in
Italy.

Gala Coral Website

Gala Coral had a bit of an identity crises during the early
years of its online business. The company managed a number of
websites (Gala and Coral Eurobet), but didn’t have a single brand
identity. They finally fixed that in 2011 when they formed Gala
Interactive to serve as the company’s online branch.

Gala Interactive merged its various online presences into a
few major gambling sites. They now operate the following
websites:

• Coral.co.uk
• Galabingo.com
• Galacasino.com
• Eurobet.it (Italian gambling site)

Today, Gala Coral employs more than 16,000 people in its
betting shops and offices around the world. The brand now has
three distinct branches. Gala Interactive runs the
aforementioned gambling sites, Gala Gaming manages the company’s
brick-and-mortar casinos/bingo shops, and Gala Retail manages the
UK and Italian betting shops.

Gala Coral remains a private company to this day, but they
have hinted at going public at some point over the next few
years. Although not yet public, Coral does release public
financial statements and they are doing very well. Last year,
all operations brought in more than £200 million in gross
profits.

Charity

Gala Coral has an active charity division that works with
local groups to raise money and donate time to positive causes.
Employees routinely participate in local projects while Gala
Coral itself often pledges money to other charitable
organizations.

For the last few years, Gala Coral employees have voted to
make Sue Ryder Care one
of their primary donation targets. They raise at least
£1,000,000 every year through direct donations and fundraiser
efforts such as races and climbs. In 2009, Gala employees
climbed to Everest Base Camp to play the world’s highest ever
bingo game and raised £1.5 million for their efforts.