Woman Ordered to Split £1Million Bingo Jackpot

Posted on October 29th, 2009

Recent news reports sparked interest in a massive family feud caused by a big bingo win. Evidently Jean McCullagh had promised family members to split any bingo winnings both before and after the big win. Ms. McCullagh then reneged on her promise setting off a firestorm among family members. The huge bingo win is credited with destroying the relationship between McCullagh and her sister Margaret Cleugh and sisters-in-law Rose McCullagh and Jessie McCullagh.

The case ended up in a Court of Session where McCullagh settled out of court. It was Jean’s sister and sisters in law who originally introduced Jean to the bingo hall where the million pound win took place. The end result of all this resulted in Jean being ostracized from the rest of the family. In a joint statement given to a local newspaper sister and sisters in law Jessie, 65, Rose, 59, and Margaret, 67 said that Jean and her husband John had been banned from the entire family.

The statement read, “There are no winners here. This should never have happened. We agreed before the game we were sharing, not once but twice and again after the win. Jean and John have to deal with the loss of the family. It’s over now and we will put this behind us and get on with our lives.”

Legal experts said that word of mouth contracts are notoriously difficult to prove in a court. The case against Jean was seen as solid due to the amount of evidence against her. Jean’s sister and sisters in law said they had celebrated the big bingo win with champagne but the day after Jean changed her mind telling family members that “This money will set my daughters up for life.” Jean argued that she had brokered an agreement that did not include the £1million jackpot.

Since most internet bingo players play alone at home these kinds of misunderstandings are not likely to happen. Internet bingo jackpots usually are significantly higher than those land based bingo can offer. In addition players can receive free bingo bonuses, a bingo sign up bonus and a bingo deposit bonus just for registering at an internet bingo website.
It is always sad to hear of money troubles destroying a family. So far Jean has not commented on the outcome of the case. If Jean had played internet bingo none of this would have happened in the first place.