Jimmy Thomas Bingo
- Jimmy Thomas, assisted by his wife, had a lifetime of operating and manufacturing machines and games for the amusement and bingo industry, running chains of arcades and bingo clubs across the country. He is a former president of the trade association BACTA.
- He is also a Director of Next Generation Australia (Health & Tennis Clubs), World Bingo Tech (Electronic Bingo), the Heart of London Business Alliance, 2 police IAGs, and was a trustee of Gamcare.
Milton Keynes-based gaming company Praesepe presented the bacta Charitable Trust, its chosen charity for 2020, with a cheque for £25,000 at ICE London, an exhibition to showcase the latest in gaming innovation across all sectors.
Bacta (British Amusement Catering Trade Association) is the trade body representing the interests of Britain’s amusements and high street gaming manufacturers and operators. It aims to highlight the ethical, sustainable and professional representation of the industry, and supports a number of charities including Rays of Sunshine, the Teenage Cancer Trust, The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and Great Ormond Street Hospital.
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Over the last four years,bacta has raised a substantial amount for Rays of Sunshine alone, which grantswishes for children with life-limiting or serious illnesses.
Mark Schertle, chief operating officer forPraesepe said: “We’re very proud to be working with bacta, which does a great job both for our industryand the charities it supports. The £25,000 donation is going to a great cause, which does so much for the family,friends, employees and patients of the hospitals and charities they support.We’re excited to see just how much more we can raise across our Praesepe, MerkurCashino and Beacon Bingo brands.”
Jimmy Thomas, Chairman of the bactaCharitable Trust said: “We’re thrilled and very grateful for this £25,000 donation from Praesepe. It will make a huge difference tothe charities and people we support. Together, I’m sure we will be able toraise a lot more money for each charity, and through that help many more youngand people affected by cancer across the UK.”
The money from the donation will be splitbetween bacta’s chosen charities.
Since 2005, Praesepe has also raised £1.1million and presented over 170 custom built wheelchairs for its previous chosencharity CHIPS, which was founded by the casino and gaming industry and providesspecialised powered wheelchairs to young people with severe mobility problems.
About Us
Beacon Bingo is part of the Praesepe group of companies one of Europe’s largest and most experienced gaming organisations operating 6 Beacon Bingo Clubs, 164 Adult Gaming Centres and 5 seaside Family Entertainment Centres as well as Beacon Online.
Beacon Bingo was founded by Jimmy Thomas in 1963 through Thomas Automatics, which designed, manufactured, supplied and exported amusement and leisure equipment to 39 countries. The first Beacon bingo club opened in 1966.
In 1978, Beacon opened the first new build bingo club in the UK in Hounslow West London; this was followed in 1991 when the ground breaking club in Northampton opened changing the face of live bingo in the UK. The progress continued in 1996 when Beacon went on to develop the largest and most successful bingo club in the world when it opened the flagship Beacon Bingo club at Cricklewood North London. Since then Beacon has launched electronic bingo in all our clubs and pioneered ‘noisy’ bingo in the B2 room at Northampton. Beacon also operates outstanding live clubs in Brighton, Streatham and Lowestoft. The spirit of innovation has now spread to the internet when in 2009 Beacon launched the first on-line bingo site in the UK to incorporate ‘Site Hosts’ welcoming and helping new players find their way around the site.
In April 2010, Beacon Bingo became part of the Praesepe group created and led by Nick Harding as Chief Executive Officer. Nick has considerable experience in the gaming industry having previously held a number of senior positions with leading UK gaming operators including Coral, Bass Leisure and Rank Group.
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The company is based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire and employs over 1000 people across its 180 gaming venues, machines workshop and support centre.
If you would like to enquire about vacancies within Beacon Bingo, please visit our parent site, Praesepe.
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Part of the Praesepe group of companies