A BOLTON businessman has hit the jackpot after selling his bingo hall chain.

Panico Panayi, from Markland Hill, whose company Cambos Enterprises is based in Canal Street, Manchester, has sold his Buckingham Bingo empire to Alchemy Partners for £90 million.

The deal makes him one of the 50 richest people in the North-west.

Mr Panayi set up his first bingo hall in Preston in 1970. Buckingham Bingo now owns ten sites across the North-west, including a bingo hall in Walkden. It has 500 staff and boasts a turnover of about £20 million.

His Cambos group also owns The Tavern on the Hill at Hunger Hill, but this is not included in the deal.

London-based Alchemy beat a number of bidders for the group after it went up for sale in September.

The deal was the second major North-west swoop by Alchemy in a week, after it announced an agreed £42.5 million takeover of Inventive Leisure, the Ashton-under-Lyne operator of the Revolution vodka bar chain.

Headed by venture capitalist John Moulton, Alchemy, which also owns the Midland Hotel in Manchester, was unsuccessful in an attempt to buy Rover in 1999, being beaten by the ill-fated Phoenix Group.