Hallingmere is a relatively major city with a population of about 96 000, often referred to disparagingly as the “Trash-Heap Vegas” of England due to its association with gambling. While much of the cash flow in the city could be attributed to various smaller casinos in its early days, much of the gambling scene in Offetstine had been consolidated into the Golden Chalice in a mixture of acquisitions and bankruptcies throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s.
When the Golden Chalice’s prestigious building was spontaneously bombed in 1997 and many of its top officials distanced themselves from the event and the corporation alike, the city’s economy nearly ground to a halt.