Super-casino U-turn plan to be unveiled

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In a statement to MPs this afternoon, Culture Secretary Andy Burnham is expected to confirm the decision to go ahead with 16 large regional casinos but drop the proposed huge gambling venue.

It comes eight months after Gordon Brown declared regeneration might be a better way forward than building a super-casino.

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears is due to publish a review of alternative measures and set out specific measures aimed at improving parts of Manchester and Blackpool.

Manchester fought off stiff competition from Blackpool and the Millennium Dome in London when it won the right to host the UK's first super-casino in January last year.

The plans were projected to bring in some £265 million of investment to a deprived part of the city and up to 2,700 direct and indirect jobs.

But the scheme was put on ice months later when peers rejected it by just three votes. It was then deemed "dead in the water" by Whitehall insiders following Mr Brown's remarks.

The large regional casinos - allowed to provide up to 150 slot machines offering jackpots of up to £4,000 - are expected to be approved in Leeds, Southampton, Great Yarmouth, Middlesbrough, Solihull, Hull, Milton Keynes and Newham, east London.

Smaller casinos are expected to be given the go-ahead in Somerset, Dumfries and Galloway, Scarborough, Wolverhampton, Swansea, Luton, Torbay and East Lindsey, Lincs.

Confirming the announcement was due today, Mr Brown's spokesman said: "There is a huge difference in scale in terms of gambling opportunities in a super-casino and the smaller casinos. What we said was we would work up alternative regeneration packages which did not rely on a super-casino."