The Government looks set to finally give a controversial super-casino plan the axe.
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, in a statement to MPs later.
Manchester beat off competition from Blackpool and the Millennium Dome in Greenwich to win the right to host the UK's first super-casino in January last year.
The plans were projected to bring in some £265 million 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 after Gordon Brown declared regeneration might be a better way forward than building a super-casino.
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, 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.
It is now understood Communities Secretary Hazel Blears will publish a review of alternative measures aimed at regenerating parts of Manchester and Blackpool.
© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.
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