Manchester has emerged as the surprise winner to become the site of Britain’s first supercasino
The city beat favourites Blackpool and Greenwich as the home of the UK's largest casino.
The casino will comprise a gaming area of 53,820 sq ft (5,000 sq m), a hotel, conference facilities, restaurants, bars and a live entertainment venue.
Seven areas were vying for the right to build a venue with a licence for up to 1,250 unlimited jackpot gaming machines.
Glasgow, Newcastle, Cardiff, Sheffield were also shortlisted.
The Casino Advisory Panel has also announced that Great Yarmouth, Kingston-upon-Hull, Leeds, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Newham, Solihull and Southampton will house the eight large regional casino locations around the country.
Areas permitted to open smaller casinos are Bath and north-east Somerset, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lindsey, Luton, Scarborough, Swansea, Torbay and Wolverhampton.
The large casinos will be a maximum of 16,146 sq ft (1,500 sq m) and will have up to 150 gaming machines with a jackpot of up to £4,000, with bingo and betting permitted.
The small casions will be half that size and will feature as many as 80 machines with £4,000 jackpots and betting.
The government had originally planned between 20 and 40 regional - or 'super' - casinos to encourage regeneration in run-down seaside resorts.
But in the face of Conservative and Liberal Democrat opposition, the number was reduced to eight, and then to one, which will act as a test site.