The prime minister unexpectedly announcement that plans for a regional ‘supercasino’ would be ‘subject to reflection over the next few months’. Financial Times. Daily Telegraph. The Times. The Guardian. The Independent

Northern northern Labour MPs vowed to seek an urgent meeting with the prime minister in a last-ditch attempt to win a reprieve for the controversial project seen as a powerful weapon of regeneration in Manchester, the recommended location.

Signalling the government’s intentions, Brown told MPs a review would ‘look at whether regeneration in the areas [considered] for the supercasino might be a better way of meeting their economic and social needs than the creation of supercasinos’.

The 16 smaller casinos may yet survive, however.

A decision will be made after parliament returns, following the government-commissioned report in September into the ‘incidence and prevalence and social effects’ of gambling, announced Brown yesterday.