"Manchester represents a good place to test social impact, and the council's consultations with other local authorities and relevant bodies gave us confidence on that," says Stephen Crow, chair of the advisory panel, in a prepared statement. "Manchester has a catchment area for a casino second only to that of London, and it is an area in need of regeneration at least as much as any of the others we observed--indeed, the city has the greatest need in terms of multiple deprivation of all the proposals that were before us."

There are currently 138 casinos operating in Britain under the current law, which was enacted in 1968. The casinos generated around 14 million visits last year. The Gambling Act of 2005 was passed in April 2005 and takes effect this September.

In addition to the regional casino planned for Manchester, the Casino Advisory Panel has recommended locations for eight large (up to 43,000 sf) and eight small casinos. The large casino cities--places where the casinos can be as large as 43,000 sf--are Great Yarmouth, Kingston-upon-Hull, Leeds, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Newham, Solihull and Southamptoncan. The small casino cities recommended were Bath and North East Somerset; Dumfries and Galloway; East Lindsey; Luton; Scarborough; Swansea; Torbay and Wolverhampton.