A legal challenge to stop the construction of Manchester's proposed supercasino and 16 smaller gaming halls, which was mounted by four existing casinos, has been thrown out of court.
Gala Casinos, Grosvenor Casinos, London Clubs International and Stanley Casinos, which between them monopolise 116 of the 138 casinos in Britain, had claimed that the building of any new casinos would be unfair to existing meccas.
The main body, the British Casino Association (BCA), said that the 17 new casinos, especially the proposed supercasino near Sportcity, would cost jobs across the country.
Far from agreeing with the BCA, High Court judge Mr Justice Langstaff, accepted the claims of campaigners for Manchester's supercasino that actually 3,000 extra jobs would be created in the area and that the new casino would be good news for the local economy.
Sports minister Richard Caborn said in the North East Manchester Advertiser: "I welcome the judgment which dismissed the BCA's case on all grounds and found that our policy was fairly and properly made."
Manchester council leader Sir Richard Leese added: "The result is very good news. We hope to be in a position to move forward on the regional casino as soon as possible."
A legal challenge to stop the construction of Manchester's proposed supercasino and 16 smaller gaming halls, which was mounted by four existing casinos, has been thrown out of court.