Manchester unexpectedly won the fight to host Britain's first Las Vegas-style supercasino today.
Most industry analysts had predicted either Blackpool, London's Millennium Dome or Glasgow would win.
Manchester council expects the giant casino will generate 2,700 jobs on its 5,000-square-metre venue and in surrounding bars, hotels, cinemas, restaurants and other sports and leisure outlets.
Local MP Graham Stringer said he was "astonished" but delighted that Manchester had won the bid. "It's going to bring a lot of jobs and regeneration to a part of the city that really needs it," Mr Stringer said.
The former industrial city is now best known as the birthplace of the Britpop music scene of the 1990s that spawned the Stone Roses, Oasis and the Happy Mondays. But it still has many poor and derelict areas.
Bookmaker Paddy Power said it had taken just eight bets on a Manchester win, with odds of 16 to 1, while the faded northwestern resort town of Blackpool was the favourite at 8 to 15, and the Dome was in second position at 15 to 8.