SOUTHAMPTON is one of 27 places locked in a race to become the casino capital of the UK - offering visitors more than 1,000 gaming machines with unlimited jackpots.
The city has made a formal bid to host the UK's only giant Las Vegas-style casino.
If successful it would be permitted to build a gambling centre measuring at least 5,000 square metres and featuring up to 1,250 gaming machines with no upper prize limits.
Southampton is up against 26 other towns and cities for the prize of the regional site.
They are Blackpool, Brent, Cardiff, Chesterfield, Coventry, Dartford, Dudley, Glasgow, Great Yarmouth, Greenwich, Havering, Hull, Ipswich, Leeds, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Midlothian, Newcastle, Newport, Sheffield, Solihull, Southend-on-Sea, Sunderland, Thurrock, Wakefield and West Dunbartonshire.
The government's Casino Advisory Panel will now spend up to eight weeks studying the proposals and drawing up a shortlist, before making a recommendation by the end of the year.
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