How nice of all of you looking down your noses at the proposals for new casinos. Of course this is without knowing the facts about gambling or the legislation that controls casinos in the UK.
Play the lottery do you? Along with the sixteen year olds and younger. Because i've never seen a shopkeeper ask for I.D.
Casinos cannot have their own tv programs or advertise in any medium they wish like the lottery AND we dont want to.
We have quietly gone along for the last 30 yrs with no criminal element, no signage, no advertising, no children allowed and controlled by the strictest legislation in the world INCLUDING new laws covering us helping and preventing problem gambling.
People like to gamble, including myself. Leave us alone and put your indnignation into more serious matters.

Paul, London,

This is fantastic news! As the sister of a man who was so hooked on gambling that he wanted to commit suicide, I just feel so glad that we now appear to have a government with moral backbone and compassion.

I do not know a single person who ever wanted these Supercasinos. There are better ways to re-generate the run down areas, and it looks like Gordon Brown wants the government to quit bullying and exploiting people and start really fixing the problems. I hope people will put away the cynicism and back what he is trying to do.

Barbara, Staffordshire, England, England

Correct decision, ..... at last. It is all very well saying people should be able to control themselves, some people patently can't and it is the families and taxpayers that end up having to pick up the emotional and financial bill for the wreckages that ensue. As Bob in London says Blair's backing for casinos said it all about him, never mind about wars in distant lands he was starting a war against families in this country with those proposals.

John, Dundee, UK

Mr Brown, just go away - another 1000 jobs that wil not be created in Manchester and how many others in the proposed regional casinos that will now not happen.

As for no casino being a good thing, if people want to gamble they'll go online or to the bookies - this decision just costs jobs.

matthew, solihull, west midlands

Good to know that the hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayer's money that was sunk into the "supercasino" fiasco hasn't been wasted, then.

Erm.... oh dear.

Ade, Wallasey, UK

Hurray!

Rebecca, London,

All we need now is for the equally pointless and ill-fated HIPs to bite the dust as well - hooray!

Ian, Nottingham, UK

everyone i know thought the idea of super casinos was like your readers think, appalling.
they typified blairs moral vacuum.i am begining to think that perhaps we are in for period of decency.

rod smith, manchester, england

We need an exclusive casino in Central London to part those private equity people from the money they don't pay in taxes, and maybe a fun themed one in Blackpool. You don't want to ban gambling outright and create a black market. However gaming doesn't generate money, it just redistributes it and, at best, creates a few low paid jobs as waitresses or cleaners. The rest of the money gets sucked straight out of the local economy into the operators' profits.

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

This is an extraordinary turnaround from Gordon Brown, and an altogether welcome one. The idea that a casino in one of Manchester's deprived areas is going to solve the problems and 'regenerate the town is absurd, it just means that many will be attracted into going into debt and create more social problems for the neighbourhood. This announcement should not be surprising given the fact Gordon Brown is the austere son of a Scottish Presbyterian minister who, in all probability, views gambling as one of life's 'evils'. Let's find other ways to regenerate and bring wealth into these areas as gambling will anly add to the problems not aleviate them.

Robert P, Hamilton,

This is a courageous decision for which those concerned for future attitudes, aspirations and the work ethic will be grateful.

Although the possibility of enabling mass escape into fantasy and dream seems attractive when combined with huge profit opportunity and regeneration, there are other less motivationally damaging ways of enabling mass leisure opportunities.

Scrapping the former plan seems such a good idea, that this technique might well be a valuable political tool of the future.

Rather than the traditional expectation of political promises frequently underachieved, why not announce a dubious idea and later reap political reward for retracting it, and not performing as promised?

dr venables preller, Warminster, UK

Yes, excellent news if the proposed casinos really do hit the buffers. This was an appalling strategy for regeneration.

If only Brown could show equal common sense & scrap his over-complex system of benefit credits. But I doubt it!

David, Newcastle,

Supercasinos, in area of regeneration?
Why fill the pockets of private investment where the only ones to gain are the owners of these places?
Why tempt people who have little to spend and all to lose?
Areas of regeneration require proper job opportunities for people who cannot get employment. How many croupiers can be contracted?
I am a Conservative but I wholeheartedly welcome Brown´s policy.

jaime gamell-riera, madrid, spain

So, according to Manchester Councillors, "regeneration" equals a Super Casino?

Rubbish!

What is need is for some property developers or housing associations to build housing and communities. Real homes that people can afford to either buy or rent.

Tony J, Swanage, UK

New Labour, you have to admire their cheek. They create a problem, repair the problem, then take the credit.

Brett, Manchester, UK

Hats off to Gordon. Regeneration doesn't come at such a high social and economic cost to the most vulnerable and least able to afford this rubbish. But please, no more blocks of flats.

Jennifer Hynes, Plymouth, England

So how much did all that waste of time cost then?

Mark, Birmingham, UK

Good job Mr. Brown. First, the councils waste millions of taxpayers ££ to market themselves... then the Parliament wastes a few more million debating and passing the bill... then we scrap. A signature effort indeed!! Hurrah for government efficiency and policy consistency in the Labour Party

Jaideep Mehta, Woking,

Brown's stock has considerably gone up in my opinion! I always felt that these super casinos were a really bad idea. Casinos are in business to make money, that means the majority of people loose; and putting these casinos in deprived areas was to achieve exactly what? Oh, encourage people that could ill afford to gamble to gamble. I live in London, which has lots of casinos (that I don't visit), so travelling up to Manchester to gamble was never going to happen.

Martin Garthwaite, London,

Thank heavens the powers that be are seeing sense. Casinos are a plague - the organized mass financial rape of the emotionally vulnerable. The next step should be to scrap the 16 smaller casinos as well.

Oliver Chettle, Bedford,

Well that is good news. More casinos can only mean more people with gambling problems and it is naive (or irresponsible and greedy) to suggest otherwise.

Angela C, London,

This is excellent news. A clear break with the Blair era and a far more socially-reponsible policy.

Andrew Robson, Leicester, UK, UK

Blair's advocacy of mega-casinos spoke more truthfully and illuminatingly about himself than he ever did. Brown's early abrupt consignment of these proposals to the rubbish heap equally speaks volumes about his own values and opinion of Blair.

Bob, London, UK

At last a vote for common sense.

Anybody who has seen Atlantic City or Las Vegas , where slums, prostitution,drugs alchholism and gambling are rife and where a facile lifestyle precails, cannot but fail to agree that there are much more constructive ways to re-generate an area. Support the community and it's skill base rather than allow Casino's to destroy it.

Stuart, Glasgow,

What is really going on here?? I sense a new Prime Minister perhaps distancing himself from an earlier 'problem decision' that is likely to 'hit the legal fan' in the very near future..Perhaps even swept up in the enquires being made regarding cash for honours, (or maybe even favours?). Personally I have always doubted it was just a matter of a pair of cowboy boots.

Keith, Dartmouth, UK