He said: "We have withdrawn the plans for the casino, and the main reason was the changes in legislation that brought down the number of casinos from eight to one. The club believes Blackpool is odds-on to win the one Government licence for a supercasino and has decided to end any further spending on the project. The Government had originally intended to allow eight supercasinos in the UK, but ministers were forced to back down amid concerns about widespread problem gambling and social harm. In an eleventh hour compromise to secure the passage of the Gambling Bill, which establishes a new regulator for the industry, the Government agreed to allow only one "test" supercasino at a location yet to be decided.Amid the uncertainty over who will win the licence, a spokesman for Manchester United said the club's board had decided to channel resources in to finding other uses for its land. Manchester United has scrapped plans to build a Las Vegas-style supercasino next to its Old Trafford ground. And ITV was responsible for the ITV Digital fiasco that saw the broadcaster tear up a rights contract it held with the less prestigious Football League clubs.. The source said: "Where's the logic in that? If they're saying we didn't get the full value last time, how come they are offering the same, and not more, this time?"The chairmen also reflected on their lack of confidence in ITV and NTL due to the broadcasters' recent history with football. Confidence among chairmen is undermined, they said, by the fact that NTL bid and won a package of pay-per-view games in a previous auction, in 2000, and then said it couldn't afford them.

The chairmen backed Mr Scudamore's verdict, with many of them saying they would be happy for Sky to keep 100 per cent of the rights.One source among the clubs said that ITV/NTL claimed the rights last time were undersold yet they said they might consider offering half of last time's value (or £170m a year) for half of the next deal's games. There was a feeling among some chairmen that the NTL/ ITV proposal, made in letters to them earlier this week, was little more than a "publicity stunt", designed to make it look to the European competition authorities as though there are serious bidders apart from BSkyB wanting to bid for a large portion of live games. Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of the Premier League, will travel to Brussels next week for a meeting with the Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, who is determined to force the League to open up a large portion of the rights to a broadcaster other than Sky.Mr Scudamore told the club chairmen that they should not give in to demands from Europe, echoed in the ITV/NTL letter, that the League prohibit any one broadcaster from getting more than 50 per cent of the matches. A similar petition by Johnson & Johnson on its ADHD drug Concerta has delayed approval of generic versions for more than a year.Shire's other tactics for extending the exclusivity of Adderall include suing Barr for patent infringement in a US case that will begin in January.. Premier League chairmen dismissed a joint outline bid from ITV and NTL for the rights to televise live football at a meeting yesterday. A drug's sales typically crash by three-quarters in the first few months of competition.Shire says, in a petition to the FDA, that Barr and other rivals should have to prove their versions are metabolised by children in exactly the same way and over the same number of hours. Despite its attempts to create a portfolio of other blockbuster drugs, the continuing growth of Adderall - which is now sold as Adderall XR, a once-a-day formulation - has eclipsed all other products and increased the pressure on Shire to stall copycat competition. It also argued that the trading environment had become tougher.The bid is based on maximising returns from Somerfield's property rather than implementing a new strategy.

It is dependent on getting the board's backing because the consortium want to retain the current management, led by Steve Back. But the chairman, John von Spreckelsen, has always maintained that the company is not a forced seller All parties declined to comment.. Shire Pharmaceuticals, the FTSE 100 drugmaker, has put in place another plank in its defence of Adderall, the hyperactivity drug that accounts for almost half its sales but which could lose patent protection within a year. Shire has written to US regulators demanding that rivals conduct lengthy clinical trials to prove their drugs have the same effect as Adderall, an amphetamine which is given to children suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Analysts were uncertain that the regulator, the Food & Drug Administration, will order the trials, but they suspected that its deliberations could delay approval for rival drugs beyond the time - autumn 2006 - when generic versions of Adderall are expected on the market.Barr Laboratories of the US filed for approval of its version two years ago, raising fears for Shire's medium-term profitability. One source close to the process said there was "no guarantee" and a slim chance the negotiations could break down at the eleventh hour.Apax is under pressure to follow through with a formal offer after it walked away from bidding for Woolworths this year. Gerald Corbett, Woolworths' chairman, attacked the private-equity house for playing games, suggesting retailers should think twice before letting Apax look at their books.The consortium is thought to have dropped its price after finding out that Somerfield's pension deficit was £112m, higher than it had bargained for. Television Corp, the production company behind cricket programming and the recent drama about David Blunkett, has received a £38m takeover offer from its Welsh rival Tinopolis.