Five super-casino bidders have yet to appoint architects as industry awaits jackpot winner.

The eight regions battling to win the right to build the UK's first super-casino have made little progress towards firming up design and construction details.

Last week, the eight regions - Glasgow, Cardiff, Manchester, Newcastle, Brent, Greenwich, Blackpool and Sheffield - were shortlisted from 27 applications.

Blackpool, Newcastle, Brent, Greenwich and Sheffield say they will not decide on architects or developers until they have found out whether they have been chosen to build the one casino - a decision which will not be made until December.

Cardiff and Manchester have both named their preferred casino operators, with Cardiff chosing the major UK/Australian company Aspers and Manchester chosing Kerzner.

Ian Simpson Architects' have designed the plans for Manchester, and Carey Jones' has drawn up the plans for Cardiff's casino, which will be within the International Sports Village.

Manchester, whose casino will be developed by Ask Developers, wants the casino to be part of its £260m leisure and entertainment centre at Sportscity, formerly the Commonwealth Games athletes' village.

Glasgow is pursuing a different approach to winning the bid for the casino, by using four companies to develop different plans for the super-casino.

The four developers are MGM Mirage, Rangers Football Club, Miller Developments and the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in conjunction with Kerzner.