About the Backup Bench

Metro Vancouver's nine casinos keep different hours and offer different things. Hastings Casino closes at 12 AM from Sunday to Thursday, while Parq Casino is open 24 hours a day. Some have a poker room, a hotel or a racebook. So the answer to where else changes with the hour and with what you need.

The Backup Bench writes Plan B to answer that question from published facts. The needs it answers include open at this hour, live tables now, a poker room, a hotel on site and a racebook. Free parking and a SkyTrain station within 1 km count too. For each need, the guide names the nearest other casino in a straight line that has it, then a second option.

October 7 and 8, 2026 are the two days on which every fact here was checked. Each distance is a straight-line figure that the guide calculates from map coordinates. These are not distances by road or on foot, and no travel times are given. Silence never counts as yes. If a casino publishes nothing about a need, the guide lists nothing and never offers that casino for it.

If a casino's own pages disagree on a figure, the figure is dropped or the page notes the difference. The full method is set out on the page How a plan B is worked out.

The frosted glass clock, forked arrow and bed on the tool pages are renders from image software and written prompts. They stand for an idea, not a real place. Three casino pictures are generated from real photographs of the places shown. They show the Cascades Casino Langley hotel lobby, the Hastings Casino slot floor and the chrome bear sculpture outside Parq Vancouver. Camera position and hour differ a little, and these are generated images, not photographs, with no caption.

Every other casino picture is a freely licensed photograph, credited underneath with photographer, licence and any change: people or cars removed, or a crop. The list Image sources, below on this page, repeats them with links. No picture shows casino staff or guests, and the guide took none at any casino.

• Elements Casino Surrey facade with its curved roof (Elements Casino Surrey): photo by Leoboudv, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cars removed; modified version under the same licence.
• Hastings Park and the racecourse from the air (Hastings Casino): photo by Canmenwalker, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped.
• Hotel lobby of The Douglas at Parq Vancouver (Parq Casino): photo by Wpcpey, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; person removed; modified version under the same licence.
• River Rock lodge-style front on River Road (River Rock Casino Resort): photo by Arnold C, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons; cars removed.
• River Rock atrium under its timber roof (River Rock Casino Resort): photo by GoToVan, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr; people removed, cropped.
• River Rock marina seen from the hotel (River Rock Casino Resort): photo by Blake Handley, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
• Flowers in the River Rock atrium (River Rock Casino Resort): photo by Blake Handley, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.

Plan B is no casino but a guide: there is nowhere to place a bet and no account to open. An online casino is the one partner behind the paid links, and those links, each tagged Ad, appear on the home page and nowhere else. This site is paid a commission for those links, and the partner itself may be replaced. No paid links sit on inner pages, including this one. The site receives no payment from casinos, operators, BCLC, PlayNow or help services.