About this guide
Who keeps Up Close
Up Close is the work of the Up Close desk, a team of editors who write and sign it together; no personal byline appears. The site exists because people arrive at casinos they have never seen and need to know where to park or get off.
The Up Close desk
Up Close is written and edited by the Up Close desk, the guide's own editorial team. Credit goes to the team as a whole, without personal names. Its work serves this guide and no one else. No venue, TransLink, BCLC, PlayNow or help service pays the site or shapes what it publishes. The site does earn a commission from an online casino partner linked on its home page.
Nobody can gamble through Up Close, and nobody can register with it. Its pages look at each venue from outside, never at the rooms past the doors. Marks drawn on a building picture state facts the Up Close desk has checked.
How facts are checked
The Up Close desk places each mark by hand on the building in the frame. A mark carries one fact: parking, the nearest stop or station, a hotel on site, or the level of a service inside. Addresses, hours, parking and transit details are checked against each venue's website and official bodies. Every check carries a date. The current round of checks was completed on October 7, 2026.
When two of a venue's own pages disagree on a number, the Up Close desk drops it. That is why Grand Villa's poker table count and Hastings' slot count do not appear. Each distance to a bus stop or SkyTrain station is a straight line, not a walking route. It runs from the venue's OpenStreetMap position to TransLink's stop coordinates in its GTFS data. The two station distances for Parq are the figures Parq publishes itself.
Who pays for the site
Up Close earns its money from three links labelled Ad. All three sit on the front page and appear on no other page. Each one opens the same commercial online casino site. That site pays Up Close a commission, and another partner could replace it. Venues, TransLink, BCLC, PlayNow and support services pay the guide nothing.
Writing to the guide
Letters for the guide go to [email protected]. A letter may carry a correction, a changed opening hour or parking term, or a question on how Up Close is put together. This mailbox serves the guide alone and is tied to no casino. A question meant for a venue is best asked by phoning that venue directly.