About this guide
About the Block Walkers
The Block Walkers is the collective name under which Around the Block is written and signed, not a person. No page on the site carries a personal byline, and the site has no named author.
By the Block WalkersChecked October 7, 2026Map data October 8, 2026
Why the block outside
People going to a casino in Metro Vancouver can have time to fill outside the door. Some wait for a taxi or a bus. Others arrive early, stay overnight or want a walk afterwards. Casino pages describe the floor and the restaurants, but say little about the block outside.
Around the Block maps that block for nine Metro Vancouver casinos. The places around each one come from OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, fetched through the Overpass API. The Block Walkers count bus stops and stations, hotels, places to eat, parks and shops. Every place keeps its OpenStreetMap id. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence (ODbL).
Each count uses three straight-line rings from the casino's own map position: 400, 800 and 1,200 m. At an assumed 80 m a minute, those read as a 5, 10 and 15 minute walk. A real walk along streets is longer.
How facts are checked
On October 7, 2026, addresses, hours and other venue facts were compared with each venue's own pages and with official sources. For hours on holidays, check the venue's own website. On October 8, 2026, the OpenStreetMap data was downloaded. Nearest bus stops and their routes come from TransLink's GTFS schedule data, valid September 7, 2026 to January 3, 2027. School specials are left out.
Nothing on the maps is recommended or judged; each place is named as mapped. Venues, TransLink, PlayNow, BCLC, help services and the places named on the maps never pay this site. It has no forms, no comments and no newsletter, and A cookie-free page counter reports each view to an outside analytics firm, along with your IP address and browser details. Calculator and planner entries never leave your device.
How the pictures are made
Across the site, every casino picture is a two-tone drawing made with a picture generator from real photographs of the real place. They show Elements Casino Surrey, the Hastings Racecourse track, Cascades Casino Langley with its hotel, Parq Vancouver, and River Rock Casino Resort. Real buildings and rooms stay as they are, while camera and light shift slightly and people and cars are left out. Five follow freely licensed photographs, with photographer and licence credited under each and in the Image sources list below. Maps are drawn by the guide from OpenStreetMap data, and the cafe-corner scene and category icons show no real street or casino.
Image sources
- Elements Casino Surrey: photo by Leoboudv, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Changed: redrawn in two tones, people and cars left out; the drawing is shared under the same licence.
- River Rock Casino Resort, lawn: photo by GoToVan, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr. Changed: redrawn in two tones, people and cars left out.
- River Rock hotel corner: photo by Runningboards, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Changed: redrawn in two tones, people and cars left out; the drawing is shared under the same licence.
- River Rock hotel corridor: photo by GoToVan, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr. Changed: redrawn in two tones, people and cars left out.
- Marina beside River Rock: photo by Dennis Sylvester Hurd, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Changed: redrawn in two tones, people and cars left out.