In the third day of public hearings on casino expansion in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada) the owners of the city’s lone casino warned that a denial of their expansion request would result in a loss of jobs for the city. Paragon Gaming wants to expand their current operations. They currently run the only casino in Vancouver, Edgewater Casino and the lease for that casino expires in 2013. They want to open a new destination casino resort three times the size of their current casino and locate it adjacent to BC Palace Stadium.

Paragon’s request for expansion has brought a heated debate, as gambling expansion always does. The City Council is meeting in public hearings to discuss the matter. Now Paragon has upped the ante by warning what will happen if their request is denied. In a letter to the Council, corporate secretary John Cahill said that “The flow of gaming revenues to the city and permanence of over 600 jobs which currently exist at Edgewater are not guaranteed.” In short, if their plan for a new casino by BC Palace is not approved, they won’t renew their lease at the current Plaza of Nations location.

Instead, Paragon – which is based in Las Vegas – would look to build a new casino in another jurisdiction, one that would allow for the expansion plans they have for their future. That would mean a loss of hundreds of jobs in the city of Vancouver.

There had been reports that the landlord of their current casino site, Canadian Metropolitan Properties, has offered to accommodate plans for an expansion on that land. Cahill dismissed that notion, though, saying that CMP made it clear that their priorities are for residential use and a practice hockey rink for the Canucks. Cahill said that makes the current site “unacceptable for Paragon’s long stated plans for developing a destination casino complex in Vancouver.”

A casino project in the U.S. state of Maine has been delayed indefinitely due to government bureaucracy, convoluted regulations and the objection of a competitor. Basically, it’s exactly the kind of thing you expect to happen.

Edward MacColl, a lawyer representing Scarborough Downs is challenging the proposed location of a new Oxford casino. The proposed casino would be run by Black Bear Entertainment, a competitor of Scarborough Downs. MacColl told the Maine Gambling Control Board telling that they can’t approve of Black Bear’s casino because the location would violate state law.

A law passed in 2004 prohibits a casino being built within 100 miles of an existing gambling facility, such as another casino, a slot parlor or a race track. According to MacColl, the proposed site for the new Black Bear casino is only 94 miles from Hollywood Slots in Bangor, Maine. MacColl is measuring using a straight line, but representatives from Black Bear Entertainment don’t agree with his as-the-crow-flies measurement. They say that the site is legal because, when traveling by common roads, the site is 125 miles from Hollywood Slots.

The dispute comes from the fact that (surprise, surprise) the law as it is written is unclear on how that distance is measured. According to MacColl, such measurements are usually done by a radius. According to Daniel Walker, a lawyer representing Black Bear Entertainment, “if they didn’t say radial miles, they must have meant road miles.”

To make matters even more convoluted, it appears that Scarborough Downs is also trying to circumvent that same law. They have proposed a location in Oxford that could not exist if Black Bear’s casino is built, because the two would be too close together. However, they are also proposing building a racino in Biddeford, Maine. If either the Black Bear casino or the Scarborough Downs casino is built in Oxford, that would be too close to also build the racino in Biddeford.

Oh, and there’s another regulatory hurdle. The proposed racino in Biddeford would be 11 miles away from the current racetrack. That same 2004 law says that the racetracks cannot be moved more than 5 miles in order to be converted into a racino.

Peter Martin, a spokesman for Black Bear Entertainment, says that he doesn’t believe Scarborough Downs even has a proposed casino site in Oxford. He believes it is all a bluff in an attempt to stop their project. “Is he (MacColl) saying to the Biddeford people that, at the moment, he’s ready to abandon the Biddeford referendum and try to find a site in Oxford County to apply up there?” he asked. “Is he applying for two now?”

John Morris, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, told the board that “the governor and governor’s office interpret mileage in this law to mean road miles.” The Gambling Control Board has decided that more research must be conducted before they vote on the issue. On Friday, they plan to meet at the Maine Department of Public Safety offices to determine which measurement, road miles or radial miles, should be used.

In the controversial subject of gambling expansion, it seems that everyone has an opinion. Lawmakers in Rhode Island have gone and done something rare in this day and age: They will let the people decide.

I know, I know. It’s just crazy. They’re acting like the government is supposed to work for the people or something. Late yesterday, the Rhode Island House of Representatives passed a bill authorizing a voter referendum on gambling expansion. Hours later, the state Senate passed the bill. The bill now goes to Republican Governor Donald Carcieri, who is expected to sign it. If he does, that sets the table for a voter referendum during the November election.

The gambling expansion at issue involves to existing state-licensed slot parlors, Twin River in Lincoln and Newport Grand in Newport. If the referendum is passed, the slot parlors could be adapted into full-fledged casinos, including blackjack and other popular casino table games.

The bill passed the House on a 62-12 vote and the Senate on a 21-14 vote. Representative Peter Petrarca, a Democrat, stated that he was excited about letting the people decide because they “are intelligent enough to know what they want to do,” thus contradicting the official Democratic party platform.

Not everyone is excited about it, though. Fellow Democrat Senator Teresa Paiva, who represents Newport, isn’t a fan of gambling expansion in her community. Many lawmakers expressed concerns for possible detrimental effects on the community, such as in increase in gambling addiction.

In the end, though, the lawmakers did the right thing. There are pros and cons to everything and in this case, they’re letting the people decide. Of course, this is also a clever way of protecting themselves politically. Gambling is a controversial issue and these lawmakers will be able to avoid responsibility for the outcome of the vote because they didn’t decide; the people did.

Rhode Island is seeking gambling expansion in part because Massachusetts is considering the same and they are worried about losing gambling customers across the border. In this tough economic climate, many states are looking to gambling expansion, including some considering legalizing and regulating intrastate online gambling.