New owners
Casinos that changed hands
Two Metro Vancouver casinos changed owners in 2026, and two more sales have been agreed. The names on the doors did not always change: the Coquitlam casino still carries the Great Canadian name under licence.
| Date | Casino | Change | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov. 7, 2025 | Hastings Casino | Definitive agreement: Tsleil-Waututh Nation to buy the casino part | Agreed |
| Mar. 9, 2026 | Elements Casino Surrey | Agreed sale to Semiahmoo First Nation's SE-MI-AH-MU Development Corporation | Agreed |
| May 5, 2026 | Great Canadian Casino Vancouver | Petroglyph Development Group takes over; Great Canadian name kept under licence | Closed |
| June 16, 2026 | River Rock Casino Resort | New owners: Musqueam Capital Corp with Petroglyph Development Group | Closed |
Sales that closed
May 5, 2026: Great Canadian Casino Vancouver in Coquitlam passed to Petroglyph Development Group. Petroglyph, owned by Snuneymuxw First Nation, now owns and runs the casino. The sale was first announced on December 19, 2025. The name on the building did not move with the ownership: Petroglyph uses Great Canadian under a limited licence.
June 16, 2026: River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond followed. Great Canadian Entertainment was the seller, and the buyer a partnership: Musqueam Capital Corp, owned by the Musqueam Indian Band, with Petroglyph Development Group. The River Rock name stayed.
Petroglyph had bought from Great Canadian before. January 16, 2025: it closed its purchase of Casino Nanaimo and Elements Casino Victoria. Neither is among the nine in this guide.
Sales agreed
Tsleil-Waututh Nation agreed to buy the casino part of Hastings Casino in Vancouver. June 6, 2025: a memorandum of understanding. November 7, 2025: a definitive agreement, subject to regulators and the City of Vancouver, which owns the land.
March 9, 2026: Great Canadian agreed to sell Elements Casino Surrey to the Semiahmoo First Nation's SE-MI-AH-MU Development Corporation. Approval from the regulators and from the City of Surrey, owner of the land, is also required.
Same operator
Gateway Casinos & Entertainment runs four of the nine: Grand Villa Casino Burnaby, Starlight Casino New Westminster, Cascades Casino Delta and Cascades Casino Langley. None of the four appears among the 2025 and 2026 sales on this page.
Parq Casino is a different case. Paragon Gaming developed it with Dundee Corporation and PBC Group through the joint venture Parq Holdings Limited. February 2019: Paragon sold its stake in Parq Holdings to PBC Group. Parq's own site names no current owner. No dated ownership change after 2019 was found when this guide checked.
What a sale changes
In B.C., gambling is legal only when run by the provincial government, and BCLC manages all commercial gambling for it. BCLC, a Crown corporation incorporated on October 25, 1984, offers its games at casinos run by private service providers. Host municipalities and First Nations typically receive 10% of the net gaming income of the casinos they host. First Nations also draw on BCLC net income, with a 7% share paid out via a vehicle named BC First Nations Gaming Revenue Sharing Limited Partnership.
The door rule is the same at all nine. B.C. sets the gambling age at 19; anyone below 19 is kept out of gambling venues. June 2023 onward, every visitor must present government-issued photo ID for entry, and each ID is matched against the self-exclusion list.
Questions
Who owns River Rock Casino Resort now?
June 16, 2026 onward: owned jointly by Petroglyph Development Group, a Snuneymuxw First Nation company, and Musqueam Capital Corp, held by the Musqueam Indian Band. Great Canadian Entertainment sold it.
Why is the Coquitlam casino still called Great Canadian?
Petroglyph Development Group has owned and run Great Canadian Casino Vancouver since May 5, 2026. A limited licence allows it to carry the Great Canadian name.