Station has five parcels of gaming-entitled land available for future casino development across the valley, more than any single developer. Two of the parcels are located along the Las Vegas Beltway in the fast-growing southwest. All the sites were accounted for on a recently updated county map dotted with about a dozen parcels that are zoned for future casinos.

Boyd Gaming Corp., Station's closest competitor in the locals casino market, has no off-Strip parcels in play apart from the South Coast, a $500 million hotel and casino that will open next year on Las Vegas Boulevard South miles from the Strip's core.

At the first meeting of a neighborhood casinos task force assembled by the Clark County Commission, members rehashed old controversies surrounding the construction of Station's Red Rock and Durango Station casinos.

In spite of state-mandated disclosure laws, people who bought their homes in those areas weren't aware that casinos would eventually be built there or didn't realize the casinos would be so large, members said.

Station's parcels -- including the Red Rock and Durango sites -- were grandfathered into a 1997 law that has since restricted the spread of locals casinos. Some residents are coming to the slow and painful realization that there's little anyone can do -- short of changing state law -- to change the fact that Station has the right to develop those parcels no matter how close the casinos are to subsequently built schools, churches and homes.

"People should really understand that this committee isn't really going to be able to do anything about these sites," said committee member Danny Thompson, executive secretary and treasurer of the Nevada state AFL-CIO.

The world after 1997's SB 208 is different. Because of the spread of homes across the Las Vegas Valley, the distance requirements imposed under the law make it virtually impossible for future casinos besides those on grandfathered parcels to be built. (Proposed casinos must be at least 500 feet from residential areas and 1,500 feet from schools and churches.) While the law exempted master-planned communities with gaming parcels created before 1997 (Southern Highlands, Rhodes Ranch and Summerlin, for example), subsequently created master plans must conform to the distance requirements.

One major exemption is the Strip corridor, which stretches down Las Vegas Boulevard as far south as St. Rose Parkway. Casino development is a "free for all" along the Strip and 1,500 feet to either side.

Land that is being released by the federal government for future development in the Las Vegas valley is largely earmarked for homes, which would make casinos on those parcels difficult to build under SB 208.

"You've heard of the term 'fat chance,' " Clark County Comprehensive Planning manager Chuck Pulsipher said when asked whether developers would be able to build future casinos not accounted for on the county map.

Reeling from the controversy surrounding the zoning approval of the two Station sites, the County Commission in January asked for input from a committee to look at design issues. Relatively speaking, the committee will be a fly on the back of Station's elephant, able to impose guidelines on such things as landscaping and the color of buildings. Buildings over 100 feet high would also be subject to a use permit and the discretion of county commissioners.

The placement of new casinos -- now set by state law -- is ultimately at issue, some members said.

"You are going to see more casinos and there are going to be more conflicts ... within gaming enterprise districts," said John Hiatt, a member of the Enterprise Town Advisory Board. "I don't want a casino near my house."

Wary residents already are suspicious of an assembly bill introduced in March that would amend SB 208 to impose larger distance requirements between casinos and homes, schools and churches.

If SB 208 already makes it difficult to build future casinos that weren't grandfathered in, why is AB 390 needed? Some suspect Station Casinos -- the biggest benefactor of SB 208 -- pushed the bill as a way to further restrict competitors from building locals casinos. Others say the bill -- under the guise of stiffening casino requirements -- could distract opponents from doing real damage by somehow removing the exemptions developers like Station received back in 1997 to build casinos.

Author and Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins said he's not aware of all of the assets Station owns. The bill arose out of the controversy surrounding Red Rock and Durango and is aimed at starting a legislative debate about the effectiveness of SB 208, he said.

"This came about because of my following the issues in the news over the last year and a half," Perkins said. "It's something I took on."

Station Casinos spokeswoman Lesley Pittman said the company didn't push the bill but nevertheless supports it.

"We've had close to 10 years to see how (SB 208) is working," she said. "Clearly, based on our experiences at Red Rock and Durango, the proximity of those distance restrictions isn't sufficient. There needs to be increased disclosure and an increase in distance restrictions ... so we don't find ourselves in that unfortunate situation again."

"We'd have to comply with the exact same distance requirements" as other developers of future parcels, Pittman said of the bill. "I don't think it puts us at a competitive advantage at all."

Boyd Gaming spokesman Rob Stillwell would only say his company believes AB 390 is "unnecessary."

Pulsipher calls the bill a "failure," saying nothing short of removing Station's and other developer exemptions for gaming parcels will quell residents' concerns.

He also suspects the bill will eventually be killed because of the unintended yet drastic effect it could have on resort development closer to the Strip.

Because the bill imposes a 5,000-foot distance requirement between casinos and areas with homes, churches and schools, it threatens the county's ability to approve resorts that are just outside the 1,500-foot resort corridor on either side of the Strip yet are close enough to be considered part of the county's urban core, Pulsipher said. The Gold Coast, Orleans and Palms resorts are located beyond the 1,500-foot limit yet are within 5,000 feet from homes and community centers, for example, he said.

"It would kill any resort hotel not within 1,500 feet of Las Vegas Boulevard," Pulsipher said. "If we're not going to put (resorts) in the urban core, where are we going to put them?"

Liz Benston covers gaming for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-4077 or by e-mail at benston@lasvegassun.com.