White Rock council will not take an official stance on the proposed South Surrey casino, despite the City of Surrey asking them to do so.

The decision was made at Monday's council meeting following the receipt of a letter from the City of Surrey requesting comment on the project due to its "close proximity to White Rock."

However, council opted to receive the letter and offered no further comment on the matter.

When asked why there would be no official stance taken, Mayor Wayne Baldwin said the project was more of a Surrey issue, and that it would not be a major concern to White Rock.

"We might gain some benefit from it if some customers who stay in the hotel or make use of the convention centre might wish to come down to our waterfront or perhaps to the upper town area but that would be about it," said Baldwin. "Otherwise all the benefits flow to Surrey, financially, and it's far enough away from us that it doesn't have an immediate effect and there won't be any transportation issues."

The only thing White Rock council could offer its take on would be the morality of gambling coming to the area, said Baldwin. "But we're not going to get into that."

If the project were closer than the proposed 168th Street and 10th Avenue though, Baldwin said council might have been more inclined to speak out about the issue.

"If it were right on the border of 16th (Avenue) or 160th (Street), that would be a different thing, we might have something to say about that," he said, before adding "However, what I think we should have had an opportunity to comment on was Morgan Crossing and the Douglas Crossing developments. They are extensive and impactful in terms of our businesses and our traffic and so on but we were never given the opportunity to talk about that, so why would we enter into the casino debate?"