Placing bets and taking chances has been a way of life in this historic mining and gambling mecca for more than a century.

But the stakes have gone up with a new casino shelling out $80 million to open its doors amid a prolonged downturn in the fortunes of the gambling industry. Some of its rivals are locked in a legal battle as they try to boost business by skirting the statewide smoking ban.

Controversy seems to have a way of finding this once-flourishing mining camp, said to be the fourth-richest gold mining district in the world - one that's about to become a whole lot richer now that the price of the precious metal has reached nearly $1,000 for an ounce.

The local mining giant has caused a flap with plans to rip through much of a picturesque stand of aspen trees in a bid to get to more than $1 billion of gold from the rocky terrain it owns at the edge of the tourist town.

"I thought I'd be dealing with a few little ordinance changes when I took this job," said Mayor Dan Baader, who served as construction manager of the controversial new casino at the same time that he managed to unseat the mayoral incumbent last fall. "It's been more (involved) than I figured."

With soaring ceilings, polished stone and a swank steakhouse, the new Wildwood Casino stands out. It more closely resembles the Vegas-style casinos now commonly found in the much busier gambling haven of Black Hawk.

The Cripple Creek newcomer sits on the outskirts of a town of just 2,000 residents, dwarfing most of the nearby gaming establishments tucked inside restored brick storefronts along Bennett Avenue.

"This business is all about customer loyalty," said Kevin Werner, who as general manager hopes he can lure gamblers to the Wildwood partly because it's the first casino that visitors see when they arrive in Cripple Creek.

It's a strategy an executive at Wildwood's parent company tried - and failed at - in Central City, where the prominently located Scarlet's Casino was bankrupt and out of business within months of opening in 2006.

Some in the industry still have high hopes that Wildwood can make a go of it and also lift business at the other casinos in town.

"The market down there has been flat for the past few years," said Lois Rice, executive director of the Denver- based Colorado Gaming Association. "Everyone is hoping a new project will generate a lot more visitation."

But the struggling economy, which also has hit Las Vegas and most other gambling venues, has raised questions about whether there's enough business to go around right now.

"It makes no sense . . . spending $80 million to come into a market like this," said Marc Murphy, co-owner of Bronco Billy's, a casino that has operated on the town's historic main street since Colorado began allowing limited-stakes gaming in 1990.

He's among those pushing for a statewide ballot initiative that aims to let gambling towns vote on whether they want to raise bet limits to $100 from the current $5.

In the meantime, there's another cause for concern: gasoline prices that have exceeded $4 a gallon.

"It cost me about $20 just to drive here," said Richard Deeds, as he chewed on a toothpick while playing a slot machine recently.

The retiree, who lives about 35 miles away in Cascade, said he and his wife plan to cut back soon on their casino visits because of fuel costs.

A 6-month-old smoking ban also has been a sore point. Since it was imposed in January, casinos have posted five straight months of revenue declines.

"I'm a smoker, so I come up here less," said Colorado Springs resident Mark Kendrick, who stepped onto the sidewalk to have a cigarette. "I used to come up a dozen times a year."

State officials see no evidence that the prohibition has had any "unintended consequences" for casinos, at least "not that we've seen so far," said Carsten Baumann, an evaluator for Colorado's Health Department. "We've also seen revenue declines in other states that still allow smoking."

But a court showdown looms this month, when a Teller County judge will rule on a move by several gambling parlors to avoid the smoking ban by claiming a "cigar bar" exemption.

"I just hope it's decided one way or the other," Mayor Baader said.

The cowboy-boot-wearing, Marlboro-smoking Baader ran for office largely because of his opposition to a taxpayer-funded welcome center that sits high above town, providing visitors with sweeping views of the Sangre de Cristo range and the Continental Divide.

Its $5 million dollar price tag forced the delay of basic street maintenance and other infrastructure. The parking lot alone cost almost $400,000, even though its hundreds of spaces stand empty on most days.

The entrance from the highway can't accommodate tour buses or motor homes. The exit forbids left-hand turns.

"To me it was ill-conceived," Baader said.

But he acknowledges that the town benefits from a relatively diverse tourist economy, compared with Central City and Black Hawk.

While casinos dominate the available Cripple Creek entertainment, families also come for the vintage narrow-gauge train ride and the gold mine tour that descends 1,000 feet underground. They come for special events such as last weekend's Donkey Derby Days, named for the local herd of wild donkeys.

They also come to admire the colorful fall display provided by a huge stand of aspen trees visible from all over town.

The Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Co., the county's largest private employer, plans to extract 1.7 million more ounces of gold from the area in coming years. That will involve disturbing about "30 percent of the vegetation in that view shed" above town, said company spokesman Jane Mannon.

In response to the uproar, the company is revising its plans so that it can at least "backfill" the area once it takes out all the available gold, she said.

That's small comfort for some nearby homeowners.

"Their stance is everyone wants to see an operating mine and (that) it's a beautiful thing," said Denverite Cathy Johnson, who bought a home in town three years ago in hopes of retiring there with her husband. "But it would be a shame to open up that whole view of the pit mine to Cripple Creek. I don't know there's anybody to stop them."

kelleyj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5068