Rough times strike a gambling oasis, but musicians provide some hope
The drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas takes about four hours on a good day.
There is anticipation on the way, as the desert hills and dry valley floors roll along outside the window as one drives Interstate 15.
Plenty of time to think about adventures ahead.
There’s a way to shave 45 minutes off that drive time.
It is a small town (technically unincorporated Clark County, Nevada) called Primm.
Primm in its glory days offered gambling, the world’s tallest rollercoaster, a rare interactive log flume, a drop tower, a train, a monorail connecting the three resort properties and a large concert venue, among other things. It was a fully self-contained resort with decent and affordable accommodations and theming that rivaled many theme parks.
Primm appeared in the popular video game series Fallout (the New Vegas entry during the PlayStation 3 era) as the Bison Steve Hotel.
In the game, it was abandoned and forgotten, rusting away in the harsh Mojave Desert on Ivanpah Dry Lake.
The real Primm, unfortunately, following in the footsteps of the game, starting to waste away. Dust in the wind, and all that.
Of course, it wasn’t always this way.
Primm, Nevada is named after Ernest Primm.
He opened a small hotel and coffee shop to lure in Vegas travelers during the 1950s.
His son, Gary Primm, took the idea to the extreme, eventually opening up three large hotel casinos:
- Whiskey Pete’s:
Themed in honor of bootlegger and “town” founder Pete McIntyre;
- Primadona:
Named after a casino in Reno opened by the elder Primm and later renamed to Primm Valley)
- And, Buffalo Bill’s:
A place with a strong western theme.
Buffalo Bill’s was featured in the Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen film Getting There, which is a great time machine for seeing what the place looked like in its prime.
Note the Desperado roller coaster and monorail track.
Music is a big part of the history of Primm.
It is the only reason that Buffalo Bill’s has not closed entirely.
Whiskey Pete’s followed a different path, shutting down in late 2024. It was a victim of COVID-19 and the competition of California Native American casinos.
Buffalo Bill’s houses the Star of the Desert Arena:
A 6,500 seat venue that has hosted Brooks and Dunn, Chicago, Vanilla Ice, Brian McKnight, Patti LaBelle and more.
Buffalo Bill’s is set to open later this year for hotel reservations in order to host Grupo Canaveral, Los Huracanes Del Norte and The Price Is Right Live. The venue has been hosting Latin acts for years now, who help draw visitors even in these lean times.
An alleged former employee told me that the future prospects of Primm come down to these Latin acts and their fans bringing revenue to the area while waiting for an uptick in visitors.
There is also an airport that may be built nearby as an alternative to Harry Reid International. It may bring some prosperity to the area, although locals are skeptical that it will ever be constructed. According to The Utah News Dispatch:
“The airport would be one of the largest in the nation by land area, sprawling across 23,000 acres of public land in the Ivanpah Valley north of Primm.”
Not everyone is excited locally of course, with some at a recent public hearing lamenting the possible impact on the landscape and wildlife .
Vegas as a whole has suffered in recent years, with increasingly steep fees and prices seemingly driving away visitors.
Tourism in the Las Vegas Valley has decreased by 11% during the month of June, according to a recent report from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
During its life Primm has seen a number of owners, including the Primm family, MGM, Terrible Herbst (which was driven to bankruptcy trying to keep the town going) and most recently:
Affinity Gaming. Who says it closed Buffalo Bill’s as a daily 24-7 operation (it opens for hotel reservations during concerts and other events) in order to focus on it’s Primm Valley Resort, which has long been the premier property of the three in Primm.
My wife and I have been to Primm with and without friends about ten times over the years.
We rode the Desperado roller coaster one evening and took in the majesty of the desert from 209 feet in the air:
From inside a cloud of insects that gathered at the light on the top of the first drop. The bugs treated Primm like an oasis in the desert, flocking to it as many travelers have done over the decades.
We spent time at the craps table, learning the ropes from a local dealer named Guy who was patient and kind.
There wasn’t the type of hurried energy that you get at the strip casinos when you hold the dice, which have high table minimums and expect you to get moving. Craps at Whiskey Pete’s at the time was two dollars.
I’ve spent time talking to locals. The prevailing wisdom is that Primm is doomed.
It certainly looks that way, with the empty parking lots and dried up log flume.
Affinity Gaming, which runs the resort town, plans to hold out for better days.
Music helps keep the place going.
Along with the lotto store (the closest place for Nevada residents to play the California lottery, since Primm is right on the state line):
Bringing in music fans who can generate a week’s gambling revenue in a matter of a weekend.
Time will tell if the town that a bootlegger started can outrun the relentless passage of time and competition from rivals in California and Vegas itself.
If you are driving by?
Maybe stop in and give the slots a whirl or throw some dice…you might just get lucky.
Alex Chrisman is a person of lifelong curiosity, the type of kid who used to read the back of shampoo bottles in the bathroom while growing up in low income housing. Reading was salvation for him and a path to better places and non-fiction was the focus, as he soaked up bits and pieces of information along the way.
Rage Against The Machine and Nine Inch Nails are still his jam, and you can learn more about his world at his awesome blog: cornucopiadigest.com .
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This is fascinating, thaks Alex. I’ve never heard of Primm but having read this I’ve spent the last 10 minutes viewing it on Google maps and looking at images of the town. There’s something intriguing about a (near) ghost town.
I also had to Google Terrible Herbst to check that was real, thought the AI had gone wonky again.
I’ve never had the inclination to visit Vegas so Primm isn’t going to go on my bucket list either. Though in a way it appeals more because its the flipside of Vegas. Its not worth the 11 hour flight time so I’ll make do with the photos.
It used to be a great place in a sense as long as you kept your expectations in check. Affordable food, room and rides…all in addition to gambling.
Like JJ, I’ve never heard of Primm either, and I also went straight to Google Maps. It’s good to see all the solar panels.
Alex, you mentioned that Las Vegas tourist dropped by 11% in June. I presume that’s year over year, but do we know how much of that is due to foreign tourists avoiding the US due to the Trump regime’s tariffs? I’m in touch with folks in Maine and Canadian tourism is way down there, so I’m wondering if the same is true out west.
Here’s an additional tourism update:
Within the past four days, I’ve been travelled from the Jersey Shore to Cape Cod. I’ve done this route in summers past, and can confirm that I keep asking myself if it’s really August.
Both areas are usually bustling in the summer, but it’s significantly more quiet than usual,
Something’s up, for sure.
In other news, Door County, Wisconsin, a popular vacation destination for Chicagoans, among others, was absolutely packed this past week. And I found a reasonably priced remastered vinyl version of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue at a very cool record store in Ephraim.
I think there is a general sense of unease as well, people turtleing while waiting to see what happens.
Hello. From what I’ve heard, tourism is definitely down. The US brand has likely been hurt internationally.
I just read an article on the decline of tourism in Vegas. 3% of the tourists there are Canadian and there has been a definite drop, so it does affect things. According to the article, the main reason for the decline seems to be that it is so expensive now that they’ve priced themselves out of options for the average person who does not have a lot of money to burn, especially with uncertainty with the economy.
I think I’ve passed through Primm before. Or maybe it was Searchlight? Or Jackpot? Or West Wendover?
There are a number of these border towns, established to be the first possible place you could encounter the opportunity to gamble when you cross the state line into Nevada. Maybe Stateline, NV — right next to South Lake Tahoe — is the prime example. When you walk across that state line, the vibe gets distinctively more grimy and smoky.
At least with Tribal casinos, I get the sense that the profits are going toward something worthwhile.
The great thing about Primm was there is more to do than gambling. I like the gamble a bit, but for friends who came with us who didn’t there were alternatives. Was good for kids too.
I will not ever want to go to Vegas, so Primm is likely not an option either, but I love that it’s still plugging away and I will root for it to survive. My wife’s best friend won a trip to Vegas years ago and my wife met her out there. I told her to go without me and have a good time, and that she did. Visited the Hoover Dam, caught a show, checked out all the cool themes at the high end hotels, didn’t gamble once.
Plugging away is exactly how I’d put it.
An extra Primm fact: MGM built on site employee housing called Desert Oasis. Rent was cheap. Tells you how isolated the place is.
The Last Showgirl made a big impression on me. Did you see it? I don’t think I ever saw a Vegas-oriented film shot through the prism of the working class. Did filmmaker Gia Coppola capture the milieu of your hometown? Or is she just a tourist who didn’t do her research? The Last Showgirl was primarily an acting showcase for Pamela Anderson but it’s always a plus when a filmmaker doesn’t misrepresent your environs. I’ve read stories about Irish nationals being annoyed by films such as Waking Ned Devine because they don’t want to be perceived as cute and colorful provincials. I live in Hawaii. Alexander Payne spent a year here before shooting The Descendants. I can tell. Do you have a favorite film that used Vegas as the central or secondary locale?
Great read.