<\/p>\n
Lights still glow on the Buffalo Bill\u2019s Resort and Casino sign in July.<\/p>\n
The Western-themed Buffalo Bill\u2019s resort in Primm concluded a 31-year run of regular business on July 6. Its owner, Affinity Gaming, ended its \u201c24\/7 operations,\u201d not a positive sign in an area acclaimed for nonstop action. Buffalo Bill\u2019s partial shuttering follows Affinity\u2019s recent closure of its nearby Whiskey Pete\u2019s resort, leaving the Primm Valley Casino Resorts as the lone survivor. <\/p>\n
Rancho Cucamonga friends Glenn and Gula often visited the town \u2014 which includes a popular lotto store where Nevadans can buy California lottery tickets, chain fast-food spots, a pair of gas stations and a virtually abandoned mall that once welcomed crowds of daily visitors.<\/p>\n
On this weekend, however, the duo stayed at a Sin City short-term rental.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no easy answer as to why Primm is in its current state,\u201d said Amanda Belarmino, associate professor of hospitality management at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. \u201cThey\u2019ve had a slow decline expedited by COVID-19, and they\u2019ve been unable to respond to competition in California and southern Nevada.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Desperado roller coaster at Buffalo Bill\u2019s Resort and Casino, once one of the tallest and fastest coasters in the world, has long been closed to the public.<\/p>\n
A screaming coaster and a $7 prime rib dinner<\/p>\n
In American mystery writer Dolores Hitchens\u2019 1955 classic, \u201cSleep With Strangers,\u201d the novel\u2019s hero, private investigator Jim Sader, drives from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, noting his trip includes only \u201cempty valley\u201d and the \u201cshimmering mist of heat.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he finally pulls over at a state-line roadside diner, he finds a barn-like restaurant split into halves: one side for slot machines and cards and the other for a soda fountain and lunch counter. Customers \u201cwho couldn\u2019t wait for Las Vegas\u201d are pulling the levers at the slots.<\/p>\n
That vision of dining, playing and staying just across the state line was one that called to Ernest Primm. It was in the \u201950s that he installed a motel and coffee shop at a spot in the road called State Line. Primm was the poker czar of the South Bay. Starting in the 1930s, he ran card rooms in Gardena, places where patrons might be lured in with a 25-cent steak.<\/p>\n
He eventually relinquished control of six poker houses in Gardena to build Whiskey Pete\u2019s in Primm. The area was renamed from State Line to Primm<\/a> in 1996 after his death. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen Primm was first developed, it was really a destination resort area for Southern Californians, people from the Los Angeles and Mojave areas,\u201d Scott Butera, Affinity\u2019s chief executive and president, said at a February meeting<\/a> of the Nevada Gaming Commission.<\/p>\n The castle-shaped Whiskey Pete\u2019s, which shuttered in December<\/a>, opened in 1977, followed by Primm Valley in 1990 and Buffalo Bill\u2019s in 1994.<\/p>\n All three enjoyed expansion and growth throughout the 2010s by utilizing low prices<\/a>, gimmicks<\/a> and attractions to lure guests<\/a>.<\/p>\n Courtesy Primm Valley Casino Resorts<\/p>\n Each hosted the famed Bonnie & Clyde \u201cDeath Car,\u201d the V-8 Ford riddled with more than 100 bullets<\/a> in 1934. Whiskey Pete\u2019s offered a 24-hour IHOP, and Californians and Nevadans visited Primm Valley\u2019s 100-store outlet mall supported by shoppers bused into the mall<\/a> for free or at discounted prices as a part of tours<\/a>. <\/p>\n There was also Buffalo Bill\u2019s Desperado, the tallest, fastest roller coaster in the world when it opened in 1994; it sent visitors screaming 209 feet above the freeway right outside the resort. A tram, now dusty and shuttered, connected all three resorts.<\/p>\n The Las Vegas Sun wrote in 2009 that Buffalo Bill\u2019s also offered \u201c$2 beers, $7 prime rib dinners and $25 shows\u201d<\/a> to guests who wanted a taste of old Las Vegas.<\/p>\n Buffalo Bill\u2019s and its sister resorts closed in March 2020 when the pandemic hit, reopening between December 2022 and 2023<\/a>. But they struggled to attract customers. <\/p>\n The Desperado roller coaster at Buffalo Bill\u2019s Resort and Casino made its final run in Feburary 2020. (Bridget Bennett\/For The Times) <\/p>\n A sign blocks an entrance to the Primm Mall in July. Once a popular shopping stop for travelers between Las Vegas and Southern California, the mall has seen a steep decline in recent years. <\/p>\n Affinity Gaming announced Buffalo Bill\u2019s full-time closure<\/a> in July, saying the resort would still host concerts and special events at its arena, with the casino, food and beverage services, and the hotel open during those times. Whiskey Pete\u2019s was closed \u2014 at least temporarily \u2014 on Dec. 18. Affinity personnel asked the board on March 4<\/a> to approve an extended closure until Dec. 18, 2026, with the possibility of two six-month extensions.<\/p>\n The approved closure allows the resort to maintain its county gaming license while Whiskey Pete\u2019s operates up to 40 slot machines<\/a> at its adjacent gas station.<\/p>\n The company, which operates the casinos via a lease agreement with the Primm family, turned down requests to speak about its resorts or the future of Primm.<\/p>\n Gamblers inside Primm Valley Casino Resorts, the last casino standing, in July.<\/p>\n Not enough gamblers to go around<\/b><\/p>\n While other casinos in Nevada\u2019s Clark County have cleaned up financially over the last 10 years, Primm\u2019s have been \u2014 as UNLV\u2019s Belarmino noted \u2014 on a slow slide.<\/p>\n In a letter to the Clark County Board of Commissioners<\/a>, Erin Barnett, Affinity\u2019s vice president and general counsel, wrote in October \u201cthat traffic at the state line has proved to be heavily weighted towards weekend activity and is insufficient to support three full-time casino properties.\u201d<\/p>\n The story of Primm\u2019s decline is directly tied to the rise of Southern California\u2019s tribal casinos, according to Belarmino.<\/p>\n Yaamava\u2019 Resort & Casino, run by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, sits in Highland, about 200 miles from Primm but less than half that distance from downtown L.A.<\/p>\n The 7,000 slot machines at Yaamava\u2019 make the casino the West Coast\u2019s largest, with 4,000 more slots than any Vegas peers.<\/p>\n Once, Yaamava\u2019 was much humbler than the Primm resorts, opening in 1986 as a bingo hall. But by 1994, the location expanded into a 100,000-square-foot casino. Yaamava\u2019 completed its most recent $760-million expansion in 2021, adding a 17-floor hotel tower, three bars and about 1,700 new slots.<\/p>\n That casino\u2019s growth mirrors the explosion of tribal gaming since California voters passed Proposition 1A in 2000, which allowed tribal casinos to operate slot machines and erased limits on card games<\/a>.<\/p>\n Shortly after, Yaamava\u2019 was one of several tribal casinos in San Bernardino and Riverside counties that declared an arms race with Nevada.<\/p>\n The tribal casinos are a pull for Southern Californians who might otherwise head to Primm, Affinity\u2019s Butera acknowledged at February\u2019s Gaming Commission meeting. \u201cNow they have their own casinos,\u201d he said, \u201cquite large, nice casinos there.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Affinity is hoping a new airport planned for just north of Primm in the late 2030s and adjacent supporting businesses will spur a resurgence. Butera said at the February meeting that Primm was \u201cin the process of doing a major repositioning.\u201d<\/p>\n Primm 2.0 would have Primm Valley Hotel as its main resort, with national brands and new restaurant concepts and an improved truck stop travel center. There would also be a new $4-million marquee.<\/p>\n The vision is to restore Primm to a destination that Southern Californians traveling to Nevada would stop at, \u201cget gas or recharge their car but also [have] something nice to eat, have a little fun at a casino and then move on.\u201d<\/p>\n Signs alert any remaining passersby that this entrance at Primm Mall is closed. In July, the lone store in business was a thrift store.<\/p>\n Clothing time<\/b><\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear if that would resuscitate Primm Valley\u2019s 100-store outlet mall, an attraction that once extended Primm\u2019s deals beyond cheap buffets and cocktails.<\/p>\n The Las Vegas Entertainment Guide<\/a> wrote in December 2013 that Primm\u2019s Prizm Outlets were \u201cone of the top places to visit if you are visiting the Sin City and shopping is on your agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n The 371,000-square-foot outlet mall, built in 1998, is attached to the Primm Valley Resort. Its retailers at one time included Neiman Marcus, Coach, American Eagle Outfitters, Fendi, Michael Kors and Kate Spade.<\/p>\n Las Vegas resident Lindsay Myer said the mall was a lure in its heyday. <\/p>\n \u201cThey had a jeans outlet and some good shopping,\u201d said the 23-year-old as she stopped in Buffalo Bill\u2019s before its closing in July. \u201cThen the outlets closer to Vegas were built.\u201d<\/p>\n Las Vegas North Premium Outlets, three miles from the Strip\u2019s northern end, was built in 2003, with expansions completed in 2015. The South mall, near Harry Reid Airport, completed construction in 2011. They combined for more than 300 shops.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, more Primm storefronts became vacant. <\/p>\n By 2018, only 58 stores<\/a> out of 111 total spots were operating. As of July, a thrift store<\/a> was the only shop that remained.<\/p>\n Anna Barker and Chad Asindraza, both from Las Vegas, pose for a photo in front of the Buffalo Bill\u2019s Resort and Casino sign.<\/p>\n For some, Primm just didn\u2019t make sense<\/b><\/p>\n Scott Banks, a retired slot machine mechanic and salesman, said he never understood how Primm existed in the first place.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand this is the first stop on your way through the desert to Las Vegas, but Vegas is only like 35 miles away,\u201d said Banks, 65, a Sin City native. \u201cThe fact that people made that stop is something.\u201d<\/p>\n Banks said he helped refurbish and update slot machines at Whiskey Pete\u2019s in the mid-1980s, when it was undergoing one of its first expansions.<\/p>\n He was also a frequent visitor to Primm for its $1 hot dogs, the outlet mall and the roller coaster. When those amenities dropped away, so did he.<\/p>\n \u201cWhiskey Pete\u2019s, Primm, was an incredible gamble by the Primm family, and it worked, it worked for years,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the way to look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PRIMM, Nevada\u00a0\u2014\u00a0As the sun set just before 8 p.m., the bison-headed neon marquee welcoming visitors to Primm flickered…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":231160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[124603,124610,124601,1582,276,22619,124602,5991,2961,2184,224,5337,124604,617,124600,124605,124607,124609,124608,124606],"class_list":{"0":"post-231159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-affinity-gaming","9":"tag-amanda-belarmino","10":"tag-buffalo-bill","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-casino","14":"tag-down-on-its-luck-resort","15":"tag-july","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-las-vegas","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-nearby-whiskey-pete","21":"tag-nevada","22":"tag-primm","23":"tag-slot-machine","24":"tag-southern-californians","25":"tag-state-line","26":"tag-tribal-casino","27":"tag-yaamava"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115213582077708516","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/5WmSWJ61pjU\/hqdefault.jpg\")
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