Buffalo Bill’s is Latest Primm, Nev. Casino to Close

• Buffalo Bill’s casino resort in Primm, Nev. will close after Sunday, July 6
• This makes it the second casino in Primm Nev. to close in six months, following Whiskey Pete’s last December
• Business in Primm has been on a steady decline for 20 years, but the pandemic shutdown was a death blow

The Primm reaper has struck again. Buffalo Bill’s will be the second resort in Primm, Nev. to shut its doors in six months, following Whiskey Pete’s last December.

Primm Valley Resorts, the struggling hospitality group acquired by Affinity Gaming from MGM Resorts in 2007, announced the closure of its 1,242-room property on Tuesday without attaching a date. However, the website for Buffalo Bill’s isn’t accepting hotel reservations after Sunday, July 6.

A spokesperson for Primm Valley Resorts told Casino.org that Buffalo Bill’s is not permanently closing, but rather “shifting from 24/7 operations.”

“Buffalo Bill’s casino, food and hotel will be open for concerts and special events,” the spokesperson clarified, adding that the hotel “will be used when concerts and special events take place at Star of the Desert Arena,” which will remain open.

However this is spun, it leaves Affinity’s Primm Valley Resort as the last casino resort not “shifting from 24/7 operations” in the tiny town 40 miles south of Las Vegas on the California border.

But how long it will remain open is now the question. Primm Valley Resort was so empty last July 18 that Lydia Salmen, 70, was able to enter its unstaffed cage and make off with $625K in currency and $27K in casino chips. (She and her husband, John, were only caught because their Nissan hatchback was videotaped by a police body cam during an unrelated visit to the property on June 25.)

Grim, Nev.

Anyone who’s ever been stuck in traffic on I-15 between Las Vegas and Southern California knows Buffalo Bill’s. Many even stopped at the Old West-themed casino resort to ride what was the world’s tallest roller coaster when the Desperado held that title from 1994 until 1996.

The coaster closed in 2019 — along with the resort’s Adventure Canyon Log Flume — and never reopened.

Primm has experienced a steady decline in business for the past 20 years, but the pandemic was a death blow. Since then, its 371K square-foot outlet mall, which opened as the Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas in 1998, has become a nearly abandoned relic populated mostly by creeped-out YouTube livestreamers.

Three months after it shuttered Whiskey Pete’s, Affinity applied for a waiver from Clark County to keep the property closed for up to three years. This would allow the company to retain its gaming license in the hopes of a future reopening. (Affinity is expected to do the same with Buffalo Bill’s.)

Waiting for a Flight

What Affinity is hoping for isn’t necessarily a miracle, but a resurgence sparked by the Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport. On track to open by 2037 only six miles north of Primm, it’s expected to handle up to 35 million travelers a year.

“In recent years, and particularly post-pandemic, the traffic at the state line has proved to be heavily weighted towards weekend activity and insufficient to support three full-time casino properties,” Affinity Senior Vice President and General Counsel Erin Barnett wrote in a letter to county officials accompanying its application for a Whiskey Pete’s waiver.

The positive news is that expected development of an airport and ancillary businesses has created the prospect of a resurgence for the area in the coming years,” the letter read.

A public hearing on the proposed airport’s environmental impact is scheduled to take place July 31 — at Primm Valley Resort.