UPDATE: End of the Line: Primm, Nevada’s Last Casino To Close

UPDATE: May 7, 9am: In addition to Primm Valley Resort, a gas station and a truck stop, the Lotto Store will also close on July 4. Thousands of Las Vegas locals flock to this store — located just a block across the border from Primm in Nipton, California — whenever Powerball or Mega Millions jackpots exceed $500 million. (Nevada’s constitution prohibits a state lottery due to the competition it would pose to the casino industry.)

The closures will affect 344 employees in total. An unspecified number of them reside in Primm’s Desert Oasis Apartments, Affinity’s workforce housing. Some have lived there for decades. However, Affinity has ordered all residents to vacate the premises by July 6.

Though Affinity Gaming has yet to respond to Casino.org‘s request for a comment, Cory Clemetson, grandson of Primm, Nev. founder Ernie Primm and president of Primm South, issued the following statement:

“As a member of the Primm family that takes great pride in our decades of serving Nevada residents and visitors, we’re saddened to hear about this announcement from Affinity Gaming and its principal owner, Z Capital, the New York-based private equity firm that has been leasing and operating these properties for nearly 15 years on the land owned by our family. We hoped that these operators could have done more to make these properties successful and to continue operating the hotel-casino and related properties that they now intend to close.”

The closures will effectively transform Primm into Nevada’s newest ghost town.

EARLIER: All three casinos in Primm, Nevada, will permanently close on July 4, 2026, according to an internal staff letter shared by Las Vegas Locally on Tuesday.

According to the letter, published on Las Vegas Locally’s X account — a “notice of business closure and employment termination” from the Primadonna Company, owned by Affinity Gaming’s Primm Valley Resorts — Primm Valley Resort & Casino, Buffalo Bill’s Resort & Casino, and Whiskey Pete’s Hotel & Casino “will be permanently closing its operations.”

“This action is expected to result in the permanent termination of employment for all employees at these locations,” it stated.

Affinity — which purchased the three casinos from MGM Resorts for $400 million in 2007 — already shuttered Whiskey Pete’s in December 2024, then switched Buffalo Bill’s to event-only operation in July 2025.

Also announced in the new termination notice were the closures of the adjacent Primm Center gas station /convenience store and Flying J truck stop.

Primm Reaper

The tiny town 40 miles south of Las Vegas on the California border has experienced a steady decline in business for the past 20 years, but the Covid-19 pandemic was a death blow.

In fact, Primm Valley Resort & Casino was so empty on July 18, 2024, 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 the month before.)

Primm’s 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 YouTube live streamers.

Primm Valley Resorts’ letter noted the terminated employees “do not have bumping rights,” referring to a contractual provision allowing senior employees whose positions have been eliminated to displace less senior employees from their positions.

In addition, next to the words “Union Representation,” the letter reminded its recipients that they had “none.”

“Your employment is expected to end on or around July 4, 2026,” the letter read. “All affected employees are not expected to be recalled.”

A request for comment from Affinity Gaming by Casino.org was not immediately returned at the time of publication of this article.