Waiver Sought to Keep Whiskey Pete’s Near Vegas Closed for Up to 3 Years

Posted on: February 28, 2025, 09:23h. 

Last updated on: February 28, 2025, 12:37h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.
  • The Clark County Board of Commissioners will consider an application to keep Whiskey Pete’s closed for up to three more years
  • The casino’s owner thinks that a second Las Vegas airport, scheduled to open 6 miles north of it by 2037, will bring new life to the area
  • Business in Primm, Nev. has been on a steady decline for 20 years, but the pandemic shutdown was a death blow

The owners of Whiskey Pete’s Hotel & Casino, which closed to the public on December 17, are seeking a waiver to keep it closed for as long as three years.

Whiskey Pete’s, which has 777 hotel rooms, 31 table games, and 1,360 slots, is located 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas in Primm, Nev. (Image: trackame.com)

The agenda for March 4’s Clark County Board of Commissioners meeting includes an application from Affinity Gaming for a waiver of license requirements.

Whiskey on Ice

With the waiver, owner Affinity Gaming can keep Whiskey Pete’s closed without losing its gambling license. During this time, it would continue operating 22 slot machines at the neighboring Whiskey Pete’s Truck Stop.

In a letter to commissioners, Affinity noted that traffic in the California border town of Primm has dropped significantly in recent years, making it difficult for them to operate Whiskey Pete’s, Buffalo Bill’s, and Primm Valley Resort & Casino simultaneously.

The waiver, a common strategy for casinos seeking to maintain their licenses, would allow Whiskey Pete’s to stay closed for up to two years, with options for two additional six-month extensions.

Obtaining a waiver from Clark County is a common course of action when a casino closes temporarily so owners can maintain their gaming licenses.

Maintaining an active license allows Affinity to avoid the costly and time-consuming process of reapplying for a new one if they decide to reopen Whiskey Pete’s or repurpose the property for gaming in the future.

Waiting for a Flight

According to a letter from Affinity to commissioners, the “expected development of an airport and ancillary businesses has created the prospect of a resurgence for the area in the coming years.”

Plans are currently underway for the Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport (SNSA) to open by 2037. Expected to host up to 35 million travelers per year, the airport is slated for 6,500 acres of former Bureau of Land Management desert about six miles north of Whiskey Pete’s (in the direction of Las Vegas).

Affinity, the Las Vegas-based company that also owns the Silver Sevens a mile east of the Strip, acquired Primm Valley Resorts in August 2007 from MGM Resorts for $400 million, back when Affinity was known as Herbst Gaming. It emerged from bankruptcy as Affinity in May 2011.

The Primm Valley Resorts empire in better times. (Image: Primm Valley Resorts)

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 lost all but one of its tenants.

Primm’s once-popular amusement park at Buffalo Bill’s, featuring the world-famous Desperado roller coaster, closed in 2019 and never reopened.

And, Primm Valley Resort & Casino was so empty on 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.

The Whiskey Pete Story

This creepy memorial to Peter McIntyre, featuring a replica of his illegal whiskey still, decorates the lobby of Whiskey Pete’s in Primm, Nev. (Image: bp.blogspot.com)

Yes, there was a real Whiskey Pete, and no, he didn’t deserve to have a casino resort, or anything else, named after him.

Peter McIntyre, a former miner and bootlegger, ran a gas station with two pumps — named State Line Station after the town’s original name — on the future site of Whiskey Pete’s from the late 1920s until 1932.

According to newspaper accounts at the time, he was a violently antisocial ex-con who served two months in jail for running an illegal speakeasy, then six months for bootlegging whiskey at the start of Prohibition.

According to a 1928 story in the Las Vegas Review newspaper, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce received several complaints from tourists about McIntyre. According to one, he shot at them as they exited his gas station.

If gas was how McIntyre planned to turn over a new leaf, doing it in State Line, Nev. (renamed Primm in 1996 to avoid confusion with another Stateline, Nev.) wasn’t a very good plan because few cars stopped to gas up there back then. So Whiskey Pete fell back into his old illegal ways. He distilled whiskey and sold it at his station on the down low.

An article about McIntyre in the March 28, 1931, edition of the Las Vegas Age noted that “Pete resents the bad name given to him by a portion of the public and the press, alleging that he is not so bad as he is painted.” The occasion of the article was McIntyre’s release on bail after shooting Rube Bradshaw, the Elgin, Nev. postmaster.