Buffalo Bill’s Casino to Close in Nearby Primm (Mostly)

By Scott Roeben, on July 03 2025
4 min read 5 comments
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A fondly remembered, but rarely visited, casino is set to close. Buffalo Bill’s in Primm will close on July 7, 2025.

Another of the three casinos in the Affinity Gaming portfolio in Primm, Whiskey Pete’s, about 50 minutes from Las Vegas, closed in Dec. 2024. Affinity also owns Silver Sevens, formerly Terrible’s, in Las Vegas.

Our friends at Vegas Advantage were the first to share the Buffalo Bill’s scoop. We deeply resent this, despite the fact we are not now nor have we ever been @VitalPrimm.

William “Buffalo Bill” Cody exploited native Americans, contributed to the near-extinction of bison in America, created false narratives about his exploits and left investors and others holding the bag with his debt (due to his extravagant lifestyle) when he died. Let’s stop naming things after asshats, shan’t we?

Primm Valley Resort & Casino will be the only casino in Primm remaining open, if you don’t consider the occasional concert or really sad wedding reception at the venue being “open.”

Affinity is sticking to its guns that Buffalo Bill’s won’t technically close, but yeah, it’s closed. The FAQ says: “It will remain open for exciting concerts and special events at the Star of the Desert Arena, during which Buffalo Bill’s casino, hotel and food and beverage services will also be open.”

Most people want to know what’s happening to Bonnie and Clyde’s car, the one riddled with bullets when the infamous pair was gunned down. The official answer: “We will be announcing future plans for this popular exhibition soon.” Translation: They’re moving it to Primm Valley Resort & Casino.

Others ask about the Desperado roller coaster, which closed in 2019. It was done long before this, with many lives saved by its closure.

Vegas Advantage shares that the closure of Buffalo Bill’s may have been accelerated due to the political climate. From their story: “Vegas Advantage learned that there are concerns about ICE raids and checkpoints along the California state line. This has damaged Primm’s visitation, especially on concert nights. Primm’s musical acts are often aimed at attracting Southern California’s Hispanic market. Some members of that community have been unwilling to travel due to the increasing enforcement, regardless of their legal status.”

This is a convenient excuse for what’s known in the business as “declining demand.” That declining demand isn’t limited to the casinos in Primm.

An attempted rebrand in 2018 was not well-received.

How bad have things gotten in Primm? A woman snuck into the cage at Primm Valley Resort & Casino and spent an hour there, undetected, as she and her husband stole $650,000 in chips and cash from the place. An hour.

Another casino known for being somewhere between California and Las Vegas, Terrible’s in Jean, Nevada, went away in 2020, like so much of America’s sanity. We shared some of the last photos of Terrible’s before it was demolished.

There are a lot of contributing factors to the slow decline of Primm’s casino business. Gambling is now legal across the country, so many California visitors are opting for their local (often tribal, including Yaamava, Pechanga, Morongo and Sycuan) casinos rather than making the trek to Las Vegas.

The growing popularity of cheap, direct flights to Las Vegas has definitely had an impact on Primm’s business levels. Every day, Affinity execs hold a prayer circle the Brightline train will never come to fruition. (It won’t.)

The casinos in Primm haven’t gotten a lot of love, and outdated facilities don’t scream, “Skip the Wynn, stay at this old-timey casino in the middle of nowhere!”

Amenities at these gambling-centric casinos aren’t particularly appealing, either.

We’d throw in some “operational instability,” but don’t want to get anyone mad.

The adjacent Prizm Outlets (formerly Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas) are nearly vacant. Why this mall has not been repurposed as an immersive zombie attraction, we will never know.

Not to pile on, but larger trends have also worked against the casinos in Primm. Our fellow youths think slot machines are lame and boring, and the olds who love them are dying off.

Online gambling is another macro trend that is threatening some brick-and-mortar casinos. The tribes are fighting expansion of mobile sports betting in California because it threatens their stranglehold on legal gambling, but hold onto your parlays, folks. It’s coming.

Ultimately, the closure of Buffalo Bill’s can be pinned squarely on F1. Mostly because we blame everything on F1.

You can tell we took this photo in 2008 because it’s a Primm casino and there are people in it.

If you never got to visit Buffalo Bill’s, you weren’t missing too much, but it had its charms, including the Adventure Canyon Log Flume ride. Not too many casinos have log flume rides. Thanks a lot, lawyers.

The Adventure Canyon Log Flume ride was touted as the first interactive log ride in the world, which is sort of like bragging about having the longest fingernails in the world. It’s interesting for a minute, but then you have to try and dial a phone number.

Could Buffalo Bill’s or even Whiskey Pete’s come back? Anything’s possible, but operating a resort is like captaining an oil tanker. You can turn it around, but there had better be a compelling reason.

All three Primm casinos stopped issuing casino chips in March 2025. All chips can be redeemed at Buffalo Bill’s or Primm Valley Resort until July 3, 2025.

The closure of Buffalo Bill’s is the symbolic end of an era. Tribal casinos aren’t going anywhere, and regional, money-losing casinos are unlikely to ever boom again, unless it’s in the form of an implosion.

Update (7/10/25): The Bonnie and Clyde car moved to where we said it would.