'A second chance’: Staffers, patrons at Primm Valley casino celebrate return

Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español.

PRIMM — Rosa Diaz was surrounded by familiar faces Wednesday when she returned to the longtime job she thought she had lost.

Diaz, the head of housekeeping at the Primm Valley Resort & Casino, reunited with the workers she supervises and regular patrons who come to the only casino in the tiny town on the California state line that serves as Las Vegas’ western gateway.

“Today I see a lot of loyalty,” she said.

Primm Valley was only closed for 17 days before reopening under new management Wednesday, but the path wasn’t unlike the roller coaster that is now silent at Buffalo Bill’s, the still-shuttered sister property across the street.

On May 5, former operator Affinity Interactive, by way of its subsidiary, the Primadonna Company, told state officials in a letter that it was permanently closing much of what was left in Primm Valley, along with the Primm Center gas station and Flying J truck stop, citing a ground lease whose economics were “no longer viable.”

The company had already been thinning operations for months as traffic weakened and California tribal casinos drew more visitors away from the Interstate 15 corridor.

Primm Valley’s sister hotel-casino properties, Buffalo Bill’s and Whiskey Pete’s, had at least temporarily closed in the previous two years.

The closure affected 344 employees, many of whom lived in nearby company housing. The complete wind-down would have also evicted them.

But between the announcement and Affinity’s pullout date, Terrible’s, the Nevada-based gaming and convenience-store company, stepped in.

On July 1, Terrible’s assumed management of the gas stations, and the Lotto store just over the state line in California, which, like the Primm Valley Resort & Casino, are owned by descendants of town founder Ernie Primm.

At 12:01 a.m. July 5, the Primadonna Company then transferred management of Primm Valley Casino, Buffalo Bill’s and Whiskey Pete’s, to Terrible’s.

Since taking over, Terrible’s retained about 300 employees and began preparing to reopen the hotel as Primm Valley Resort & Casino. (Buffalo Bill’s, which closed in July 2025, and Whiskey Pete’s, which closed in December 2024, remain empty.)

Terrible’s also operates casinos in Pahrump, Searchlight, Indian Springs and Fernley. The company is owned by the Herbst family, which built Terrible Herbst into one of Nevada’s most recognizable fuel and convenience brands. The Primm family continues to own the properties.

Cory Clemetson, grandson of Ernie Primm and president of the Primm South Real Estate Company, frames it as two Nevada families helping each other. He said he is looking forward to a new era for Primm.

He said he didn’t want a ghost town to be people’s first impression of Las Vegas, and he is optimistic that Primm will become the biggest business turnaround in Nevada history.

“Our family’s been bullish on Primm for a long time. There’s going to be an airport here, in about 10 years, and it’s going to happen because Las Vegas wants to keep its place as the top entertainment capital of the world, and we need a second airport,” he said. “When that happens, they’re going to see a lot of different things that are going to come to Primm. That’s going to make Primm better than it’s ever been.”

“It’s just going to take a little bit of time. I mean, the Terrible’s Group — you’ve seen what they’ve done in 17 days,” he added. “I know my grandfather’s looking down today, and he’d have a big smile on where it’s at.”

Primm Valley reopened with 422 gaming machines, 250 hotel rooms, a William Hill Sports Book, a sports bar and a 24/7 quick-bites eatery. Terrible’s also announced there will be no resort fees, and it will honor all rewards tiers previously earned by returning customers.

Immediately planned expansions include a coffee bar, a 24-hour casual dining café and a steakhouse, with work already underway.

Mark Bennett, vice president of gaming operations for Terrible’s and Primm Valley’s interim general manager, also said the companies want to bring back concerts and progressive slot tournaments.

He said a turnover like this usually takes three to four months. But after just three and a half weeks, Primm Valley was clean and ready to welcome in dozens of patrons who started gathering outside almost an hour before the doors reopened.

Inside the crisply air-conditioned space, slot machines blinked and chirped, games played on the sportsbook televisions, and the mini documentary on the infamous crime lovebirds Bonnie and Clyde played on a loop by the exhibition of artifacts that has been housed at Primm Valley for decades.

Visitors were especially drawn to this free attraction-within-an-attraction, which features Clyde Barrow’s death shirt, bullet-torn and still faintly bloodstained, and the bullet-riddled, stolen V8 Ford that the couple was riding in when Louisiana police ambushed them in 1934.

Casino patrons had slipped cashout slips with a few cents left on them under the protective glass like coins in a fountain.

Linda and David Bennett of Las Vegas used to regularly visit Primm when their now-adult children were small. Linda Bennett said she missed how “huge” Primm used to be, but it was still familiar.

“It brings back memories,” she said as she waited in a long line at the cashier cage to get money before playing the slots. “It’s excitement, to see this, for people to have their jobs. That’s what matters, is the people that have their jobs.”

As long as she has lived in the United States, and for almost her entire adult life, Diaz has worked in Primm.

After immigrating to Nevada from Mexico 31 years ago, she started working at Whiskey Pete’s busing tables. It was Sept. 5, 1995, she recalled. She was 21 years old and took a bus from Las Vegas, then much smaller, to get to work.

Since then she has done almost every job at what was once a trio of adjacent family-friendly resorts: a server, helped in the kitchen, worked the cashier cage and the front desk. She oversees the 45 staffers who clean every public-facing space, including the bathrooms, casino floor, eateries, venues and guest rooms and she will still make beds and scrub toilets herself.

As a boss, she had to hand out termination notices to all the housekeepers on May 5. She said it broke her heart. Just three days before, Primm Valley was packed with concertgoers for Norteño Fest, a festival of Mexican music.

Terrible’s approached the Primm family within days, and trusting that they would come through, about 90% of Diaz’s staff remained.

“Everybody’s so grateful, and everybody promised to give me more than 100 percent because it’s a second chance,” she said.