**Primm Casinos to Close Permanently This Summer, Victims of California’s Gaming Expansion** Primm, Nevada — For decades, the small border town along Interstate 15 served as a convenient first stop for Southern California drivers heading to Las Vegas. Its trio of casino resorts offered lower-stakes gambling, affordable rooms, and a quirky roadside atmosphere that many travelers came to know well. That era is now ending. The last remaining full-time casino in Primm, Primm Valley Resort, will shut its doors on July 4. The closure follows the permanent shutdown of Whiskey Pete’s in December 2024 and the conversion of Buffalo Bill’s to events-only operations last summer. Together, the three properties once formed a compact gambling corridor that drew steady weekend traffic from across the state line. **A once-thriving roadside stop** Primm’s location, roughly 40 miles south of the Las Vegas Strip, made it an easy pull-off for motorists traveling between Southern California and Nevada. Families and casual gamblers often chose the town for its lower room rates and smaller crowds compared with the Strip. The properties also provided jobs and housing for hundreds of workers who lived on site or nearby. Over time, however, visitor numbers dropped. Weekend traffic proved insufficient to keep three full-scale casinos profitable, according to statements from the operator, Affinity Gaming. The company notified employees and tenants that all operations would end this summer, with staff required to vacate company housing by early July. **California’s closer options take hold** The decisive shift came from the rapid growth of tribal casinos inside California. Resorts such as Morongo and others in Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego counties now sit much closer to the population centers that once supplied Primm’s customers. Drivers no longer need to cross into Nevada for a full casino experience. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the change by cutting overall travel, but the structural advantage of shorter drives remained even after tourism recovered. Southern Californians who once stopped at Primm for a quick session now find comparable or larger facilities within their own state. **What the closures mean for the community** – Hundreds of jobs will disappear when the final property shuts down.