By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-06 20:41:46 | Updated at 2025-01-08 03:19:28
1 day ago
A beloved hotel and casino that has long been a landmark on the iconic drive between California and Las Vegas has closed abruptly.
Whiskey Pete's in the desert town of Primm on the California-Nevada border shut its doors on December 17.
Affinity Interactive, the company that owns the hotel and casino, has since said the closure is temporary while renovations take place.
But locals and fans - pointing to the fate of another Affinity property - are concerned that Whiskey Pete's may never reopen.
In April 2019, Affinity's Buffalo Bill's amusement park was also 'temporarily' closed but never reopened.
The once popular town of Primm, just 40 miles from Las Vegas, has become something of a ghost town in recent years.
Dwindling business has meant the town's 371,000 square foot outlet mall has lost all but one of its tenants.
Affinity Interactive CEO Scott Butera said the 'realigning of Primm Valley Resorts' is part of their effort to develop 'amenities that will better fit our new and current customers.'
Whiskey Pete's, a 16-story castle-shaped resort in the desert town of Primm, opened in 1977
'As an initial step in the realigning of Primm Valley Resorts to meet the changing consumer demand, Affinity Interactive has temporarily closed Whiskey Pete’s Casino in order to feature new and ongoing investments at Primm Resorts and Buffalo Bills,' the statement read.
The complex also underwent renovations back in 2016, News 3 reported.
No reopening date has yet been announced by Affinity.
The 16-story castle-shaped resort first opened in 1977, named after local legend Pete McIntyre.
McIntyre, as local lore has it, was a gas station owner and bootlegger in Primm.
When he died in the 1930s he reportedly requested his body be buried standing up with a bottle of whiskey in hand.
When construction workers were doing some work on the resort in 1994 they accidentally brought up the coffin, San Francisco Gate reported.
'The tractor caught the edge of the box and the skull popped out,' a Whiskey Pete's spokesperson told the Reno Gazette-Journal at the time.
'There was Whiskey Pete staring at us.'
The Interstate 15 is an iconic road leading from Southern California to Las Vegas and is often so popular that traffic can back up to the border.
Primm is small town on the California-Nevada border
Siegfried And Roy pose for a portrait with Michael Jackson and a white Tiger at their enclosure at the Mirage Hotel in March 1990
The Mirage shut for good on Wednesday - after opening in November 1989
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino's plans to build an iconic guitar-shaped hotel in place of The Mirage
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Las Vegas itself has suffered some recent losses with the closure of iconic hotel Mirage, which saw guests such as Michael Jackson.
The 3,044-room resort will reopen as Hard Rock Las Vegas in 2027.
Its tropical theme and volcano will be gone, and instead a 700-foot-tall tower in the shape of a guitar - similar to the one at the Florida hotel - will appear.
The Strip also saw the end of Tony award-winning musical Jersey Boys in the summer.
The musical, chronicling the 1960s rise of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, was meant to run for a year but was abruptly cancelled.
