{"id":1223,"date":"2024-12-20T08:50:23","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T09:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/?p=1223"},"modified":"2024-12-23T13:03:18","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T13:03:18","slug":"update-whiskey-petes-casino-near-las-vegas-closes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/index.php\/2024\/12\/20\/update-whiskey-petes-casino-near-las-vegas-closes\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE: Whiskey Pete\u2019s Casino Near Las Vegas Closes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>UPDATE:<\/strong><\/em> Whiskey Pete&#8217;s closed to the public on Tuesday, Dec. 17. Owner Affinity Interactive issued a statement characterizing the closure as only &#8220;temporary,&#8221; explaining its purpose as &#8220;to feature new and ongoing investments at Primm Resorts and Buffalo Bill&#8217;s.&#8221; It did not say how long the casino would be closed.<\/p>\n<p>However, this directly contradicts what <em>Vital Vegas<\/em> was told by an executive who oversees the casino hotel. And in 2019, &#8220;temporary&#8221; was also the way Affinity characterized the closure of the Buffalo Bill&#8217;s amusement park, which never reopened.<\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"rj-ins-obj\">\n<div id=\"rj_widget_text-517\" class=\"rj-widget-num-4 rj-widget-even tpl-1_p-7 tpl-7_p-7 tpl-13_p-7 tpl-sponsored_p-7 rj-widget rj_widget_text\">\n<div class=\"nlsm-small\">\n<div class=\"rj-newsletter-signup rj-newsletter-signup-center nlsm-widget rj-gutter-mobile\" data-prefid=\"\" data-alert-id=\"entertainment\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"Newsletter Sign Up\">\n<div class=\"field-text-small\">\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong><em>EARLIER:\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>Anyone who&#8217;s ever been stuck in traffic between Las Vegas and Southern California on Interstate 15 knows the name Whiskey Pete\u2019s. They may never have entered its 16-story castle that looms ridiculously high over the barren landscape on the Nevada side of its border with California, but they\u2019ve stared at it, wondering, \u201cWho stays or plays here?\u201d The answer, pretty soon, will be no one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_338970\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-338970\" data-style=\"width: 1137px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-338970\" src=\"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/trackame-dot-com-858x492-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1137\" height=\"652\" \/><figcaption>Whiskey Pete&#8217;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)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Whiskey Pete&#8217;s, which opened in 1977, will close by year\u2019s end. That&#8217;s according to <em>Casino.org<\/em>\u2019s <em>Vital Vegas, <\/em>which confirmed the sad but expected news with an executive who oversees the property. The casino&#8217;s hotel is no longer accepting online reservations.<\/p>\n<p>Whiskey Pete\u2019s is part of the Primm Valley Casino Resorts brand owned by Affinity Gaming, the Las Vegas-based company that also owns Buffalo Bill\u2019s and the Primm Valley Resort in Primm, and the Silver Sevens a mile east of the Strip. Affinity 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.)<\/p>\n<h2>Grimm, Nev.<\/h2>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/once-thriving-mall-outside-las-vegas-soon-to-be-completely-abandoned\/\">all but one of its tenants.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Primm\u2019s once-popular amusement park at Buffalo Bill\u2019s, featuring the world-famous Desperado roller coaster, closed in 2019 and never reopened.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And, Primm Valley Resort &amp; Casino was so empty on July 18 that Lydia Salmen, 70, was able to enter its unstaffed cage and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-details-emerge-about-casino-bank-robbing-las-vegas-couple\/\">make off with $625K in currency and $27K in casino chips.<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_338972\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-338972\" data-style=\"width: 1224px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-338972\" src=\"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/whole-enchilada-primmvalleyresorts-dot-com-858x286-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1224\" height=\"408\" \/><figcaption>The Primm Valley Resorts empire in better times. (Image: Primm Valley Resorts)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>According to <em>Vital Vegas,<\/em> Whiskey Pete\u2019s will be followed into oblivion by Buffalo Bill\u2019s. Although that casino resort is still accepting reservations through next year, it is now closed Monday through Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Affinity will now focus all its attention on Primm Valley Resort &amp; Casino, which <em>Vital Vegas<\/em> reports will be the recipient of \u201cadditional investment and changes,\u201d including a new Denny\u2019s.<\/p>\n<h2>The Whiskey Pete Story<\/h2>\n<p>Yes, there was a real Whiskey Pete, and no, he didn&#8217;t deserve to have a casino resort, or anything else, named after him.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_338973\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-338973\" data-style=\"width: 677px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-338973\" src=\"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/whiskey-pete-himself-858x784-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"677\" height=\"619\" \/><figcaption>This creepy memorial to Peter McIntyre, featuring a replica of his illegal whiskey still, decorates the lobby of Whiskey Pete\u2019s in Primm, Nev. (Image: bp.blogspot.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Peter McIntyre, a former miner and bootlegger, ran a gas station with two pumps &#8212; named State Line Station after the town\u2019s original name &#8212; on the future site of Whiskey Pete\u2019s from the late 1920s until 1932.<\/p>\n<p><strong>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.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to a 1928 story in the <em>Las Vegas Review<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n<p>An article about McIntyre in the March 28, 1931, edition of the <em>Las Vegas Age<\/em> noted that \u201cPete 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.\u201d The occasion of the article was McIntyre\u2019s release on bail after shooting Rube Bradshaw, the Elgin, Nev. postmaster.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>In 1932, McIntyre\u2019s wife had him committed to a sanitarium, where he died the following year. His coffin was supposedly buried upright, facing what was then called the Arrowhead Trails Highway, to honor McIntytre\u2019s request to \u201csee all those sons of bitches going by.\u201d (That&#8217;s a myth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/whiskey-pete-final-resting-place-vegas-myths\/\">we busted in 2022,<\/a> by the way.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ernest J. Primm, State Line\u2019s eventual namesake, purchased State Line Station, which by then had become State Line Bar-Slots, in 1936. He opened his new casino, which he named in McIntyre\u2019s honor, on the property in June 1977. A hotel tower was added in 1993.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/whiskey-petes-casino-near-las-vegas-closing-after-47-years\/\">UPDATE: Whiskey Pete&#8217;s Casino Near Las Vegas Closes<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UPDATE: Whiskey Pete&#8217;s closed to the public on Tuesday, Dec. 17. Owner Affinity Interactive issued a statement characterizing the closure as only &#8220;temporary,&#8221;&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1223"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1229,"href":"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223\/revisions\/1229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extraniceshirts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}