re: Primm Nevada will permanently close all hotels and casinos on July 4

quote:

---

And it's only about 2 hours to the start of the 40 fwy in Barstow bypassing all the LA congestion.

---

“Used to be I could drive up to Barstow for the night
Find some crossroad trucker to demonstrate his might

I visited in 2012. I had time to kill and wanted to see something different, so I took a free shuttle to the outlet mall in Primm. I then walked across the street to Buffalo Bill's Casino and played cheap craps. The table minimums were less than $5. I wanted to ride the roller coaster "Desperado" but it was closed that day. There was a log ride that meandered through parts of the casino, but it too was closed. It looked really cool, or like it would have been a fun spectacle to observe in its time.

Roller coaster:


Log ride

I was there in 1995, rode the tram over the highway. Could have been me.

quote:

---

Who TF lives here and why would you do that?


For some people it’s because no one else is there.

---

Hey, I like small towns and I like being in the middle of nowhere sometimes. But Baker CA is the grimmest looking shithole I have ever seen. It's in an ugly, dirty stretch of the Mojave desert. It's drab, dry and depressing. It feels like a place where people in hell get sent to for part of their punishment



`

Dessert livin' is brutal


unless it's the high dessert

If Vegas is hurting it makes sense the second and third tier gambling destinations are shutting down.

Have to wonder about places like Henderson, NV or even Tunica, MS in an era of reduced spending and online sports gambling.

The problem is most casinos these days are too expensive for the average person. Used to be they had 5 dollar tables and the penny slots with max credits were like 1.80 a spin. Now the cheapest tables are 15 dollars with many 25 and above, and max credits on penny slots are 3-5 dollars a spin. You’re better off playing a high limit slot with half the max because if you hit you at least win a good bit.

Then outside of gambling the flights and rooms were cheap to entice you to get there, they comped you rooms and meals. They had enough cocktail waitresses bringing free drinks that you never ran out of drink as long as you were playing. All of that has disappeared, service is terrible, everything is overpriced and since Covid many casinos no longer have the buffets and such.


The business model has been ruined. The whole point used to be to offer everything cheap to get you there so you’d gamble, they’d sell you a dream of winning big and treat you like you were important through comps. The experience was a high for many people. They’d feel like a big shot and if they lost 1,000 dollars gambling but got a free room and comped drinks and meals they felt they didn’t lose much. Now you pay for all that, there’s no good service, you don’t get free drinks brought to you hardly at all and have to get up from a table to go stand in line at the bar, and most of the time you still lose money and have no “experience” to go with it.

It’s just not worth it. They need to realize the importance of the floor boss offering comps if you win a little to make you feel good (just so you stay longer and lose what you won) and having attractive cocktail girls that bring you drinks and flirt with you. And have 5 dollar tables for those who cannot afford to play 25 a hand. Nobody who makes 20 bucks an hour at work wants to go lose 500 bucks in 15 minutes at 25 dollar blackjack but they’ll do it if you offer cheap tables where they can play for a couple hours
Minimum

The casinos were bought out and were valued as though they could raise prices without end to maximize profitability and it just doesn’t scale for people who aren’t top 1% travellers.

They’re gonna go bankrupt before they learn their lesson.

quote:

---

Baker, CA

---

Only heard of it from Fear and Loathing Las Vegas

quote:

---

but who is living in Baker, CA and why?

---

Always wondered this too. Last time I was headed back to LA from Vegas, the power was out in that town. Signs at the border were warning folks about it being out.

It was 108 degrees.