For Decades It Was Highway 15’s Seedy, Oddball Attraction. Now Primm, Nevada, Is a Ghost Town.

 The desert town that once lured LA travelers with bottom-dollar deals and family fun is now mostly empty, telling a story of a larger decline.

An empty casino in Primm, Nev., on Jan. 6, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

PRIMM, Nev.—They came for the $1 shrimp cocktails and loaded hot dogs, for $15 rooms and the world’s tallest roller coaster—and for a first taste of action or last chance at redemption.

For a few solid decades, a trio of hotel-casinos in Primm, Nevada, just inches over the California state line and about 40 miles outside Las Vegas, lured gamblers with bottom-dollar deals and family-friendly activities—back when that still meant an arcade inside a smoky casino.