John Rodill of Las Vegas makes the 40-minute drive every few weeks to the Primm Valley Lotto Store just across the Nevada state line to purchase random number tickets for the California State Lottery. He has also joined the crowds that line up to buy tickets at Primm when the multistate Powerball reaches eye-popping, billion-dollar jackpot levels.

After July 4, he expects to add another 45 minutes to his journey. 

With the Primm lottery store set to close on the holiday, along with much of the casino town, Rodill said he will bypass a relatively new lottery store 6 miles past Primm because it's a kiosk-only location. He'd rather bet with a lottery sales outlet in Baker, California, that has countertop service. 

"I like visiting the employees at the counters," he said about how he buys lottery tickets. The  Primm store offers betting windows staffed by store workers, similar to a sportsbook counter inside a Nevada casino.

The Primm lottery outlet has long been one of the top-producing sales locations in California, according to state lottery officials. The store is closing along with the casinos and a majority of the other services.

Affinity Gaming, which leases the gaming community from the Primm family, announced the closure May 4. The Las Vegas-based company, which is 100 percent owned by New York City-based hedge fund Z Capital, has declined all media requests for comment.

To the lottery customers, it seemed odd the store would close, given the California Lottery ranks the location as its No. 1 outlet for ticket sales. Affinity earns a percentage of the ticket sales and collects a large payout if a winning ticket is sold at the store. 

Dellie Atkins made her monthly trip down Interstate 15 last week after the pending closure was announced. She moved to Las Vegas last year but often purchased lottery tickets from the outlets on her trips to the Strip when she lived in Southern California. "I'm going to miss this place," she said.

The closure isn't lost on California Lottery officials.

"Primm Valley Lotto is still considered one of the California Lottery's top retailers," lottery spokesman Daniel Kelly wrote in an email. "We have enjoyed our partnership with them over the years and were disappointed to hear the news that they were closing.  Fortunately for our players, we have other nearby retailers ready to maintain the spirit of play."

The Primm store was often featured on local and national newscasts when customers waited in hours-long lines to purchase tickets for the multistate Powerball jackpot, which last year awarded two $1.8 billion jackpots in a span of two months. The site has never sold a winning Powerball jackpot but has sold tickets that won smaller prizes.

The California lottery produced total revenue of just under $9 billion in the 2025 fiscal year, with more than $1.8 billion allocated toward public education. Customers won more than $6 billion in prize money.

For some longtime Las Vegas residents, the closure is a surprise and disheartening.

Domenic Bosa said visiting Primm to buy lottery tickets for the past 25 years was often a family experience. When his sons were younger, they would have lunch at one of the casino properties. However, family attractions, such as the Desperado roller coaster at Buffalo Bill's, never reopened after the pandemic. 

"Indian casinos have taken a lot of business away from Primm. That was expected," Bosa said. "It's too bad the lottery store is going away. I'm not sure where I'll go." 

Southern Nevadans can also buy lottery tickets in Arizona, the closest location being a travel center roughly 40 miles south of Boulder City.

California's second busiest lottery store is operated by Truckee Gaming on the California side of the northern border in Floriston, adjacent to the company's Gold Ranch RV Resort and Casino in Verdi. 

Terrible Herbst is back in the game

Terrible Herbst Gaming, a side venture of the Las Vegas-based Terrible Herbst Oil Company, created the lottery outlet at Primm but launched a new lottery business 6 miles south on the east side of I-15 in August 2024.

The Chevron gasoline station and convenience store on Yates Well Road has three lottery kiosk machines. Counter sales of lottery tickets are not offered. A Terrible's Gaming representative could not be reached.

Herbst expanded the lottery operations in Primm in 2007 after taking over a convenience store on the California side of the state line when it acquired the three Primm properties from MGM Resorts for $400 million.

The convenience store happened to sell lottery tickets, but Herbst changed the business model and focused the operation solely on the lottery with kiosk-style vending machines and direct sales from bank teller-style windows.

Herbst didn't advertise or publicize the lottery sales. But the average of 40,000 vehicles a day passing through Primm on I-15 gave the store a built-in audience.

Sean Higgins, who was Herbst's general counsel, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2008 that the company never marketed the lottery store. "We throw open the doors, and the customers come in. We've never done a study or a survey of where the customers come from."

Legalizing a Nevada lottery

Nevada is one of five states without a statewide lottery. Hawaii and Utah don't have any forms of legal gambling, while Alabama and Alaska have only tribal casinos.  To approve a lottery in Nevada requires a constitutional change — approval by both legislative houses in successive sessions, followed by voter approval.

Gaming leaders have said it isn't needed, given that the statewide casino industry produced a record $15.8 billion in 2025.

In the 2023 session, Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and several Democratic lawmakers led the initial approval for a state lottery through AJR5. However, it was killed in the 2025 session.

Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) said in a statement that economic uncertainty, implementation costs and the small amount of projected revenue were reasons for not moving the proposal forward.