Primm’s Shuttered Whiskey Pete’s Cameoed in Final Season of HBO’s ‘Hacks’

Posted on: May 29, 2026, 08:35h.

Last updated on: May 29, 2026, 08:35h.

When HBO’s Hacks wrapped its five-season run this week, fans finally saw the finished version of the downtown Las Vegas casino resort that Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and her longtime manager Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) bought and remodeled. On screen, it’s called The Diva. What most fans didn’t realize until this week is that the moment Marcus first falls in love with the property wasn’t filmed downtown at all, but inside the real, abandoned Whiskey Pete’s in Primm, Nev.

Whiskey Pete’s — the long‑dark casino that greeted I‑15 travelers for nearly half a century — has been closed since 2024. But it just scored an unexpected star turn. (Image: Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty)

In Season 5, Episode 3 (“No New Tricks”), Marcus and his ex tour the dusty, abandoned casino he’s determined to rescue.

“They’re going to tear down one of the only historic casinos left in Vegas,” he says as they walk the dark rows of slots. “With a little work, this could be such a cool space for people who want to stay somewhere different.”

This key final-season Hacks scene was filmed on Whiskey Pete’s abandoned gaming floor. (Image: HBO Max)

Because the fictional doomed casino was named Paradiso and its exterior represented by thinly disguised shots of the Plaza Hotel & Casino downtown, Whiskey Pete’s role as the interior stand‑in stayed under wraps — until Architectural Digest blabbed it this week.

And, in a twist worthy of the show, real life is now echoing the plot.

As Hacks wrapped its run, Kristopher Roach, CEO of LV Petroleum, publicly offered to reopen Whiskey Pete’s and an adjacent truck stop. (The Primm family, which owns the land, says multiple proposals are under consideration, however.)

Viva Hacks’ Vegas

The Diva’s neon sign was patterned after the hand‑painted classics of the 1950s. “They all have this handmade look to them,” production designer Rob Tokarz told *Architectural Digest*. “They’re not a font. It’s hand-drawn.” (Image: HBO Max)

Though Hacks has always been partially set in Las Vegas, L.A. soundstages mostly stood in for locations such as the interior of the fictional Palmetto Casino and Deborah’s mansion.

Fictional casinos are used in most movies and TV shows for legal and practical reasons. Using a real casino’s name can trigger trademark issues, location fees, insurance headaches, and demands for script approval by executives worried about how their property is portrayed.

Hacks began to film more on location in Season 4, when Episode 3 (“What Happens in Vegas”) featured the El Cortez extensively.

By Season 5, Hacks shot almost exclusively in Las Vegas. Real properties used during the filming from late 2025 through early 2026 included the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, and the Plaza Hotel & Casino — both for the interior of Deborah Vance’s Comedy Club and The Diva’s exterior.

In the end, Hacks delivered one last perfect Vegas loop: a fictional story about saving a dying casino, filmed inside a real dying casino — one that now has would‑be rescuers trying to bring it back to life.

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