Sometimes business takes me to the far-flung outposts of the casino biz. Such was the case last weekend in Primm, Nev.

The Better Half and I stayed overnight at Whiskey Pete's, one of the flagship properties of Herbst Gaming. Room rates there are advertised as starting at $27.95 and I'd say even that's a mite steep.

For instance, we had a "deluxe" room and, if you look at it on the Web site, you're seeing almost the entire room. Like everything in the hotel except the wallpaper and some light fixtures in the hall, it doesn't look like it's been touched in 10 years. The air conditioning/heating unit rattles something fierce even on its lowest setting and the shower next door set off quite a hullabaloo of its own.

To get ice from the ice machine, you have to insert your key card. Even then, you only get about half a (small) bucket. And no seconds, either! You'll take what they give you and you'll like it, buster. And although there's a coffee maker and two styrofoam cups in the bathroom, there's no coffee to make.

We think we lost a sweater in the room but can't be sure because -- as of six days later -- we were told the room still hadn't been cleaned. So if you're on the 19th floor in a westward-facing room and you find a dark blue turtleneck, that'll be my attire you're admiring.

The breakfast menu in the coffee shop looks inviting. I say "looks" because that's all we could do. We were waved over to the front counter, then studiously ignored for 15 minutes before we got up and left. To rub in the indignity, we made it over to McDonald's, across the interstate, just as the breakfast menu was being switched over to lunch. Sunday was not our lucky day.

Herbst has gotten a few things right, like becoming more high-profile and frequent in its entertainment offerings. Also, while the populace on the casino floor had dropped from our previous visit this fall, marketing outreach is clearly at work. It was the most heavily integrated casino crowd I've seen in the Las Vegas area, meaning that Herbst is doing an excellent job of getting its message out to the black and latino communities.

But it's difficult to see what MGM Mirage ever saw (or spent) in these places or why Herbst blew nearly $400 million to acquire them. The latter folly may yet prove Herbst's undoing. MGM Mirage was, I'm sure, chortling all the way to the bank after that sale closed.

Oh well, at least our room had a spectacular view across the mud flats, toward the distant mountains of California. The sight of a solid line of cars streaming down I-15 toward Sin City never fails to impress.