Eastside Cannery was a Las Vegas locals casino on Boulder Highway. It opened on August 28, 2008, on the former Nevada Palace lot. Eastside Cannery shuttered on March 17, 2020, when Nevada’s governor ordered all non-essential businesses in the state to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It never reopened.
Eastside Cannery was the newest Las Vegas locals casino when it closed. The only casino-hotel in the locals market that is newer today is Durango, which was constructed after Eastside Cannery’s fate was sealed.
Boyd Gaming acquired Cannery and Eastside Cannery in 2016. Cannery is a value joint in North Las Vegas. Eastside Cannery was a slow locals casino overshadowed by larger Boulder Highway casinos like Boulder Station and Sam’s Town, and ones that offered a better value, like Jokers Wild and Skyline.
Eastside Cannery
Under its original owner, Eastside Cannery had some of the best video poker in Las Vegas. It offered 10/7 Double Bonus (100.17%), 9/6 Jacks or Better where straight flushes paid 90 coins (100%), 10/6 Double Double Bonus with a slightly short straight flush (99.96%), and several other games over 99.5%, according to VPFree2.
Eastside Cannery’s pit was full of cheap table games. All blackjack was $5, paid 3/2, and hit soft 17. The options were double-deck with re-split aces and six-deck with re-split aces and surrender. It was the only Boyd Gaming property in Las Vegas with these great rules, which were rare at any $5 game back then.
The craps game had a $3 minimum bet. It offered up to 10 times odds. The Field paid triple on 12. Double zero roulette and traditional pai gow poker were $5.
Eastside Cannery had a small poker room in its pit until 2016. That is when it closed. Poker players were sent to its nearby sister casino, Sam’s Town. That poker room closed in March 2020.
After the pandemic closure, the casino industry knew it would be at least a year before the gaming industry was back to normal. Boyd Gaming decided to keep the newer Eastside Cannery closed and reopen Sam’s Town instead, which had limited operations, and remains at less-than-full capacity to this day, as the area where the poker room, keno lounge, and about 100 slot machines were remains walled off to this day. The buffet space is also idle, and the casino floor has fewer machines and tables than before the pandemic.
At the same time, Boyd Gaming reduced operations at Jokers Wild, also on Boulder Highway. The sportsbook and table games closed. Cadence Crossing is under construction next to Jokers Wild, which will close when the new building is completed.
What caused this decline on Boulder Highway?
Casinos on Boulder Highway and in the surrounding area were in decline before the pandemic. In 2019, Arizona Charlie’s Boulder removed all live table games. Electronic table games replaced them, but those only lasted a few months before the casino went all slots.
When casinos reopened in June 2020, Fiesta Henderson closed and never reopened. As mentioned earlier in the article, Jokers Wild closed its sportsbook and removed all live tables, and Sam’s Town never reached the same operational levels as before. Longhorn, which is across the street from Eastside Cannery, stopped dealing live games after it reopened from the pandemic closure. Boulder Station removed about half of its pit. Club Fortune removed live table games in 2022. Pass, which opened on the old Eldorado property in downtown Henderson in 2021 with live tables, removed them in 2023. Its sister property, Railroad Pass, dropped live tables in 2024.
Some of this is related to the depressed economy in the area. The Boulder Highway area is one of the poorest in Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas economy has seen better days. Tourism is down, and in many months in 2025, gaming numbers have also dropped. This has reduced construction and hospitality demand, something that directly affects the economy of that part of Las Vegas.
Boulder Highway casinos get little in the way of tourism. Most Las Vegas visitors stay on the Strip, downtown, or at other off-Strip properties. This brings little outside gaming and ancillary revenue to the area, even if the value is there.
Last Updated on November 17, 2025 by John Mehaffey
