I finally figured it out - and I should have expected this from a gameworld placed in NEVADA:

CHEAT AT CARDS!!!

No kidding, and thank you very much, there it is - I fookin' said it!

The bottom line is that until you can rake in a lot of cash, you CAN'T HAVE STUFF that you need or want.

The game of "CARAVAN" fixes that.

From Ringo in Goodsprings onward. Gambling equals CASH if you work it right.

CASH equals BIGGASS Guns, and better ammo (lots of it)

So what you do is SAVE just before playing CARAVAN, and then save immediately when you win.

Case in point: I went overland past the NCRCF to NOVAC through Primm Pass after liberating every dime Ringo had thanks to his love of card games. I restocked at NOVAC, and then swiped every silver nickle of it back by playing cards with the gift shop idiot (this was after I cleaned out NO-Bark thoroughly)

No-Bark seems to come up with small amounts of cash no matter how many times you wipe him out at Caravan - that is something I thought a bit odd. But then I thought about gambling junkies, and I hope I didn't make him sell his TV set before I finally just walked away...

I now have everything I wanted from the place, and 7.9K bottlecaps that I didn't have when I walked into town.

What?

It isn't like I was running a charity or some crap like that...

I expect to get paid.

PS (and this is the only reason I edited this post): I still ain't been to the town of Primm, and I don't care about it either.

For me, the most important thing to do at the Start of New Vegas is to come up with the character, and explain the character (to me, that is). That involves backstory to explain the skills and possibly traits.