Desert watering hole near gambling city is unfinished (6)

I believe the answer is:

barren

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'desert watering hole' is the definition.
'barren' can be an answer for 'desert' (thesaurus). I am unsure of the 'watering hole' bit.

'near gambling city is unfinished' is the wordplay.
'near gambling' becomes 'bar' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'city' becomes 'reno' (city in Nevada).
'is unfinished' means to remove the last letter.
'reno' with its final letter removed is 'ren'.
'bar'+'ren'='BARREN'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for barren that I've seen before include "Sterile" , "Not producing vegetation or offspring" , "Unable to reproduce, infertile" , "Arid, infertile" , "Dull" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times and the Irish Times (Crosaire).

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