* We’re hearing a bit more on the Virgin Trains USA electric railway to Las Vegas. The first shovels are to go into the ground in 2023 and the route will mainly hew to the I-15 median. 
Completion is expected in 2026. The hangup is that the line will get no closer to Los Angeles than Apple Valley, 90 miles distant. The current plan is to have Vegas-bound passengers drive to Apple Valley, drop their luggage and let Virgin get them the rest of the way. (The need for a Las Vegas station is handwaved for the moment.) “You would be able to essentially start your evening in Las Vegas from the second you jump onto our train,” says train spokesman Ben Porritt. Backer Fortress Investment Group got a similar route done in Florida, so that’s cause for optimism.
Fares—at this point, anyway—would be $60 each way. Virgin has to hope that ridership is better than for the Florida train, which is lagging projections, and that it can eventually link up with CalTrans, just as Fortress is trying to connect its Florida train to tourist-magnet Orlando. “If I get involved in a project like that, having seen what went on in Florida, I would have to be somewhat suspect of the perfect ending and perfect outcome,” a municipal strategist told Bloomberg Businessweek. That doesn’t daunt Apple Valley Councilman Art Bishop, who calls it “without a doubt the largest project the High Desert has seen and may ever see.”
One hopes that the project fares better than California‘s bullet train program, mired in routing nightmares and cost overruns that see no end. California state Treasurer Fiona Ma, perhaps getting somewhat carried away, said of the Virgin train that “If they can get from Los Angeles to Vegas [by rail], no one is going to be driving or flying anymore.” We’d like that but aren’t entirely buying it.
Keeping fares competitive with airfares ($200 on average) and car rentals ($70) will be crucial. At least Virgin and its backers have been able to shave 40% off the cost of its Desert Xpress predecessor, a change attributed to design alterations. The project would be a welcome change from the way things are going at Amtrak, which is eliminating dining cars because Millennials supposedly don’t like them. Great. First the Millennials ruin Vegas and now they fuck up train travel.
* The Pink Palace, built in 1891 as the Gentleman’s Club & Casino, in Louisville in 1891, is going on the auction block, if you have a need for an old casino. The charming, vintage building clearly is outmoded for contemporary gaming, so we don’t imagine favorite son Churchill Downs will be bidding, despite proximity to the horse track. Winning bidders will get six bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, seven fireplaces, three turret rooms, a basement with private living quarters, a fenced-in backyard, an in-ground pool and a detached 2-car garage.
The Pink Palace gets its name from the hue in which it was bathed after the Women’s Christian Temperance League took it over in 1921. Going from a brothel to a hotbed of Prohibition, the Pink Palace has had quite a history. You can place your bid here.
* Speaking of Churchill Downs, J.P. Morgan is issuing revenue projections for the company, modeling cash flow of $464 million this year and $508 million next year, largely on the 
strength of the new ‘historical racing’ facility (200-250 gaming positions, a stalking horse for slots) at Oak Grove. CHDN will be adding 500 gaming positions at Rivers Casino Des Plaines—which the casino can certainly support—and continuing to purse a casino in Waukegan, birthplace of Jack Benny. Incidentally, Churchill Downs’ titular racecourse is valued by analyst Daniel Politzer at 17X cash flow—the highest valuation in gaming that I’ve ever seen.
* Caesars Entertainment is tweaking Caesars Rewards. Now the expiration date in your account will be synchronized with the actual expiration date (sounds a bit confusing, no?). “Your Tier Score will not be affected. You will continue to earn Tier Credits the same way you do today,” Caesars promises. Tier credits zero out at the end of the year “since Tier Status must be earned each year to maintain your status for the following year.” You can read all the delightful verbiage here.
* The Culinary Union never misses an opportunity to kick nemesis Station Casinos in the ankle. The latest provocation concerns the opening of a Tim Ho Wan restaurant opening at the Palms. Seems that the chain has received some public-health warnings 
and poor Yelp customer reviews, which the Culinary is only too happy to promulgate. (Don’t read on a full stomach.) It’s even opened a hotline for complaints about the Tim Ho Wan restaurant at the Palms. “It’s important to note that while the Palms touts that ‘one of the world’s most affordable Michelin stars arrives at Palms,’ none of Palms operations, including the Tim Ho Wan’s in the U.S., has received a Michelin-star rating,” says Culinary researcher Mary Janet Ramos. While the chain’s health record is concerning, would the Culinary be drawing it to our attention if the restaurant in question were in a Culinary-repped property? Call me a cynic but I think not.
Train shows obsolescence: We were in FL when Obama announced plans for “shovel ready” train projects across the USA. I was appalled at most of the routes, having driven from Pasadena to Vegas, Milwaukee to Madison, Chicago to St. Louis, Orlando to Tampa, etc. A 90 mile drive to park in the middle of the dessert, and downtown Vegas at the end of the route? The Orlando Sentinel had an article about a luxury bus route between Tampa and Orlando that their reporter said had one passenger on the day of the trip on the $500,000.00 luxury bus. New Jersey built a Light Rail Line to connect Camden and Trenton. The passenger fares don’t cover the electricity, employee salaries, and routine maintenance, let alone the One Billion Dollar bond issue costs. People’s tastes and needs change, rail lines can’t change.