Don’t despair, MGM Springfield. There’s hope yet. Massachusetts politicians are touting the idea of high-speed rail between Boston and Springfield, as many as six rides per day. (Springfield currently must 
get by with once-a-day Amtrak service.) Gov. Charlie Baker (R) has had a change of mind and now supports at least studying the idea.”The refurbished Springfield station, reopened in 2017 after decades of neglect, receives a regular parade of trains from Connecticut cities every day,” reports the Boston Globe, although this has not resulted in massive player defections from Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino, as MGM was hoping. Now it could vie for Encore Boston Harbor players … but not anytime soon, as rail projects have a propensity to go over budget and behind schedule. Besides, federal support has to wait in line behind NAFTA renewal.
Speaking of the Globe (to which we subscribe), its anti-gambling agenda is showing. Take a gander at the headline on this story. So sports betting is “a degenerate’s dream right here” huh? So would be alcohol and 
tobacco. Would you prohibit them too? Anyway, Twin River is reported to be rocking the house with sports betting. Handle on sports wagers was $22 million in September. Twin River has generated $8.5 million from sports betting in 11 months, although 51% of that goes to the state in the form of confiscatory taxes.
The Rhode Island mobile-sports platform is described as “cumbersome” but that’s good for drive-in business, especially from Massachusetts. “It’s a combination of folks coming from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut as you would expect, but it’s also drawing throughout New England — it’s not unusual to see people coming from Maine and New Hampshire particularly for the bigger events,” said General Manager Craig Sculos. Judging from the description of how the mobile application works, there’s still a lot of work to be done, promising as the initial revenues may be—and Twin River sure needs them.
* Tropicana Las Vegas is currently generating a 35% return on investment for owner Penn National Gaming. But that $60 million is peanuts compared to the $700 million or more that Penn thinks it could get for the Trop on the open market. After seeing Circus Circus go for 13X cash 
flow, Penn is open for business, even to the extent of selling off the underlying 34 acres bit by bit. “I would call it an evolution of our thought process … It doesn’t mean that the Las Vegas hub-and-spoke won’t work or isn’t working. It just means that we believe that we’re going to be very focused on moving customers around our network, and that’s going to happen at a more local level and across the interactive activities that we’re offering our customers in markets where it’s legal,” Penn CFO B.J. Fair told investors. Penn is also aware of the relative proximity of the Trop to Allegiant Stadium and will use that to hype the property’s value to prospective buyers.
* Voter-ejected Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) is delusional. Not because he’s in denial about losing the election but because he contends that people kill themselves in casinos every day of the year. Bevin later tried to disavow the quote but his preposterous assertion was caught on 
tape. In other election news, voters in four New Hampshire cities rejected sports books—but five others approved them. That leaves four licenses on the table, to be put up for bid next spring. The closest race was in Nashua, where a sports book was denied by a margin of 75 votes out of 9,000 ballots cast. It’s a net win for DraftKings, which stands to operate all sports books in the Granite State once they’ve all been awarded. The goal of Gov. Chris Sununu (R) is to have mobile wagering operational by the Super Bowl and retail sports books by March.
“Here in New England, people want their communities to change in small bites,” said one sports-book proponent. “The church steeple, the centerpiece of the New England town or village, is really important to people, and they want change at a slower pace.” Having spent many a summer in New Hampshire, I know what he means.
Caille Bros. 5-cent Black Cat musical upright cabinet slot machine, very rare version, works perfectly and pays. Keys included. Estimate $60,000-$90,000
* Can’t make it to the Pinball Hall of Hame? Live on the East Coast? Murphy Auctions‘ gallery in Pennsylvania is currently home to 1,475 vintage slots, music machines and vending machines, along with “a fine array of antique advertising.” The collection will go up for auction Nov. 20-21. Get there early if you want to own your very own slot machine: They’ll all be auctioned off on Day One.
* WalletHub has issued its best and worst cities for singles, and not one gaming-intensive city made the top 10. However, Shreveport, home to many a casino, was in the bottom 10, at number 174. There’s a moral to be drawn from that but I don’t know what it is.
* Bad news for Terry Caudill. A former Four Queens security guard has been arrested for sexual assault in connection with crimes allegedly committed while he was a Four Queens employee. That’s not how you want to get free TV time.
* Sheldon Adelson is reported to be holding back on donations to Donald Trump‘s reelection campaign. We can’t imagine why. (And we’ve tried.) It’s hardly the way to repay Trump for taking Adelson’s advice and ratcheting down the trade war with China—or for giving Miriam Adelson the presidential Medal of Freedom.
Speaking of The Donald, Majestic Star I is described by its broker as being in “impeccable condition.” No such claim is made about Majestic Star II, the former Trump Princess. A Trump-branded casino being less than first-class? Perish the thought!
* Happy 50th birthday, Sesame Street. Here’s to 50 more years of hilarious but informative skits.
