More on Talgos - as with any passenger car on US railroads (where the tracks are 4'8.5" apart, on center), the actual width of the car's interior Shell is about 9'.
You can see this in a gutted car:
www.trainweb.com/cgi-bin/photos/showpic1.cgi?/photos/talgo/talgo01f.jpg
On another site there's a photo of the cafe car which seats only 30 people on an reverse L-shaped bar. There's additional area for food prep but the entire car's length is only about 44', much less than a typical Amtrak car. Scroll down to see these photos:
exmsft.com
which also shows the car in a restaurant configuation - tables for 4 and for 2 on each side of a narrow aisle. That hardly works for a casino layout, however.
How many game tables would a casino want? 3 or 4? how many people around each, given the space requirements between tables? Well, the car's interior width limits the U-shaped tables' depth and the dealer has to be in there somewhere, and somewhere there has to toilet facilities and bar facilities where the cute, long-legged, mesh stockinged waitresses get the booze that looses up your tensions and your intentions...
How many slots would be installed?
All these things take up room. How many "rolling high rollers" can you get in a 44' Talgo car without cramping their style or anything else? 20? 25?
And have them captives just for 2 hours??? That's not how Las Vegas works, folks - they want you to be there for hours on end, up a bit and then down, up a tad and down more. YOU NEVER SEE A CLOCK IN A CASINO - ANYWHERE. You are not to have any sense of time passing since they want you to be there as long as possible so as to extract as much as possible from you, hence the free drinks, etc.
But these 2 hour rides are entirely counter to what the casinos already know works for them.
Why would a casino want to pay for the right to have one or two of these Talgo cars, stocked with their personnel and NO SPY IN THE SKY people possible (security against cheating by gamblers OR their own personnel), equipment, etc.? You need dealers and cashiers and servers and sharp-eyed pit bosses; 3 tables would require 6 or 7 staff people for sure. That ratio is outa whack, and I think anyone who has been in a casino will agree.
How could they make enough to justify the cost? Just for the novelty of it? And take them away from their main casinos?
Would Stockett have lounge cars or coaches for the non-gamblers? More cost but how much revenue gain?
It's entirely problematic and one wonders if/when he'll be able to announce any sponsoring casinos for a Talgo car. Facts have a nasty way of intruding on projections.
Dee Jay |
