That Vegas High Roller thing didn’t work out so well for Caesars Entertainment, so now it’s going to try shooting tourists down 
the Linq Promenade on a 114-foot-high zipline. This quick thrill will be priced at $20-$30 in the daytime and $25-$35 during the day (it’s cheaper if you ride in a seated position). The thrill ride will land you at the base of the High Roller, in a not-very-subtle form of suggestion. Although Fly Linq won’t be ready until November, Caesars — never shy about making a buck — is already selling tickets.
* Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) says he’s going to vote against it but Driving Arkansas Forward has qualified for the November ballot, 
despite a few speed bumps along the way. It would permit casinos to “an applicant in Jefferson County within 2 miles of Pine Bluff; an applicant in Pope County within 2 miles of Russellville; Southland Racing Corp. at or adjacent to Southland Gaming and Racing in West Memphis; and Oaklawn Jockey Club at or adjacent to Oaklawn Racing and Gaming in Hot Springs.” The ballot question would allow the two tracks, which already host VLTs, to offer sports betting. Oaklawn is officially neutral while Southland is hiding from the press.
The news prompted an acidic back-and-forth between casino opponent Jerry Cox and Driving Arkansas Forward counsel Nate Steel. The former noted that most of the $2.3 million in 
campaign funding had come from the out-of-state Quapaw and Cherokee tribes. “For them to indicate all this is homegrown is absolutely false,” Cox huffed. Steel responded with an e-mail saying, “Perhaps someone should tell the nearly 100,000 Arkansans that signed our petition that this effort wasn’t homegrown. I would also note that the Quapaw Tribe was here long before any of us.” Ba-ZING! Now Cox wants to try and get the name of initiative changed. It would surely be, as Steel says “a futile effort.”
If legalized, casino gambling would be taxed at 13% for the first $150 million in revenue and 20% on everything above that. Most would go to the state but there’s a 17.5% carve-out for the horseracing industry. Steel also crossed swords with the Highway 
Commission, which protested that “citizens need to understand that the proposal does not direct any of the revenue to be generated from the casinos to our state’s highways, despite what some of the promotional ads are implying.” He responded that “advertisements cite facts and make clear these additional tax revenues could be used for roads and highways, and it is the organization’s primary goal to make sure our policymakers dedicate more money for highways.” But you never know where that money will end up once lawmakers get their hands on it. Driving Arkansas Forward (optimistically) forecasts $124 million in taxes and fees. Keeping New York State‘s recent example in mind, legislators would do well not to spend that money before it’s collected. Libertarian candidate Mark West, like Hutchinson, is against casinos while Democrat Jared Henderson is waffling.
* R.I.P., Treasure Island poker room. Phil Ruffin quietly closed it last month (no word on what will replace it). This brings the number of Las Vegas Strip poker rooms to 17, down from a 2007 apogee of 26.
* Although it’s taking fire for its new version of B Connected, Boyd Gaming qualifies as our “George” of the week for making 
the biggest corporation ever to the University of Nevada-Las Vegas athletic program. (The Fertitta Brothers are still the champs of the private-donation category, having given $10 million for a football facility.) Among the purposes of the Boyd donation is a new scoreboard for the Thomas & Mack arena. Your slot play at work, my friends.
