“Project Linq”

I’m not sure anybody but Gary Loveman could come up with such a preposterous handle as “Project Linq” (alas, not “Linc,” as in Clarence Williams III on the Mod Squad, although that would be pretty cool) for Harrah’s Entertainment‘s street of shops, dead-ending in a Ferris wheel (the Strip view of which will be impaired by the Las Vegas Monorail). It’s said the proposed attraction will be built next year, although Loveman is careful to keep his predictions of Strip recovery less bullish than those of MGM Resorts International‘s Jim Murren.

The Clark County Commission recently scotched three arena proposals — including a Harrah’s joint venture. The CEO says Harrah’s is trying to find a new means of realizing the project, now that taxpayer subsidies aren’t gonna happen. That’s mighty white of him, considering that Harrah’s is sitting on $3 billion in cash and credit lines.

(While the Harrah’s project was the only proposal of the three to include a parking garage, it proposed to achieve more capacity as its rivals — on a comparatively puny footprint of land and far less square footage. All proposals hinged up raising Clark County sales taxes [again], to the point of making Las Vegas #7 in the nation for highest sales tax rate, leapfrogging New York City.)

Loveman also huffed something about prospective buyers for The Rio demanding “haircuts” in return for losing the World Series of Poker. How dare they! What presumption! Of course, Loveman is something of a tonsorial expert, having shorn many a lender of their locks in the course of averting bankruptcy.

Postscript: It’s kind of funny, in retrospect, how Archon Corp.’s Sue Lowden was recently railing so much against taxes in her failed senatorial bid, even as she, her husband and business partner Christopher Milam were quietly pushing for a tax increase to help fund their would-be stadium. Ironic much?

“Good luck ambassadors.” Legislators in Massachusetts tried to bar the use of such characters, who supposedly accost patrons as they exit the casino, urging them to return to the slots. Call me naive but are these merely the product of someone’s imagination or does this phenomenon exist? I’ve certainly never encountered anything like it. When I’m ready to leave the casino, I leave. Anybody who got all up in my business and tried to have me play some Double Diamonds would get a two-word reply. The first word begins with “F” and the second is “you.” I imagine your reaction would be similar — if more elegantly expressed.