56th District GOP rivals disagree over gambling
The usefulness of legal gambling as a state revenue source is at least one issue on which both Republican hopefuls for the 56th District Illinois House seat clearly disagree.
Anita Forte-Scott, 40, of Schaumburg believes gambling is being monitored responsibly in Illinois and would be in favor of a very limited expansion to help state revenues. She sees gambling as a form of discretionary entertainment spending for most people.
Ryan Higgins, 28, of Schaumburg has no religious or moral objections to legal gambling, yet sees it as an impractical measure which takes money from those who have little and uses it to feed a culture of compulsive spending in Springfield.
"I think it's bad policy to use gambling as a revenue source," Higgins said.
Forte-Scott agreed that there are segments of society that look to games of chance as a quick fix for financial problems, rather than by planning, saving and living responsibly. But she doesn't think it represents the majority.
She sometimes accompanies her mother to the Grand Victoria Riverboat Casino in Elgin, where she sees a largely older crowd who seem to view gambling as recreation, not with desperation in their eyes.
As that casino is currently hiring, she also sees employment opportunities as an added benefit of gambling.
But the only level of expansion she'd be in favor of is allowing slot machines or electronic gambling machines like video poker in places like racetracks and off-track betting parlors that already have a gambling license.
Forte-Scott said she would not have been in favor of the recent legalization of video poker for bars and restaurants. She doesn't believe the state really needs any more casinos and especially thinks that allowing one in Chicago would be a mistake because it would give too much of the market to one operator at the expense of existing suburban casinos.
"I would not work toward Illinois becoming another Nevada," Forte-Scott said. "I do believe we have just about the right amount of gambling establishments in Illinois."
Higgins believes video poker is here to stay - allowed by a law unlikely to be changed - but he said that he would vote to repeal it if the opportunity ever presented itself.
"I think it was a mistake," Higgins said of video poker's legalization. "The people don't want it and it feeds a spending habit in Springfield."
The winner of the Feb. 2 Republican primary will face Democrat Michelle Mussman in the November general election.
The 56th District includes Schaumburg and portions of Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Hanover Park, Roselle and Bloomingdale.