Scott Fitzgerald: “there are a number of other articles that have been written over the years about how the State gave out the riverboat…”

“there are a number of other articles that have been written over the years about how the State gave out the riverboat gambling licenses in Illinois. The record is replete with problems that the State had, or questions that were raised about how the licenses were awarded. They just happened to be awarded to people who seemed to be involved in the political process. That was something I was concerned about at the time. I was in the State senate at that time; this goes back to 1994. There is an article in the Chicago Sun-Times that discusses how I was seeking competitive bidding on those State riverboat licenses. This is an article from April 10, 1994, entitled, ``Riverboat Deal is Plum For Insiders,'' by Dennis Byrne of the Chicago Sun-Times: The agreement between Mayor Daley and Gov. Edgar to bring riverboat gambling to Chicago should make a lot of people happy: Chicago taxpayers and schoolchildren, who will benefit from the additional revenues, and the thousands of casino/ entertainment center employees. But the folks who should be the happiest are the well- connected insiders who are already raking it in from the state's 10 suburban and Downstate riverboats and who stand to make hundreds of millions more from the Chicago riverboats. That would be thanks to a little-noticed part of the agreement changing the law that bans owners of one riverboat license from having more than a 10 percent interest in a second.…”