Governor rejects bill on pull-tab bingo tickets

David Royse

Thursday, April 1, 2004 | 11:21 a.m.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday vetoed a measure that would have allowed charities, churches and veteran groups to sell instant pull-tab bingo tickets, rejecting the measure as an expansion of gambling.

The bill (HB 187) would have allowed charities and veterans organizations that already hold bingo games to sell the instant tickets, where a player removes a cover to reveal if a prize is underneath.

In addition to expanding opportunities for gambling, which Bush opposes, the governor said the measure appears to violate a state constitutional prohibition against lotteries not run by the state.

"The bill clearly expands gambling in the state of Florida," Bush wrote in his veto measure. "Any expansion of gambling sends the wrong economic message to all Floridians and undermines this state's reputation as one of the world's finest places to live, work, and visit.

"Expanding bingo to include sales of what amounts to a lottery ticket is, at worst, arguably unconstitutional and, at best, simply bad public policy," Bush wrote.

Veterans groups sought the bill as a way to raise additional money for their charity work.

The measure had passed the House 103-11, the Senate 34-5.

That margin would easily be enough to override Bush's veto if it held and legislators decided to do it, but a spokeswoman for Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, said the president wasn't considering such a move.

Still, Rep. Charlie Dean, who sponsored the House bill, said he might pursue an override.

"It's certainly an option I'm going to look to," Dean, R-Inverness, said.

Dean said he didn't believe the new bingo game amounted to an expansion of gambling, but argued that even if it were it's hypocritical for the state to oppose it.

"The Florida Lottery can expand gambling by opening a new game," he said.

House Speaker Johnnie Byrd has typically been a staunch opponent of new types of gambling, but voted for the instant bingo bill and said he didn't consider it a true expansion, rather "a modification of an existing gaming thing."