This Florida Legislature loves gambling – in one form or another. It has sent Gov. Crist a bill that legalizes instant bingo.
What’s instant bingo? The pull-tab tickets are sold similar to Lottery instant tickets, except instead of scratching to see whether it’s a winning ticket, a buyer would pull off a cardboard cover and match the numbers with a bingo card to get a prize. They would cost no more than $1. In other words, businesses can hold their one form of lottery. According to news articles I read on the topic, veterans and other charitable organizations were pushing for it to help their faltering bingo operations.
A similar bill passed in 2004, but was vetoed by Gov. Jeb Bush.