Put the dobbers back in their bags: The dwindling bingo scene in Missouri could be on its way to a blackout.

Gov. Jay Nixon this week vetoed an attempt to revive struggling bingo halls with an expansion of state rules and the elimination of a two-tenths-cent tax on game cards.

“I had no inkling this was going to happen, especially with its bipartisan support,” said Rep. Mike Lair, a Chillicothe Republican who authored the bill.

The House voted 107-48 and the Senate voted 26-3 in May to back the legislation, but Mr. Nixon said the bill would cut into K-12 education.

The elimination of the tax would result in an estimated $2.2 million annual reduction to the Bingo Proceeds for Education Fund, which would affect funding for the Missouri Schools for the Deaf, Blind and Severely Disabled, according to his veto letter.

Also, the 2009-2010 budget slates $300,000 from the bingo fund for planning and design expenses of a new nursing and optometry school at the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus, as well as $300,000 for similar costs at the MU-Columbia campus for a new nursing/health professions school.

“In light of current fiscal conditions, this reduction to education funding cannot be absorbed,” Mr. Nixon wrote.

Mr. Lair, a retired educator, said he never intended for the bingo bill to negatively affect the education budget.

If the reduction was realized, legislators had intended to make up the difference from the tax cut with general revenue during a supplemental budget request in early 2010, said Mark Schwartz, a budget analyst for Rep. Allen Icet, the House’s budget chairman.

Mr. Nixon also took issue with the bill because it authorized electronic bingo card monitoring devices, which he said was left undefined.

“The lack of a specific definition could lead to a significant expansion of gaming activities in the state,” he wrote.

Mr. Lair said veterans and church group bingo games have decreased dramatically in recent years, but lifting some of the restrictions would’ve made it easier for them to use the games of chance as fundraisers.

Also Tuesday, Mr. Nixon supported a rejection of national driver’s licenses by signing off on legislation that prohibits the state of Missouri from participating in the Federal Real ID Act of 2005.

Rep. Jim Guest, a King City Republican, has led a nationwide coalition of privacy advocates who for at least three years have fought Real ID requirements.

“I applaud the governor for signing this legislation to protect the Missouri citizens and to uphold the Constitution,” Mr. Guest wrote in a statement.

Alyson E. Raletz can be reached at alysonraletz@npgco.com.