A federal judge has rejected the state’s request to reconsider his ruling allowing the Seminole Tribe of FloridaĀ to keep blackjack at its casinos.
In a two-page order,Ā Senior U.S. District Judge Robert HinkleĀ said the “original opinion correctly analyzes the issues.”
HinkleĀ had ruled that regulators working under Gov. Rick Scott allowed dog and horse tracks to offer card games that mimicked ones that were supposed to be exclusive to tribe-owned casinos for a five-year period.
The judgeĀ ruled that the Tribe could keep its blackjack tablesĀ till 2030.Ā The state wanted Hinkle to instead order the tribe to remove the games.
The Tribe had saidĀ Hinkle properly found that those games, known asĀ designated player games, “are ‘banked card games’ (like blackjack) based upon reasonable interpretations” of federal Indian gambling law, state law and testimony at trial, the memo says.
Hinkle has not yet ruled on a separate request by lawyers for aĀ race track in Gretna to intervene in the case.
Attorneys David Romanik and Marc DunbarĀ have asked Hinkle to remove the part of his ruling they say could make it a ācrimeā for the trackās cardroom to continue offering certain card games. Romanik and Dunbar are part-owners ofĀ Gretna Racing.
The track has a case pending before the state Supreme Court onĀ whether to expand slot machines in the state. Voters in Gadsden County, where the track is located, and five other counties passed local referendums to approve slots.
The AssociatedĀ PressĀ contributed to this post, reprinted with permission.
