Siding with the Seminole Tribe over the state of Florida, federal Judge Robert Hinkle on Wednesday ruled that the tribe can continue to offer blackjack and other banked card games for the next 14 years.

The ruling means blackjack until at least 2030 at Seminole-owned casinos and means less money for state coffers at a time when state budgets over the next few years are expected to be tight.

The court case arose after the tribe and the state sued each other, with the state arguing that the tribe could not have blackjack after the first five years of the 20-year agreement, and the tribe arguing that it was free to offer the games because the state violated the terms of the agreement when it allowed pari-mutuel casinos to offer games similar to blackjack.

“The Seminole Tribe is very pleased with Judge Hinkle’s ruling and is carefully reviewing it,” said Seminoles spokesman Gary Bitner. “The Tribe believes the ruling provides for its future stability and ensures 3,600 Seminole Gaming employees will keep their jobs.”

A spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Scott told the News Service of Florida his office is reviewing Hinkle’s order.

The 20-year gambling agreement reached in 2010 gave the Seminoles the exclusive right to offer blackjack at its seven casinos in the state. In return, the tribe agreed to pay the state at least $1 billion over the first five years of the agreement, and potentially billions more over the next 15 years.

But the tribe maintained that the state violated the agreement by allowing pari-mutuels to conduct so-called designated-player games, in which a player stands in for the bank. Hinkle called some of these games an “egregious example of the cardrooms’ attempt to evade the prohibition on banked card games.”

Because he found that the state violated the terms of the agreement with the Seminoles by approving of the pari-mutuel card games, Hinkle ruled the tribe is now authorized to conduct blackjack at all seven of its casinos, including those near Hollywood and in Coconut Creek, until the end of the agreement in 2030.

In a separate state court case, in early August, an administrative law judge ruled that the blackjack-like designated-player games operated by cardrooms at pari-mutuel facilities are violations of the Seminole agreement and had to stop, at least in their current form.

It’s unclear how Wednesday’s ruling will affect negotiations to update the Seminole agreement. The tribe was to enter into such negotiations after five years, when its exclusivity on blackjack ran out. But a new deal fell apart during this year’s legislative session, and with this federal court ruling in hand, the tribe now negotiates from a considerably stronger position.

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