The action by U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich halts the tribe’s online sports betting, which had only launched Nov. 1. In her ruling, the Washington, D.C.-based judge decided that allowing such betting to take place from any laptop or smartphone – but completed through servers on tribal land – violated terms of IGRA.

The ruling sides with Magic City Casino in Miami-Dade County and Bonita Springs Poker Room in Southwest Florida, whose owners challenged the gambling deal signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, after it was approved by state lawmakers in a special session of the Legislature in May.

More:DeSantis uses sports betting to craft gambling deal that would bring Florida $2.5 billion

Deal struck:DeSantis reaches sports betting deal with Seminole Tribe

The pari-mutuels argued that the sports betting proposal was a “legal fiction,” because federal law does not authorize betting that occurs off tribal lands. The pari-mutuels contended the “hub-and-spokes” system envisioned by the deal would have a “significant and potentially devastating impact on their own gambling operations.

The pari-mutuels said that Florida was trying to create a legal loophole by steering the remote betting through servers on tribal land.

Deal struck:DeSantis reaches sports betting deal with Seminole Tribe

The pari-mutuels argued that the sports betting proposal was a “legal fiction,” because federal law does not authorize betting that occurs off tribal lands. The pari-mutuels contended the “hub-and-spokes” system envisioned by the deal would have a “significant and potentially devastating impact on their own gambling operations.

The pari-mutuels said that Florida was trying to create a legal loophole by steering the remote betting through servers on tribal land.

The U.S. Interior Department, which oversees IGRA, had approved Florida’s compact. The Justice Department, which represented the Interior Department in the case before Friedrich, is expected to appeal her ruling and likely ask that online gambling continue pending the final outcome of the case.

Attorneys for the federal authorities had argued before Friedrich that what Florida had come up with was a “permissible hybrid approach,” that was not explicitly prohibited.

Short of an appellate victory, proponents of online gambling face longer odds. Florida voters in 2018 approved a constitutional amendment giving voters the “exclusive right to decide whether to authorize casino gambling,” in the state.

There are three gambling measures already underway that are attempting to collect the close to 900,000 petition signatures needed to get on the ballot next fall. One of them, financed by the betting platforms DraftKings and FanDuel, had opposed the Seminole compact and wants a big share of Florida sports betting. Some of the revenue generated would go to education, under the proposal.

"Now is the time for all entities to come together so we may provide a competitive legal sports betting market for Floridians, while generating the expected hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues for the Florida Educational Enhancement Trust Fund.," said Christina Johnson, spokeswoman for Florida Education Champions.

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