An appeals court will hear arguments next month in a battle about lucrative “designated player” card games at pari-mutuel facilities throughout the state.
The 1st District Court of Appeal is scheduled Sept. 12 to hear an appeal filed by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, according to notice posted last week on an online court docket.
The department, which regulates gambling facilities, is challenging a decision last year by Administrative Law Judge E. Gary Early.
While popular with gamblers, designated-player games have been controversial, at least in part because of disputes about the way they have been conducted and regulated.
In his August 2016 decision, Early said the state was wrong to do away with a rule governing the games without replacing the regulations.
The industry maintained that eliminating the rule, adopted in 2014, would put an end to the games.
Regulators proposed doing away with the rule in late 2015, insisting that the way the games were being conducted -- and not the games themselves -- violated a state gambling law.
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