COEUR d'ALENE - A federal judge's decision Friday requires the Coeur d'Alene Tribe to stop offering poker at its casino near Worley.

U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill issued the preliminary decision relating to a lawsuit between the Coeur d'Alene Tribe and the state of Idaho regarding the Tribe's Texas hold 'em poker games at the Coeur d'Alene Casino.

Winmill granted the state's motion for a preliminary injunction to stop poker at the Casino.

Coeur d'Alene Tribal Chairman Chief Allan said the tribe is disappointed.

"Poker is so widely played across the state by so many different people and organizations that it sounds ridiculous to say that everyone playing poker in the state of Idaho is breaking the law, but that is what this decision says," Allan said. "Although the state has claimed to widely prohibit poker across the state, its enforcement was basically nonexistent until we began to offer it on our reservation."

"We still believe that we have valid legal arguments under federal law for offering poker at our casino and the court's decision did not fully consider some of those arguments," said tribal attorney Eric Van Orden.

Van Orden said the tribe plans to immediately file a motion to stay the court's decision and also an emergency appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"I appreciate the initial determination that the Coeur d'Alenes' decision to conduct Texas hold 'em games violates state law and the Idaho Constitution," Idaho Gov. Butch Otter said Friday in a statement. The gaming began in May.

"The Legislature and the people of Idaho have made it clear what kind of gambling they will accept. That does not include poker," Otter said. "And no matter how much the tribe insists otherwise, Texas hold 'em is poker."

Winmill also said in his 24-page decision that as the case proceeds, "the state has shown that it will almost certainly succeed on the merits of its claims."

The Coeur d'Alene Tribe has argued that Texas hold 'em is a "bona fide contest of skill" and therefore exempt from terms of the Tribe's compact with the state under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

Winmill concluded that Texas hold 'em clearly contains an element of chance.

"After all," he wrote, "when a poker player is dealt a hand, chance determines how good or bad that hand will be. There is no skill involved in that part of the game - ever."