TALLAHASSEE -- Attorney General Bill McCollum Tuesday renewed his call for the federal government to shut down the Las Vegas-style card games and slot machines operating at the Seminoles' Hard Rock Casino near Hollywood.

Responding to a request for information from the National Indian Gaming Commission, McCollum said that because the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Gov. Charlie Crist did not have the authority to allow the tribe to operate card games when he signed the gaming compact last year, the Seminoles' games are illegal and should be shut down.

''The tribe has brazenly continued its illegal Class III gaming based on its belief that there will be no meaningful federal enforcement actions,'' McCollum concluded in a three-page letter to NIGC acting general counsel Penny Coleman.

A tribe representative could not be reached for comment.

Last November, the governor entered into a 25-year agreement with the tribe that allowed it to offer Class III slot machines and the exclusive right to blackjack and other banked card games in Florida, in exchange for at least $100 million to the state each year.

The NIGC enforces federal Indian gaming law, but has never ordered a tribe to stop gambling when it would be a violation of a compact. Coleman told McCollum in an Oct. 3 letter that the commission was ``still studying the Florida Supreme Court decision and the matter remains under consideration.''

Coleman noted that the court ``did not order any party to take specific action and did not specifically declare the previously executed Tribal-State Compact invalid.''

McCollum responded Tuesday that the tribe was not a party to the lawsuit brought by House Speaker Marco Rubio that asked the court to rule on whether Crist had the power to enter into the compact without legislative approval.

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