The Biden administration is urging an appeals court to reinstate a deal that gave the Seminole Tribe control of sports betting throughout Florida, nearly nine months after a Washington, D.C.-based judge ruled that the 30-year agreement violated federal law.

A U.S. Department of the Interior brief filed Wednesday offered a full-throated defense of the Biden administration’s decision to allow the gambling agreement, known as a compact, to go into effect.

The deal, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Seminole Tribe of Florida Chairman Marcellus Osceola Jr., and ratified by the Florida Legislature in a special session last year, opened the door for the first time to sports betting in the third-most populous state in the country.