INDIANAPOLIS | Indiana casinos cannot kick out or ban card counters from their blackjack tables, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Friday.

Thomas P. Donovan sued Grand Victoria Casino in Rising Sun after he was banned from the casino in 2006 for counting cards while playing blackjack.

Card counters keep track in their minds of the cards already used in the game and adjust their betting accordingly depending on what cards remain to be dealt.

While the casino admitted counting cards is not illegal, it claimed a privately owned entity can exclude a patron for any reason or none at all, so long as it doesn't violate civil rights laws.

Casinos around the country routinely toss out card counters.

The court said the exclusion rule still applies to nearly every privately owned business, but the role of state regulation in casino operations make casinos different.

Donovan pointed to an Indiana law that says gambling was legalized to "benefit the people of Indiana by promoting tourism and assisting economic development."

The court agreed with Donovan's claim that excluding patrons from casinos for skillful play doesn't promote tourism or economic development.

"Indiana has implemented a comprehensive scheme for regulating riverboat gambling and thus has partially abrogated the common law right of exclusion," Judge L. Mark Bailey wrote in the 3-0 decision.

Grand Victoria could have sought permission from the Indiana Gaming Commission for a rule prohibiting card counting, but it did not, the court said.

That means, since "no law, regulation or duly promulgated rule advised Donovan that the skill of card counting was prohibited," Donovan cannot be kept out of the casino, the court said.

Ernest Yelton, executive director of the state gaming commission, said Friday it was too soon to determine what the long-term consequences of this decision might be.

The appeals court suggested Hoosier casinos could ask the gaming commission to approve a rule specifically banning card counting.

The appellate decision also could still be transferred to the Indiana Supreme Court.