TORONTO - Ontario's aboriginal communities are getting over $3 billion over the next 25 years for community health care, education and infrastructure under a new deal to share revenue from provincial lotteries and casinos.

The Chiefs of Ontario ratified the deal Thursday, which gives 134 aboriginal communities an immediate payment of $201 million and a 1.7 per cent cut of provincial gaming revenues starting in 2011.

In return, the chiefs give up an ongoing lawsuit about taxes collected from Casino Rama, near Orillia, Ont. The agreement ends three years of negotiations and follows a failed deal which was voted down by Ontario chiefs last summer.

"It's been a marathon,'' said Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant from Thunder Bay, where he has been in non-stop negotiations for the last few days.

"It's a historic agreement ... (It's) a jump-start to helping to assist the living conditions in First Nations.''

Under the current deal, which expires in 2011, some aboriginal communities get a cut of the revenue generated by Casino Rama, which works out to an average of $60 million a year.

This deal doubles their annual revenue share to about $120 million a year, starting in 2011. It's up to the individual aboriginal communities to decide how that money is spent, Bryant said.

But he said he expects it will help nurture the growth of an aboriginal middle class.

"This money will be used to improve schools, to improve housing, to address infrastructure challenges, to provide training that will lead to more jobs,'' said Bryant, adding he hopes it kick-starts other economic projects within the communities.

"The goal is, from the First Nations perspective, to have these gaming dollars be partnered up with other industries which will allow for the average income of First Nations people to go up.''

Sharing gaming revenue has been a thorny issue for governments of all stripes in Ontario. Casino Rama was originally set up as a First Nations casino with revenue going to communities within the Ontario First Nations Limited Partnership.

A 20 per cent "win tax'' -- imposed on Casino Rama by the former Conservative government in 1996 -- prompted several lawsuits from aboriginal communities and Ontario chiefs, claiming the government was not entitled to a cut of the casino profits.