Smaller cardrooms would be able to expand if a proposed a new gambling bill backed by California tribes gets the approval of the state legislature.

On March 8, the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee approved advancing AB341, a proposal to invoke a new cardroom moratorium for the next 20 years. State Assemblymember James Ramos, the first California Indian ever elected to the state legislature, proposed the bill on Jan. 30.

The new bill would create a new moratorium, that was previously established by the Gambling Control Act of 1997, which prevented new cardrooms from opening and existing ones from expanding in the last 25 years. The act set a 10-year moratorium on cardroom expansions, which the state legislature extended periodically with the exception of last year.