California is pausing opening new card rooms for the next two decades.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 341 Monday, which establishes a moratorium on California issuing new card room licenses for the next 20 years. Smaller existing card rooms will be allowed to add limited new tables in the meantime.

The bill was introduced by Assemblymember James Ramos, D-San Bernardino.

“I am happy to have brought the tribes and card rooms together in a historic consensus that has resulted in the bipartisan AB 341 becoming law,” Ramos said. “I deeply appreciate Gov. Newsom’s support for AB 341, which will help ensure the vitality of the gaming industry by allowing for measured cardroom growth without overexpansion over the next 20 years.”

The bill effectively restarts a moratorium first established by the Gambling Control Act of 1997, which prevented new card rooms from opening and existing ones from expanding. That act had been repeatedly extended by the Legislature before finally expiring on Jan. 1 of this year.

Under AB 341, no new card rooms can open before Jan. 1, 2043. But existing card rooms with fewer than 20 gambling tables can add up to 10 new tables during that time. The expansion would happen in a staggered fashion, with two new tables able to be added in the first year and then two new tables every four years after that.

States sue to block robocall firm

Attorneys general across the U.S. joined in a lawsuit against a telecommunications company accused of making more than 7.5 billion robocalls to people on the national Do Not Call Registry.

The 141-page lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix against Avid Telecom, its owner Michael D. Lansky and company Vice President Stacey S. Reeves. It seeks a jury trial to determine damages.

The lawsuit arises from the nationwide, bipartisan Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force of 51 attorneys general and the District of Columbia. It was formed last year to investigate and take legal action against telecommunications companies routing volumes of robocall traffic.

California General Rob Bonta said an estimated 577,879,156 robocalls were made to California phone numbers from December 2018 to January 2023.

The lawsuit said Avid Telecom used spoofed or invalid caller ID numbers, including more than 8.4 million calls that appeared to be coming from government and law enforcement agencies as well as private companies.

The company also allegedly sent or transmitted scam calls about the Social Security Administration, Medicare, Amazon and DirecTV, as well as auto warranties, employment and credit card interest rate reductions.

Sharing Netflix will cost extra $8

Netflix on Tuesday outlined how it intends to crack down on the rampant sharing of account passwords in the U.S., its latest bid to reel in more subscribers to its video streaming service as its growth slows.

To combat password sharing, Netflix said it will limit U.S. viewership of its programming to people living in the same household. Those who subscribe to Netflix’s standard or premium plans — which cost $15.50 to $20 per month — will be able to allow another person living outside their household to use their password for an additional $8 per month, a $2 discount from the company’s basic plan.

Without providing details how it authenticates subscriber identities or accounts, Netflix assured that everyone living in the same household of a U.S. customer will still be able to stream TV series and movies “wherever they are — at home, on the go, on holiday.”

The company based in Los Gatos, has roughly 70 million U.S. account holders.

The long-anticipated move, telegraphed by Netflix a year ago, seeks to end a practice that the company allowed to go unchecked for years while its streaming service was attracting subscribers in droves. At that time, management had little incentive to risk riling customers by reining in password sharing.

Staff writer Beau Yarbrough and The Associated Press contributed to this report.