Working for a gaming company in the US, we keep an eye on what is going on legislatively. Overall, it is a chaotic mess.

1. Black Friday made things worse - while there was momentum before to legalize poker, having the FBI come in, shut sites down, and make arrests, made legislators less likely to want to touch it, especially in an election year.

2. States vs. Feds - There is a fight over who gets to own the legislation and therefore the bulk of the revenue. Obviously, each side wants it. The states want it regulated similar to the lottery. They already have interstate agreements that would allow them to share liquidity and revenue, Powerball, etc. Most players and land based casinos want it to be regulated at the federal level. This would allow for a bigger liquidity pool, and would likely require any online operator to partner with a land-based casino to get a license. The argument is that they know gambling. You can see Nevada moving ahead with a licensing framework.

3. Indian Casinos - They want to make sure they get a piece of the action as it will likely negatively effect their revenue, already hurting in many cases by the recent expansions in nearby markets.

4. Timing - Most feel like little will happen in an election year, with the possible exception of during the lame duck congress. There is a fair amount of confidence in 2013, but it is far from a sure thing.

Until the politics becomes palatable, and the revenue agreements can be worked out, this is likely going nowhere. Of course, most also assume that if Romney is elected, the conservative base will kill anything related to gambling.

Nothing I say in any way represents anything but my own opinions and not those of my employer, blah, blah, blah.