Those in favor of legal US online poker were hoping that Senator Harry Reid would attach a bill to the Senate tax payroll legislature. Unfortunately, Reid killed these hopes when he said that an online poker bill was "not in there." With this being the case, it doesn't seem like legalized and regulated internet poker is coming to the United States any time soon. So here is a brief view of what the current landscape looks like in the US online poker world.

States Taking Advantage

Some people are still holding out on the belief that Reid or somebody else in Congress will create a poker bill by the end of this year. However, Wall Street expert and Macquarie Securities analyst Chad Beynon doesn't think that will happen until at least 2013. Furthermore, he believes individual states will be the ones taking advantage of this delay in federal regulation.

Benyon specifically talked about Nevada's poker legalization efforts by saying, "We think the standards were written in a way that will allow for small adjustments as the process moves forward. At this point, no firm date has been set, but 13 companies have now submitted for an operating license (in Nevada)."

Nevada is currently the closest American state to regulating online poker, while several other states such as New Jersey, California, Iowa and Maine are all seriously considering their own poker operation.

Who will take Advantage of State-run Online Poker?

Obviously individual US states will benefit financially from US poker since they'll be getting tax revenue by running their own operations. In addition to this, they will also be getting licensing fees from any private companies that want to offer online poker to individual states.

As for other entities that will benefit from state-run poker, land-based casino companies such as Caesars Entertainment, Boyd Gaming and MGM Resorts are also expected to run operations. This is especially the case in the state of Nevada where they have a good standing with the state government. So for now, expect casino companies and state governments to be the immediate beneficiaries of online poker.