Mark Lipparelli, the former Chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, just said in an interview for the famous poker magazine: Card Player that the legalization of online poker at a nationwide level is now closed due to the little progress that was made by the states in order to regulate the online gaming.
He was part of the Nevada Gaming Control Board for three years. Right now he quit the institution in order to go back and work in the private sector, which is probably more profitable. In the same interview, Lipparelli also said that the state is planning to increase the player liquidity, but this is the plan for next year. At the same time if the agreements will be made too complex, this might prove to be a mistake.
Regarding the federal legalization of poker at this moment there are just a few states where the markets are just about to open. There all the steps regarding this were already done, including the commercial commitment along with the licensing are both ready. The time when the lawmakers had to do this was during the last two years.