For the past few years, US residents have held out hope that their government would eventually regulate and legalize online poker on a federal level. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to happen in 2012 – and it may not happen for years to come either.

Senators Harry Reid and Jon Kyl were hoping that Congress would vote on their online poker bill during a lame-duck session. However, the bill “ran out of time” according to Reid’s chief of staff, David Krone. Expanding on the matter, Krone told media members the following:

Our goal is to definitely try again next year but Senator Reid’s feeling is that after a while there comes a time when you’ve lost momentum, you’ve lost the consensus you’ve built. There will be a window next year, but I don’t see it going long.

As indicated from this statement, Reid and Kyl will try to get their federal poker legislation passed next year. But because of the “lost momentum,” it doesn’t look like there’s much chance of the bill passing any time in the future. This is especially the case when you figure that states will begin taking over with operations of their own.

There was a lot of hard work put into getting a poker bill passed. Poker Players Alliance President John Pappas was one of the people who worked hard to lobby Congress and eventually get federal poker regulation a serious look. So he was definitely not happy and spoke about it by saying:

It is an extremely disappointing end to a year where tremendous progress was made. I am most upset for the players, who have been calling on Congress for years to pass an Internet poker law that protects consumers, restores their freedoms and raises revenue. While I don’t think these voices have fallen on deaf ears, I am discouraged that Congress could not coalesce around a solution in the wake of the ongoing fiscal crisis.