Congress may have waited too long to effectively restore order to the developing chaos around Internet poker.

This thought came my way from a casino executive familiar with Internet activity who pointed out that some jurisdictions, California being a state he cited, are moving ahead with plans that may make them opposed to federal action.

The executive’s understanding is that some Californians contend a federal plan for regulating Internet poker would only get in the way of a state approach.

"They’ve got a big enough population base in California," the executive was saying. "They’re figuring they can do very nicely with their own plan."

But the talks aimed at crafting a national approach to regulatory legislation continue in Washington although the principal architects of a Senate approach (Harry Reid of Nevada and Jon Kyl of Arizona) have been described by Penn National officials as "keeping their cards very close to the vest."

Penn has good reason to keep an attentive eye on developments since it operates 26 casinos and racinos in 18 jurisdictions, including Nevada.

Penn executives expect an effort to attach a federal poker bill to an upcoming appropriations measure – "The kind of bill no one wants to vote against" – sometime in the next several months.

It’s anyone’s guess what kind of activity may have been launched then at the state or Indian tribe level.