The leagues themselves ( especially the NFL) publicly take the anti-gambling stance because they posture that it could corrupt the league(s) and have a negative influence. However, behind closed doors they realize that betting on football increases the demand for their product which manifests in higher tv ratings, etc... It's hypocrisy at it's finest.

The US government has a prohibition era mentality about sports gambling which, let's face it, has always had a shadowy stigma associated to it and no politician would ever run on a platform to legalize sports gambling. The truth be told, most people could care less about sports gambling either way but the bible belters would rise up and express their outrage if it were ever to come to the fore while most other's could care less. Therefore, we have a general malaise about it so it won't be legal anytime soon. Plus, the states say it would negatively impact their lottery sales so it's essentially a non-starter.

However, impetus for online poker will get passed because it's much more mainstream and more people want to do it. The pols realize it's a revenue source by taxing it and there's not the same stigma attached to it as sports gambling. That's all from me.