Pala Interactive CEO Jim Ryan, who was also the CEO of PartyGaming and co-CEO of bwin.party, has expressed his concerns over the likelihood of the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) becoming law.

Last week saw Rep. Jason Chaffetz reintroduce RAWA, the anti-online gambling legislation supported by Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson. The three-page bill would create a federal ban on almost all online gambling, seeking to undo the late-2011 Department of Justice opinion that the 1961 Wire Act only applies to sports betting.

RAWA would force Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware—the only states where online gambling is regulated—to close their intrastate online gambling markets and would also restrict state lotteries from offering online services.

“It’s a most interesting time in that we have a Republican-controlled Congress and a well-financed political effort to amend the Wire Act. This is the most significant threat we’ve had post-Black Friday,” Ryan told PocketFives.”I think Adelson’s legislation has a good shot of passing.”

Ryan also said that if Adelson’s group was successful in amending the Wire Act, it would push online gambling into the black market instead of regulating it.

Regulated igaming in California: “…Low Odds of Bill Passing in 2015.”

With the Washington and Mississippi online poker bills now dead, any hopes of another state joining the country’s three regulated markets in 2015 now rest pretty much with California. However, with the Golden State’s gambling interests continuing to find little common ground, the chances of California’s AB 9 and AB 167 bills progressing in 2015 remains a long shot.