[PoorTom]

I think it's too early to assume there's going to be any overall drop in the number of US players - i think several non-US based sites will continue to accept US players, and I don't see how the government is going to be able to stop people from getting money into and out of those places. Where there's a will, there's inevitably a way. It seems likely the regulations on the banks will be very difficult to enforce and may well be challenged in any case.

At this stage I actually think the main impact will be the stop on advertising, along with the *possibly* increased difficulty of funding accounts. More than anything it will halt the expansion of poker by turning away new casual players and taking poker back out of the mainstream somewhat. I do think when the dust settles most of those currently playing will continue playing, just maybe not in the places they currently do. So this is an impact, but not the end of the world.

You also have to consider that the market for poker worldwide is potentially very large, and has not really been tapped outside the US and Europe. I'd be looking for some of these sites to start expanding their businesses agressively in new territories (asia in particular) if the number of US players does drop signficantly for any reason.