According to this (in Finnish)
http://fi.pokernews.com/uutiset/ poker is now sports in Russia (just after Putin made gambling about illegal in Russia). I just read that they are not going to do any similar exception in the USA. Too bad.
Things in the EU have been on on the edge too during the last two or so years (in Finland too the idea was to make online Poker more or less illegal but it was tried by the state monopoly owners and the ministers who get money from them; their try was based on totally untrue facts, just to get money into their own pockets) but in many countries it has now been getting clear and the way it's going to be in the EU now most likely is based on no state monopoly (some exceptions have been a sort of allowed but they may not last) and licenses the gambling industry must pay and compete of to get to the markets of any country.
Though many EU countries are still totally open, some a sort of still closed - one can get around them in any country here, just that it wouldn't be all legal to pay poker gambling taxes nor play professionally at all (if at any in some cases) sites.
Russia at the moment seems good, the EU seems good though with limitations, and there's increasing action and interest in Asia, China, Australia. Africa is on its way of getting more open.
There will be limitations in the forms of licenses but it will be legal. If all goes along these lines, as they likely are going to, the USA will have a harder time to hold its total ban for very long, and it would look stupid when it comes to poker, also considering all the poker action in the USA. It's already officially argued in Finland that it would be up to impossible to do it in Finland, because it's a part of the EU for one reason, so it shouldn't be even tried, it just would go "underground," meaning people would still play online, legal on not legal. Italy tried to make it illegal the last year but had to make it legal this year, and Spain followed, and Sweden is thinking about the same in the form of licenses (at the moment they have their own monopoly poker site and of course poker is totally legal in Sweden, with a 30% tax of winnings from the non-EU sites and no tax from the EU sites as it's in the EU as long as one is not a professional in case it's generally income tax in the EU, or at least in Finland), and things are happening in Germany too where it has been on the line of dropping either way for a longer time now. France is one of the more banning EU countries when it comes to poker though one can still play there but it may not be legal though not sure.
In the USA, to me it seems if one is a professional there one could pick an another state there, it being less illegal in other states, then there's a way to use bank accounts from other countries around, or move to Australia (not all that legal but one should be able to play there legally, as long as one gets there - they have a point system and getting there can be difficult), then there's the UK (no gambling taxes even from professionals until that has changed), then Canada is near, and there are other possibilities. And poker being so legal in all so many other countries, there rates to be always ways for the US players to play poker online, and some sites are open for US players and more or less offer ways to get money in and out.
The lights are out there, though at the moment things have gone more or less as dark as they can in the USA as they are banning even Canada at many online wallets, and they are not going to make an exceptions when it comes to poker. But that's all just a sort of a black wave, having no reality to it, but it's a very big wave and will take time and counter forces to get things right again, but as it seems now it's just a matter of time when either the reality hits or it will be seen as an act against human rights to ban online poker.