Gentleman, give it to me straight, do you think the sky is falling?

[Bob Loblaw]

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...the best info we have is guesses and conjecture and occasional insider info which is why a lot of us read here.

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Exactly. Which is the exact reason I wish people would just let and play out and take it as it comes.

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and keep their opinions to themselves?

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I believe he's talking about/to the people who are saying "the sky has fallen" "2007 is the year everyone goes busto" "omg panicz"

[A_PLUS]

I think most of the disagreements here are just people trying to prove different points, and no one having any real info.

First off, think about the online poker economy. I would suspect that the recent developments would hit smaller games for immediately. Is it harder for someone to get from thinking "hmmm, maybe I will play some poker tonight" to getting money onto stars and joining a game? Absolutely. Neteller was awesomely convenient. So, at least some casual players will be turned off. A few of my friends have quit because of it, so it is happening to some degree. Did some of these players sit at bigger games? Sure, but relatively less. Where I suspect it would hurt bigger games is that having tougher small games means, less players taking a shot at larger games when they run well at lower limits for a few months. It would naturally take longer for those games to be effected.


I think anyone with an extreme view is probably wrong (which is typically the case with anything)

As of right now:
-The games are still there. Are the marginally harder, I suspect. Are they still more available and convienent than they were a few years ago, yep.

-It is far from business as usual. Numbers are down, across the board, the mainstream news makes things seem worse than they are. Getting money to and from a site is inconvenient. This is a worse environment than we have seen recently in terms of attracting new players.

Personally, things are worse than I thought they would be. I didnt expect the DOJ to be this vigilant. I thought other payment methods would pop up quicker than they have. I didnt expect funds to be 'frozen' by neteller.

If you are a pro, you have to be concerned. Think about it this way. Imagine next year, stars, full tilt and UB were all closed to US players. Is that likely? No. Is is a possibility? You better believe it. Don't try to think rationally about how the governement works. Right now, the people in charge of enforcing the law, don't care about logic. They care about there jobs. Their jobs depend on arresting people, stopping money flow, etc. Our government has historically been illogical when it comes to gaming, I dont know why we should expect anything different now.

Also, the government lock-down has created the situation they claimed to worry about. The large publicly traded gaming and financial companies are leaving the space, leaving a void for less reputable companies. For example, the experience I had trying to get money onto the web to bet on the superbowl was bad. From start to finish, it felt illegal and dangerous (in terms of giving any info to a shady company). If that flows into poker, it will be very bad.

As far as the extreme views go:
Locutus, I think you are assuming way to much logic in everyone's actions, this is definitely not the case with gambling.

Adanthar, I don't think you are taking enough of a 10,000 feet view. As long as there are games, I suspect you will be a winning player. If things get tough for marginal players, it will eventually flow into your games. Your skill insulates you more than most, but it doesn't change that fact that the industry as a whole could look much different in a year. I think of it like this. Big cash game players would love to see ESPN pay the rake for the WSOP. Not because they care about the 1k$ they shell out for the main event, but because it means more money would be out there for the tournament winners to bring to there game after they become poker stars.

[DerrtySlime]

i think cardrunners and pokerxfactor are big reasons why the players are getting better.