Arguably the most influential thing that has ever happened in the online poker industry was the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Many people have argued that the act, which essentially attempted an indirect ban on online poker within the United States, was the single biggest detriment to the growth of that industry. The reality is that being forced to leave the US market actually caused many companies to start looking in Asia and South America for customers and actually probably made the industry healthier in a long term sense as a result, but for US players it was a terrible piece of legislation to pass.
Nevertheless, the US online poker player is one of the most resourceful and versatile around and for that reason they have always managed to bounce back and find places to play. The only real frequently asked question that they have regarding online poker is whether or not the US online poker market is looking good for the future.
The best way to answer this question is to take a look at what the UIGEA actually did. It forced about half of the online poker sites in the top echelon of the online poker world out of the US market, but there were many top sites that chose to remain. These sites ended up gaining huge amounts of players as a result and of course there were some semi-large sites that ended up escalating themselves to the top echelon because of a similar decision to remain within the US market. For this reason, it is reasonable to conclude that any US player that was willing to relocate to another large online poker website did not actually lose anything as a result of the UIGEA, the event that is seen as being the most detrimental ever to the future of online poker within the boundaries of the United States.
When you consider that the event thought to have the biggest negative impact ended up having virtually no lasting impact even just a couple of years after its passing, there is really no reason to be worried about online poker within the United States. It is true that there are some beloved online poker sites that will probably never again see the inside of the United States, but the sites that remain have effectively replaced them for all practical purposes. The quality of the online poker available in the country has not gone down and at the end of the day that is easily the most important issue with regards to the future of online poker in the country. Because of that, the future certainly looks very bright indeed.
Poker for US Players is actually a lot easier to find than you might think; in order to see just how easy it is, take a look at our list of US Poker Sites.
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