On Friday, federal prosecutors arrested the owners of Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker, charging them with bank fraud, money laundering, and other online gaming offenses. Prosecutors also shut down the popular gaming websites, a move that shocked and infuriated the online poker community.

So just what does Friday’s shocking shutdown mean for poker in the United States?

“Online poker in the United States at this time is completely wiped out…When Pokerstars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker left the US market, 95 percent of the market share for US poker players absolutely disappeared and with that so did $200 million worth of marketing money and advertising money that these companies spent in order to acquire new customers,” poker agent Brian Balsbaugh told CNBC. “What that means is basically poker television shows like The Big Game on Fox and Poker After Dark on NBC are completely gone. So the poker landscape has changed dramatically in a very short period of time."

The big name poker sites aren’t the only businesses to suffer from Friday’s unexpected crackdown, a day many in the online poker community are calling Black Friday. Companies offering data programs, calculators, software, and other tools that cater to the online poker-player audience are also expected to suffer heavy losses, if not go out of business completely.

According to The Wall Street Journal, PokerScout, a website that tracks online poker, estimates that 1.8 million people played poker for money in the U.S. last year, representing $16 billion in wagers. However, the Poker Players Alliance believes the number of players is much higher.

What do you think of the government’s actions? Justified or overreaching? Do you think online poker should be illegal?

Tags: poker, online poker, full tilt poker, pokerstars, absolute poker
Categories: Online Gambling