The online gambling industry was rocked recently when the U.S Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which effectively bans Americans from online gambling. Immediately every online gaming company had to analyse the law and decide how it would deal with the legislation moving forward.

Many of the large online gambling companies like Party Gaming felt they had no choice but to cease U.S operations and focus on their international affiliations while working to get a sensible legislation passed in the future. However, other large, private operators like Full Tilt decided to keep doing business as usual.

Similarly, Poker Stars decided to defy the law and continue accepting players from the U.S. Poker Stars is recognised as a leader in tournaments and boasts the largest overall traffic numbers as any other site or network.

The real backlash will be felt by the smaller rooms, which are a part of networks such as Ongame that have been or will be disconnected from American players. These rooms have worked hard to gain the players they have but may not have the liquidity necessary to survive a long rough patch.

Luckily the solution for these smaller rooms has come in the form of smaller poker networks, companies which will provide software platforms for the online poker rooms. Networks like Skill Games, a poker software company that provide software for rooms such as Mansion Poker. Skill Games says the smaller guys have player bases that would be appealing to any network and adds that they appear to be in the right place at the right time.

However, critics of smaller networks say that the problem with smaller networks is the lack of stability and liquidity. Players might not be dealing with entities as stable as Ongame for example.