Last Friday online poker sites such as PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker were taken down by the US government, their sites being replaced by the government take down notice. Magic Pro Tour Hall of Famer Gary Wise has written an excellent breakdown and analysis for ESPN.com, here is an excerpt:

There is no entity in the poker industry whose fate did not take a sharp turn Friday.


As we learned Friday, the Department of Justice arraigned 11 prominent members of the poker industry for fraud and money laundering to the tune of billions, among other charges, seized five URLs, froze more than 75 bank accounts and effectively jettisoned PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker from American culture. Now, as the dust begins to settle, we take stock of events as they've unfolded, try to answer some of the questions raised and do some educated guesswork on what tomorrow's poker industry may look like.

While clearly the events that caused the government to take down these sites, such as laundering money, are not an issue that we have to worry about for Magic's online presence, these actions may still mar some opinions of our game given as it is often compared to poker.

We'll be following as this story further develops.