There’s a lot of talk about legalized online poker in the United States. In fact, the New York Post recently ran an article on the matter. You can check the article out yourself, but the jest of it is that there are several signs legalization could be coming such as the following:

– Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Anderson has now thrown his full support behind the measure. And he is in good with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

– House Speaker John Boehner could be influenced to get on board since his former aid is now the VP of the American Gaming Association.

– Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants states to stop organizing their own online poker legislation on the state level (possibly because online poker will be legalized on a federal level instead).

With all of this being said, it’s worth discussing what legalized US online poker would mean to Americans, in addition to online poker as a whole. The first thing worth mentioning is that if online poker is legalized, the United States would most likely be a segregated market. So in light of this, US players would be cut off from the rest of the world.

On the other hand, a lot more fish would be encouraged to enter the online poker world because it will be promoted and marketed as a legal entity. And while sites like PokerStars do a good job of marketing the game on poker shows, you might even see commercials on more mainstream TV shows and networks.

Now this isn’t to say that online poker would return to its glory days of pre-2006, but the games would be a lot more juicy than the current scene: regulars who’ve been playing for at least a couple of years mixed with a few fish who are learning the game. Of course, all of this is just speculation, and we’ll have to wait and see how regulation changes things. But it’s a good bet that you can expect some easier competition in the US online poker scene when/if regulation passes.