In one of his earliest election campaigns President Barak Obama was asked by reporters if he could name a hidden talent. His response to this was that he considered himself to be "a pretty good poker player." Poker players in the US heaved a sigh of relief, here, finally was a president who may take an interested view for online poker in the US. After all he was also responsible for getting together a regular poker game in the State Senate of Illinois.

The expectations weren't as high as he would take a personal or active stance in getting legislation passed to make online poker legal, but the expectations were that his administration would not be as anti-poker as the Bush Administration was. I mean we don't expect him to get personally involved; he has bigger fish than poker fish to fry; as President of such a huge and important country.

Now that the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York - Preet Bharara has gone ahead with indictments against bankers and operators as well as poker sites operating in the US; we wonder what's going to take place? President Obama did appoint this man as US Attorney. Certainly the feeling is that the President expects a man appointed in this high office to be able to act with autonomy, so, it is doubtful that the President ordered the indictments, and probably was not even aware of Bharara's intention to act. However, and this is a big however; the action has happened during this poker playing Presidents' term of administration and it doesn't make him look very good.

There is already a massive outcry; the department of Justice has been left with a public relations nightmare, and the Poker Players Alliance is horribly embarrassed that they hailed Obama as the "Poker Player in Chief" during an inauguration event. In essence the Obama administration has acted where not even the Bush administration dared to go on the USA's favourite game. There is not only the fact that poker is one of the most widely enjoyed games in the US to contend with, there is also the fact that this aggressive action has put a lot of professional online poker players out of work; the unemployment situation under the Obama administration is already chronically challenged.

That Bharara was appointed by Obama; essentially means to the professional online poker playing public, that the Obama administration is responsible for them being out of work, and this does not paint a pretty picture.

The PPA is also dismayed about how they will be seen in a legal light, as they are representative of the poker playing public, and are funded partially by the Interactive Gaming Council. This creates a whole other set of problems – because two of the most prominent members of the IGC are PokerStars and FullTilt. Ideally the PPA, needs to be acknowledged legally as independent and giving voice to the millions of poker plays in the states who want to play this game online. There are going to be some very interesting scenarios unfolding in the next few weeks.