Those who thought that regulated U.S. online gambling would quickly usher in an Internet poker Renaissance in the country were badly mistaken.
The state-by-state, ring-fenced nature of the industry essentially crippled the vertical before it began, severely limiting player pools and leaving online poker lobbies virtually desolate.
But that didn’t stop several companies from trying to make headway in the market anyway. Five years in, though, a number of previously optimistic online poker operators have already crashed and burned, while a few others remain on life support.