This may not be a popular opinion in these parts, but the more I think about it the more I support the government’s actions.  Let me clarify.  I am against criminalizing online poker, am against arresting players, and am against shuttering the sites.  But I’m also against people that flaunt the laws of the U.S. by engaging in subterfuge and deceit.  People that bribe bank officials and lie to regulators.  People that break the law not to prove some moral principle but to make money.  And that’s what the poker sites did (according to the government at least).  They wanted to make as much money as possible despite laws designed to stop their activities.  Rather than just lobby to change the laws, they covered up their activities by lying to banks (who are on the hook financially and legally for accepting banned payments) and, failing that, bribed some of them to ignore the law.  I sympathize with the underlying cause — online poker — but cannot support anyone that openly breaks U.S. laws.  As an American I cannot.  Our legal system is just too important to the stability and prosperity of our society.  It is a value I will not sacrifice, even if it means sacrificing poker played from the comfort of my couch, in boxer shorts.