Merge and Revolution networks are the leaders, with about 33% market share each.Next comes Bovada, I would guess they have about 20% market share. The other 14% is made up of multiple networks, but Winning (America's Room, True Poker) and Chico (Betonline) dominate that last bit of market share.Unless you play low stakes or super low volume satisfies you at higher stakes, Merge and Revolution are your primary options, with Bodog as a distinct possibility. The games basically range from soft to very soft, with the smaller networks having the softest games. Bodog doesn't have many player rewards and they take actions to keep their action in the casino, which ends up discouraging grinders, so they might be a bit softer even than they would be for their size (Bovada = US facing Bovada).Legality depends on the state you reside in I believe, the federal government recently clarified the decades old wire act, which predated the internet, all of a sudden doesn't apply to internet poker (shocker!). But states like Washington, poker is clearly not allowed, other states you would have to look at specifics and consult a lawyer to be 100% sure. Common thought is that operators, not players are the ones that cross the line between legal and illegal, and the federal government does help states where poker may be illegal prosecute payment processors and in some cases poker rooms.As for as the future, there are a number of states that are taking a regulation approach on their own. Nevada being the fastest and most clear cut one. California has tried and failed. New Jersey may be taking the step, and a few other states such as Illinois, Iowa, Delaware, and less so Iowa, have expressed a serious interest.On the federal level, there seems to be momentum building for a bill. Rumors have it that Kyl and Reid, both leading senators from opposing parties, have a deal in the works, a compromise to strengthen the UIGEA against sports betting, but to regulate poker from the federal level. Such a bill would likely be the best case for players, both from a competition and liquidity/player pool perspective. State by state would likely end up with more states not choosing to participate, and more states doing it alone, reducing the size of player pools, and also risking that a single state lottery might dominate the market, all negatives for players.Things are far from certain, but with something like this a major impact bill could happen at any time. With major supporters in each party, it reduces the chances that the upcoming election scares away backers from this bill, but you never know. The PPA is as upbeat and positive as I've seen since the two failed Reid bills, but those in the know have said all along that Kyl has been the chief reason these bills have died such quick deaths. If the rumors of Kyl and Reid reaching a compromise are true, it's the best chance we've ever seen on passing a federal bill.The other question people always ask is if PokerStars will come back. The answer is, only if they come back without being convicted of a crime, meaning they reach a deal with the US government, pay a fine, possibly have senior management step down or serve jail time, and then come out unscathed enough to partner up with a USA casino to offer online poker in a state or federally regulated environment. That might seem like a long shot, but PokerStars is an incredibly large and dominate company worldwide, they have something like 8x the amount of traffic as the second largest poker network, and probably as much traffics as the 2nd to 15th largest poker networks have combined. To discount a company with such size and revenue worldwide would be foolish in my opinion.Also, FTP hasn't paid anybody, the deal with the French guy, Tapie, fell through. He was trying to get FTP for nothing, with next to no money, and was trying to pay back the people owed the most over a long period of time and not have total responsibility for all the payouts. Basically, a rich guy with a lot of noise wanted to get something for nothing and it didn't work out. Now PokerStars is supposedly in deep negotiations to buy FTP and settle their fines. Good sources are talking about things being close to an end, and Ray Bitar, head of Full Tilt, just turned himself in and said as much too. Not that his word means a lot, but combined with good sources, that's a decent hope right now.