In light of the indictments of the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Pokerlast week, PocketFives.com has enlisted ESPN columnist Gary Wise to break it all down. He joins us this week on the PocketFives.com Podcastand you can also follow Wise on Twitter at @garywise1 or by visit his blog at jgarywise.com.

Many in the online poker community wanted to know if the three aforementioned U.S.-facing online poker sites had any warning that the Department of Justice was poised to strike. Wise speculated, “They had warning in that the UIGEAwas passed in 2006. I think beyond that, they really didn’t know what was coming. We’ve all seen the PPA’s response, which has been one of shock. They weren’t ready for this. I’d think that if the sites had known, the PPA would have known.”

What’s on the horizon, then? Will pro-internet gambling legislation make it through Congress in the near future? Wise forecasted, “Federal legislation seems very unlikely before 2013 because 2012 is an election year. Frankly, running on legalization of gambling is political suicide… As a result, Federally, we’re not going to see anything for a while… I’m still optimistic that we might see something on a state level in the next three to six months.”

We’ve also had readers ask how PokerStars, Full Tilt, and Absolute Poker could fare in court. Do they have a defense against the scathing indictments? “I think the Department of Justice has a record of only bringing cases they’re going to have some success in,” Wise asserted, echoing comments from other industry insiders we’ve talked to. “I know that their rate of achieving some kind of enforcement is high and they’ve had a long time to prepare for all of this. I think that something is going to stick.”

We haven’t seen a lot of comments from the industry’s staple pros about the indictments. Whether it’s due to advice from lawyers or other factors, Wise relayed, “People are scared. I’ve detected a lot of fear from a lot of people… I’ve gotten a lot of ‘no comments’ from people who haven’t ever given me ‘no comments’ in the last five years I’ve been covering the industry. That’s because they don’t have a full grasp of what’s going on. They’ve been advised by people to shut up.”

When will players see their funds again? A deal struck on Wednesday between the Department of Justice and Full Tilt and PokerStars allowed for the return of the two online poker sites’ domain names to facilitate the process of player cashouts.

To that end, Wise remarked, “I think the chance of people getting money back from PokerStars and Full Tilt is very good. There are two reasons… I think the DOJ will ultimately have it in their hearts to get people paid by the companies. The other reason… is that they still have a lot of business worldwide. If they want to continue to function as viable entities in this industry, they are going to need to prove to those worldwide customer bases that they can be trusted.”

Despite losing their U.S. customers, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker remain the two largest sites in the industry.

What if you’re from outside of the United States? Is your money safe? Should you be rushing to cash out? “Your money is certainly safer is certain areas than others,” Wise contended. “I think PokerStars is a huge company and they’re not shutting down business anytime soon. The same with Full Tilt. I think with Party/bwin, they just saw a massive rise in their stock over the last 24 hours and they haven’t gone anywhere for the last five years.”

Finally, what about sites like Carbon Pokerand Cake Poker, which continue to accept U.S. players? Should their clientele and owners be worried? Wise explained, “The DOJ has finally proven that they are an entity to be feared by these operators. That’s something that has to be respected. I think the one exception is Bodog. Calvin Ayre has operated illegally with sports betting for who knows how long and he hasn’t closed up shop yet.”

Check out the rest of this week’s PocketFives Poker Podcast, which should shed light on quite a few questions our members have about the recent online poker indictments.