Spring is in the air for online poker players given the surprising fallout from last week's Congressional hearings on the feasibility of the US's ban on Internet gambling.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), passed surreptitiously through congress in the midnight hour prior to a recess, appears to be coming apart at the seams due to the obvious inability to enforce the proposed measures.

At the hearing, House Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Republican Ron Paul of Texas proposed a new bill, HR 5767, designed to prevent the Federal government from enforcing the UIGEA.

Attending last week's hearing were numerous key witnesses including a number of US banking and other payment systems providers mandated under the Act with enforcing the online gambling prohibition.

Basically, HR 5767 attempts to prohibit the "Secretary of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from proposing, prescribing, or implementing any regulation" Washington comes up with concerning the UIGEA.

The House Financial Services Committee issued a statement just the other day saying, "it was clear at the hearing [April 2nd] that the regulations are unworkable for the financial services industry, and this bill would, therefore prohibit their implementation."

According to some industry analysts, any momentum added to the already steadily growing opposition to the gambling ban could see the tables turn sooner than most people were prepared to bet on.