It's probably critical for Absolute, and very bad for other sites with any connection to them. I'm not sure that it will have many repercussions on the industry as a whole beyond the short term.
It might make it harder to get the US legislation overturned, and I suppose other countries might use it as a lever for their own anti-poker policies. But I think the player base as a whole will see this as an isolated incident. It won't help matters if the full facts don't come out, though. We all need to know exactly how it was done.