In the most humorous of online gambling related stories we’ve seen this week, Texas Rep. Joe Barton drew laughs at the congressional hearing on the new Internet Poker Freedom Act.
An avid supporter of online poker, Rep. Barton was not expected to make the hearing due to travel complications.
But when he made it to the meeting, Barton argued that God enabled him to arrive in time for the hearing, proof that the Almighty must support new laws allowing online gambling in the United States.
“God must be for this bill because I got up this morning at four o’clock in Texas, outside Dallas, and braved icy roads and 20 degree temperatures to get to DFW airport where my good friends at American Airlines left exactly on time. God put a 200 mile tail wind behind our plane, and I got here an hour early. So that tells me that God is for this bill,” Barton said jokingly.
Striking a more serious note, Barton acknowledged that “we have the Internet and iPhones and iPads and apps and all these things… Just about the only thing you can’t do [online] anymore is play poker. And that is changing.”
“I think the time has come to recognize that, in the Internet age, we need to regulate and set a level playing field for those of us who would like to play poker online,” the Congressman added.
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