Not long ago, we covered the US Congressional hearing that was held to discuss the further expansion of regulated online poker. The highlight of the hearing included Poker Players Alliance director John Pappas debating with Las Vegas Sands VP of government relations Andrew Abboud. Pappas did a great job and was not only able to counter all of Abboud’s criticisms, but he also made better arguments for why online poker regulation should expand.
Another big highlight of the hearing included Texas Rep. Joe Barton bringing God into the argument. Barton is a huge supporter of online poker, but it looked like he wouldn’t be able to offer support in the hearing because of bad weather in Texas. However, Barton believes that God may have offered some help in getting his plane from Texas to Washington D.C. in time. According to the Christian Post, Barton said:
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’s details of his journey to D.C. elicited some laughter from within the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing. And it was pretty clear to those in attendance that he was merely joking about God’s hand in helping a federal poker bill pass. People also laughed when Rep. Marsha Blackburn disagreed with Barton’s assertion about God being involved by pointing out that the bill is numbered 2666 – with the last three digits being the ‘Number of the Beast.’
However, things took a more serious tone when Barton began explaining how poker is a skill game and it should be treated differently than luck-based games like slots and roulette. He added that in an age where you can do just about anything online with iPhones and iPads, people should also have the option to play poker online too.
When everything is said and done, poker players may see Barton as somewhat of a god if he can help push a federal online poker bill through Congress. Of course, it might take some divine intervention for this to happen any time soon.