Poker is a game of skill, and all my bill does is allow free will at the state level if the governor allows it for people who want to play poker online.

I think we ought to have a law that reflects free will in this issue.

The adoption of regulated Internet gaming in the United States means the policymakers can no longer consider regulated Internet gaming as a theoretical.

This misguided approach would only serve to harm the most vulnerable populations that regulation properly protects.

Let me say that prohibition will just play into the hands of the criminal element just as it did in the 1920s when alcohol was banned.

Mr. Barton's bill does not force any state to participate in the federal system, and it allows states to implement their own online gaming regulations.

I think it is a good work product. I think it would work.

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 status of online gaming is murky, at best.

H.R. 2666 has been developed in openness and transparency.

I appreciate the fact that all of our witnesses stayed true.