The public was outraged worldwide over former republican presidential candidate John McCain’s actions, who played an online poker session via his smart phone during the Senate hearing on authorizing a military intervention in Syria.
The Washington Post first published the photo of the senator playing, reporting on the hearting live. The picture has since gone viral and the public has expressed a general outrage across several forums.
Upon calling his attention to the issue, McCain decided to take it lightly, tweeting: “Scandal! Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing - worst of all I lost!”
A week later, his daughter Meghan McCain commented that her father was glad the cards got laid on the table (no pun intended) and he had always been admittedly fond of poker.
“Now, he’s really empowered because he loves to gamble. When he used to go to Las Vegas, people would take iPhone pictures of him, and he got very weirded out…. Now [since the photo was posted], he says, I’m going to go gamble,” Ms McCain said, adding that she did not think her father had been playing real money.
As far as online poker is concerned, the case might as well pay off. The Senate will soon discuss the federal level legalisation of online poker in the US and Senator McCain has already confirmed he supported the bill. Lobby groups for legalisation also think McCain can help push the legislation through, especially considering it would seem greatly hypocritical of the Senate not to pass it when one of their own is caught playing in the middle of an important hearing. The ethics of playing poker during a hearing that is to have an enormous impact on hundreds of thousands of lives, however, is another issue.
Representatives Joe Barton and Peter King have already submitted their respective bills to regulate online poker in the US on a federal level. Hearings on the proposals kick off this month.
The Washington Post first published the photo of the senator playing, reporting on the hearting live. The picture has since gone viral and the public has expressed a general outrage across several forums.
Upon calling his attention to the issue, McCain decided to take it lightly, tweeting: “Scandal! Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing - worst of all I lost!”
A week later, his daughter Meghan McCain commented that her father was glad the cards got laid on the table (no pun intended) and he had always been admittedly fond of poker.
“Now, he’s really empowered because he loves to gamble. When he used to go to Las Vegas, people would take iPhone pictures of him, and he got very weirded out…. Now [since the photo was posted], he says, I’m going to go gamble,” Ms McCain said, adding that she did not think her father had been playing real money.
As far as online poker is concerned, the case might as well pay off. The Senate will soon discuss the federal level legalisation of online poker in the US and Senator McCain has already confirmed he supported the bill. Lobby groups for legalisation also think McCain can help push the legislation through, especially considering it would seem greatly hypocritical of the Senate not to pass it when one of their own is caught playing in the middle of an important hearing. The ethics of playing poker during a hearing that is to have an enormous impact on hundreds of thousands of lives, however, is another issue.
Representatives Joe Barton and Peter King have already submitted their respective bills to regulate online poker in the US on a federal level. Hearings on the proposals kick off this month.
