Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) pulled out all of the poker clichés when he was asked about the recent seizure of online poker domain names and the resulting federal indictments and civil lawsuit that accompanied the Department of Justice and FBI crackdown this past Friday. Frank told The Hill Magazine that the seizures were, “protecting the public from the scourge of inside straights,” and that the DOJ should, “Go after the people responsible for empty houses, not full houses,”

Frank is a longtime advocate of legalizing the online gaming industry, despite his claims that he doesn’t gamble himself, and because of his efforts on Capitol Hill to pass legislation that would legalize and regulate the online poker industry he has become the favorite politician of poker players around the country –which can be evidenced by the massive amounts of money the Poker Players Alliance and other poker advocacy groups have poured into his campaign coffers.

Frank is currently working on yet another online poker bill, but this time it is a joint effort with Republican John Campbell from California –marking the third straight year he has introduced some form of online poker legislation.

Frank opposes the current UIGEA legislation because he feels it tramples on people’s personal freedoms, and its interference in the free market by regulating banks as to what types of transactions they can process. Frank also has his eyes on the multi-billion dollar industry’s potential for tax revenue.