Rob Yong, the owner of The Dusk Till Dawn casino in the UK is looking to rally the global poker community to form a Poker Players Union. He put out a poll on Twitter asking his 30 thousand plus followers whether they were keen on forming a Players Union.
Poker Players Union
The poll gave players three options to vote for. The first option was whether they considered a Poker Players Union a waste of time, the second option was it being a good thing and the third option was no one cares. The poll received over 2,380 votes and it showed that nearly 65 percent were in favour of establishing a Poker Players Union, just over 20 percent thought it was a waste of time and 14.5 percent said it did not matter.
Yong believes it is high time that the global poker community bonded together and created a Player’s Union that would fight for the rights of players and also be in a position to lobby gaming regulations, poker operators and governments across the world to make poker more favorable for players.
This is not the first time that Yong has tried to get the poker community to come together. When partypoker decided that it was going to crack down on bots and improve security protocols in 2019, Yong called on other online poker rooms to join the FairPlay Initiative. Yong was under the impression that online poker would improve if iPoker operators decided to work together to share information and best practices that would improve the global online poker experience.
His push to get operators to come together under the FairPlay Initiative did not get much traction. Yong is now backing a Poker Players Union because he thinks that he will get a better response from the global poker community and his recent Twitter poll suggests that he is on the right track.
Yong Willing To Invest $1.2 Million
Rob Yong decided not to open his Dusk Till Dawn casino in the UK even though the UK lifted COVID-19 restrictions and allow casino operators and poker rooms to get back to business. Yong felt that things were not fully under control in the UK and he did not want to rush back into business and put players and staff at risk.
He wants poker players to know that he does have their best interests at heart and that’s one of the main reasons behind the Poker Players Union. Yong tweeted that he was serious about the initiative and was willing to put $1.2 million of his personal cash to get the ball rolling.
Yong said he was also willing to commit a certain amount of his time during the next five years to establish the Poker Players Union. He estimates that it would take around $20,000 per month to create and run a site to promote the Poker Players Union. He plans on hiring employees and look to bring in funds from other avenues.
Top Poker Players Support Initiative
A number of prominent names in the global poker community applauded Rob Yong for the initiative and said they supported his push to establish a Poker Players Union. Some of the players that supported the initiative on social media included Phil Hellmuth, Ryan LaPlante and Maria Ho.
A number of poker affiliate organizations and poker media organizations have also backed the initiative. Based on the early response to the Poker Players Union, it looks like Rob Yong has enough support to know that players and poker organizations are in favour of his proposal.