Rob Yong Ready to Spend $1.2m on Poker Player Union

In a series of tweets over the weekend, Rob Yong has proposed that the poker community come together and form a poker player union. 

Is a Poker Player Union a Necessity? 

Dusk Till Dawn owner Rob Yong petitioned the poker community over the weekend whether the time for a poker union has come. The known poker figure elicited some 2,381 votes via a Twitter flash poll, with 64.8% of voters agreeing that such an initiative could ultimately be a good thing. Some 20.7% said that they found the idea to be a waste of time and another 14.5% simply didn’t care at all. 

However, Yong’s suggestion makes a lot of sense, as the US is currently regulating iGaming and sports betting at break-neck speeds, while poker has evidently fallen behind. Yong has been behind many ground-breaking initiatives, although some have failed to take off, including the FairPlay Initiative, which was taken by Partypoker and was supposed to lead to better overall security in the global poker landscape. 

Few other companies reacted at the time, probably concerned about sharing too much data with competitors and the idea was mothballed. Yong, though, doesn’t mean focusing on the US as a whole; rather, his idea wants to have a more global impact. 

Support in the Community Is Strong 

In other words, Yong wants a united alliance to weigh in on every important issue that concerns the world of online poker, whether that has to do regulation, taxation, or the proliferation of more flexible poker platforms. 

Yong is not looking to chair a potential organization but, rather, act as an advisor and has asked for community members to re-tweet his proposal in a bid to raise awareness. Yong is further willing to put up $1.2 million for the cost of running such an organization, amounting to an estimated $20,000 per month. 

While some may have been skeptical towards the idea, the poker community, such as trendsetters Phil Hellmuth, Ryan LaPlante and Maria Ho, are all for it. While the idea of unifying the poker community or its gaming platforms is a challenge in itself, Yong seems to be the right person for the job.