by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Sep 7, 2021 | Updated on Sep 7, 2021
There have been calls in the past for the global poker community to join together and create a Poker Players Union (PPU) but nothing materialized. Now the UK’s Dusk Till Dawn casino owner Rob Yong has decided to push the initiative to create a PPU.
Yong has made it a habit to reach out to the poker community and get their feedback when he wants to proceed with a major initiative. He posted a Twitter poll to his 30.8 thousand followers to ask them whether they would be interested in establishing a PPU. The three options for users were no one cares, this is a good initiative and it was a waste of time.
The poll did get a good response as over 2,800 users responded. The results showed that the vast majority (64.8) wanted the PPU, 20 percent felt it was a just a waste of time and 14.5 percent said they really did not care.
RE: Poker Union / Association / Voice
Ive seen lots of comments over years about having a united voice to;
1-Lobby regulators eg. Countries closing/ segregating/5.3% tax German players
2-Lobby Operators 2 have policies that r good 4 poker
3- Promote Poker
Would this be;
— Rob Yong (@rob_yong_) September 3, 2021
A number of poker affiliate companies and poker media organizations also reached out to Yong via social media and told them they supported the initiative. Top poker pros such as Phil Hellmuth and Maria Ho also expressed their support for the PPU.
What Will The PPU Do?
The response has been rather positive and it looks like Rob Yong could proceed to establish the PPU. Yong said that was willing to invest $1.2 million of his own money and commit a portion of his time during the next 5 years to get the PPU up and running. He plans on hiring staff and creating a site for the PPU.
His initial cost estimates suggests that it will take around $20,000 per month to keep the site up and running and manage employee costs. He also expects funding to come in from other avenues once the PPU is up and running.
The PPU will take on the responsibility for standing up for player rights and campaigning for the voice of the players to be heard. The PPU will deal with poker operators, media organizations, gaming regulators and governments across the world to educate them on the game of poker and the needs of poker players.
There was no timeframe provided as to when Rob Yong plans to launch the PPU. Stay tuned as we will bring you more updates to the PPU initiative.
