It is yet again proved that the online poker community alone is not large enough to elect a president. Having a strong democratic control is what speaks louder. The recent case of Andrew Yang, a 45-year-old tech entrepreneur, despite having a strong fan following in the online poker world, opted out from the presidential election that had other democratic leaders like Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Pete Buttigieg, as competitors. This proves that online poker cannot compete with the interest that people have about politics.
At the time of publishing the result for the 46th Presidential election, on Tuesday, Yang had less than 3 percent of the votes in New Hampshire. Bernie Sanders, won 26 percent of the votes, leading way to Pete Buttigieg and followed by Amy Klobuchar. Yang focused on the universal basic income (UBI), as his campaign platform and hoped to add some momentum into the primary season of the Presidential bidding, but opted out because he knew his chances of winning were very rare. He preferred to opt-out rather than staying till the end to lose.
His opting out from the 46th Presidential bid, came as a shock to his supporters but Yang knew his chances of getting into the White House were very rare and so he opted out gracefully. However, the online poker advocate gave a very satisfactory reply to the growing curiosity of the supporters. He said,
We have touched and improved millions of lives and moved this country we love so much in the right direction. And while there is great work left to be done, you know, I am the math guy, and it is clear tonight from the numbers that we are not going to win this race.
Yang is the first Presidential candidate who gave so much consideration to the legalizing of online poker games. He even arranged a fundraising poker tournament along with Pros like Daniel Negreanu, to support his campaign, in the Mosaic Theatre, Las Vegas. Candidates who purchase the $2800 tickets will only be allowed to participate in the poker tournament. There were a lot of amazing prizes, like a day on the Singularity Yacht, a VIP experience with Steve Aoki or private poker experiences with WSOP winners. Even these, could not earn him the honor to become the 46th President of the US.