Nowadays, spotting a lady engaged in casino games like blackjack, roulette, or poker doesn’t raise any eyebrows. Yet, this was a rare occurrence in the past, especially before the landscape of gambling shifted in the 18th century.thand 19thResearch reveals that women have significantly influenced and molded the gambling industry into what it is now.
European Gambling Women
As gambling fever swept through Europe, women began organizing their own gaming gatherings, turning card games and other games of chance into a staple of their social scenes. During the 1700s in England, a cohort of aristocratic women gained notoriety for hosting Faro nights—a precursor to poker—and were eventually dubbed the “Faro Ladies.”
American Gambling Women
Eleanor Dumont
Following suit, women in the US took an interest in gambling, with roulette becoming a favorite since it was deemed more suitable for women compared to card games, which carried a masculine connotation. This perception changed during the 19th century when Eleanor Dumont, who went by the sobriquet Madam Moustache, became renowned as one of the first noted female blackjack professionals in American lore.thIn the untamed era of the Wild West, Alice Ivers Duffield Tubbs Huckert, a female poker dealer, mastered the game and etched her name into poker legend as 'Poker Alice.' She would kick off every game with her iconic line, 'Praise the Lord and place your bets…I’ll take your money with no regrets.' Another famous frontier gambler was Lottie Deno, known as the Poker Queen, who famously beat the storied American gambler Doc Holiday.
The Gambling Ladies of the Wild West
In the 1930s, Mayme Stocker broke new ground and became the first woman to hold a Las Vegas casino license, emerging as a trailblazer for women in gambling and a focal point in the Vegas social and gaming scene.
Mayme Stocker
There was a time when casino gambling was stereotypically summed up as a man's show, with women viewed merely as adornments. Those antiquated notions have been dismantled, as women today not only excel as gamblers but also thrive in senior executive roles within the gaming industry.
Women in Gambling Today
Describing herself as the ultimate gambler, Denise Coates took a massive risk by mortgaging their family chain of betting shops in Stoke-on-Trent along with her brother John, to back a budding online betting venture. This gamble flourished into Bet365, a colossal online betting operation handling £12 billion annually. Denise Coates is now the UK's highest-paid executive, with an annual payday of £199 million.
Denise Coates CEO, Bet365
Vanessa Selbst - A Trailblazing Poker Prodigy
Vanessa Selbst is hailed by many as the most accomplished female poker player of all time. At 33, she stands alone as the only woman to claim the top global ranking on the Global Poker Index, winning three bracelets at the World Series of Poker. She's also the sole player to capture the NAPT Main Event title twice in succession.
Pansy Ho, daughter of the legendary Chinese gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, stepped into the limelight when she and her father launched MGM Macau in 2008 alongside MGM Mirage. By 2018, she secured the title of 'Hong Kong’s richest woman' from Bloomberg, with her net worth north of $5.5 billion. Her entrepreneurial acumen and visionary investments firmly establish her as an influential force not just in gambling but in the business world at large.
Pansy Ho Co-Chairwoman, MGM Macau
The internet’s advent in the mid-1990s brought forth the earliest online gambling platforms. Though primitive and lacking in gameplay sophistication, they revolutionized gambling, eradicating the necessity to visit physical casinos, bingo halls, or poker rooms. Fast-forward to today, where mobile technology immerses you directly into your favorite slots, bingo, poker games, or live dealer tables, all accessed from your mobile phone, offering gaming on the go.
The Online Gambling Revolution
The rise of online and mobile gambling has overhauled not just gaming habits but the demographic layout of gamblers. With home access, many modern women, once confined by career demands and family duties preventing casino visits, can now effortlessly dive into their beloved games from their computers or mobiles.
Women and Online Gambling
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