Female Gamblers: 15 Most Famous Women from the World of Gambling
Men aren’t the only ones that enjoy gambling on chance. Casino gamblers don’t always seem like the well-dressed men in suits you might expect; in fact, the opposite is more likely to be true. Men and women both like gambling. With or without this disadvantage, women have reached the top of the gambling ladder, and several have won millions of dollars in rewards from winning some of the most famous gambling events in the world. Other women on this list include revolutionaries who pushed the boundaries against gender discrimination, enabling future generations of women to even out the gender disparity. These women range from professional online poker stars to generalists with a wealth of gambling knowledge.
Historically, women have not been appropriate for gambling, and men generally dominate the gambling scene. To avoid being mocked and rejected, women have not gambled much gambling in history. 15 of history’s most prominent female gamblers are profiled here.
1. Lottie Deno (Roul-Lottie)
Her notoriety expanded throughout the Old West. She likes hanging out with some of the most famous male gamblers of all time, such as Duck Halliday, a famed poker player and gunsmith. Lottie was born on this date in 1844 in Kentucky, the United States of America (USA). After her father died, she was moved to Detroit by her mother to get married there. She started going around the Mississippi River and playing poker on riverboats. Later, she relocated to San Antonio, Texas, where she met another gambler called Frank Thurmond. Lottie and Frank subsequently got married and gave up their gambling habits. Lottie Deno finally died in Deming at the age of 89, being one of the city’s most known inhabitants.
2. Eleanor Dumont (Madame Moustache)
Eleanor Dumont, also known as Madame Mustache, cleared the door for women to play blackjack thanks to her life. In 1854, she relocated to Nevada, California, where she founded the Vingt-et-un Casino (Blackjack jackpot). After several years, Madame Moustache fled Nevada City and was subsequently discovered dead in 1879 after overdosing on morphine, which she did after losing a big amount of money in a card game, according to sources.
3. Maria Gertrudis Barcelo (The Queen of Sin)
Barcelona’s Maria Gertrudis “Toulouse,” a young woman born in the early 1800s, was already known as the “Queen of Sin” by the age she was 25. She was quite engaged in the gambling business. She was also a notable Monte card player. She made a lot of money gambling, and it’s been claimed that she won over $350,000 today. In 1852, she was buried in a stately ceremony attended by many of her neighbors.
4. Alice Ivers Duffield Tubbs Huevert (Poker Alice)
A native of England, Alice emigrated to the United States at a young age and lived most of her adult life there. After the loss of her first husband, a well-known poker player, she decided to try her hand at the world on her own.
Poker Alice claimed to have made $ 250,000 (nearly $ 3 million in current money) during her lifetime. In the lengthy history of famous female gamblers, one of the earliest stars died in 1930 following an unsuccessful surgery. Her persona was memorialized in various films, including Poker Alice in 1987, starring Elizabeth Taylor.
5. Mayme Stocker
In the recent history of women’s gambling, Mayme Stocker has played a key role despite the fact that she was not a gambler herself. Stocker was the sixth of six children, all born in 1875, and he was the eldest when he was born.
Mayme and her new family ultimately settled in the developing metropolis of Las Vegas after marrying a train worker and moving around the country numerous times. Disappointed with the lack of entertainment and facilities, Stocker built the North Club in Vermont, Las Vegas, in 1920. But even though she never gambled, she was the first woman to get gambling completely legalized in the United States, in Las Vegas, where she lived until her death in 1972, despite never having played a single hand of poker.
6. Shirley Branucci
By contrast, men could play other typical casino games like roulette or baccarat in 1970s Las Vegas, but women could only play blackjack. Shirley Branucci became the first female Baccarat saleswoman on the Las Vegas Strip. The press avidly reported her achievement, and she was even featured on various gambling-related television shows. Shirley Branucci spent the last decade of her 37-year employment as Baccarat manager at Stardust. She was the lone female champion in the woman of the competition.
7. Claudine Williams
Claudine Williams was born in Louisiana in 1921. When she was 12, she got a job working in gambling. By the age of 15, she understood how to play practically all casino games. She met Shelby Williams, who eventually became her husband, and with whom she relocated to Las Vegas. Before selling it to Howard Hughes, the two acquired a casino in 1963 and ran it effectively. The Holiday Casino, originally known as the Harrah Hotel and Casino, opened its doors in 1973. Claudine took up the reins of the Holiday Casino after Shelby died in 1977. She became the first female director of a significant casino and the first woman to serve as chairman of both the Bank of America and the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce.
8. Judy Bayley
Judy Bayley is considered the first lady of gambling in the history of Las Vegas and is commonly known as the first woman to own and establish a casino. After her husband’s death in 1964, Judy Bayley bought the Hacienda Hotel and Casino.
9. Cat Hulbert
Cat Hulbert gained card counting talents, travelled the world, and made a lot of money. She made a lot of money, but she also got a lot of attention because of it. She has been jailed countless times and blacklisted from several casinos throughout the world due to card counting. Hulbert is the only woman to have been designated one of the game’s best players by Card Player magazine.
10. Annie Duke
Her brother, Howard Lederer, a poker expert, was the first to discover the potential of poker in the mid-twenties and urged him to perfect his abilities. At one time, Duke won the leading money in the history of the Poker World Series. Among her many accomplishments, she won a gold bracelet at the 2004 World Series of Poker and the 2010 National Heads-up Poker Championship as the first female player to do so. Annie has published numerous instructional publications, such as “Deciding to Play Great Poker” and “Middle Zone,” in which she argues that in addition to chance, individuals wishing to thrive in poker require skills.
11. Vanessa Selbst
With three World Series of Poker bracelets under her belt, Vanessa Selbst is unquestionably one of the most successful and well-known female poker players in history. Selbst is also the only individual, male or female, to have won the North American Poker Tour twice in 2010! With approximately $12 million in winnings over the course of her poker career, Vanessa Selbst is the richest female gambler in history and the only one to hold that position.
12. Shannon Elizabeth Fadal
Shannon Elizabeth Fadal, a former actress and model, has referred to poker as her “second job”. She competed in the main event of the 2005 World Series of Poker, winning a tournament that marked the debut of the new poker area at Caesar Palace a year later, defeating 83 celebrities and obtaining a place. Elizabeth Fadal earned 12 cash events between 2006 and 2010 and remained one of the most popular poker aficionados.
13. Jennifer Tilly
Jennifer Tilly won a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2005 for a whooping $ 158,625 during the Texas Women’s Unrestricted Event and beat 600 other contestants. In the following year, she won the Los Angeles Poker World Tour’s third Women’s Invitation Tournament. Additionally, Tilly had an appearance on Poker After Dark and the GSN Royal Poker Series, where she played in the 2006 Poker Tournament and came in third.
14. Annette Obrestad
The 2007 European Poker Tour’s youngest champion, Annette Obrestad, will always be recognized for her incredible talent and poise under pressure. Her birthday was the next day, and she was just 19 at the time. She won $ 2.01 million on this occasion. In addition to becoming one of the most popular female poker players, she has also been involved in documenting the history of online gambling. Obrestad, who was formerly renowned for hiding his facial emotions with sunglasses while playing video games, now has a popular YouTube cosmetics tutorial channel.
15. Kristen Bicknell
Kristen Bicknell is a Canadian poker player. When Bicknell first started playing, he was known as The Ultimate Grinder for the sheer volume of hands he would play in a single sitting. She played around 7.5 million hands of poker during the three-year period from 2011 to 2013. Bicknell is thrilled to have utilized three World Series of Poker bracelets and an additional 33 points in the same tournament. She was the best live poker player in the world in 2017.
How many percentage of gamblers are female?
Research has consistently demonstrated that men are more interested in gambling than women. The link between gender and gambling, research has revealed that men gamble twice as often as women in terms of engagement in gambling or repeat of gambling. Men make up 69% of the population, while women make up 36%.
Taking into account the respondents’ age, family, and socioeconomic level, the rate of male gamblers reporting gambling difficulties was 20.1 percent vs 7.8 percent among women. In other words, men are three times more likely to develop gambling issues than women.
Researchers believe that impulsive coping, a willingness to accept risks, and social anxiety are all elements that play a role in gambling and may lead to gambling issues in men.
Conclusion
Many women have contributed to the history of gambling. Although there are fewer women in the gambling industry than men, this does not diminish their achievements. As a young woman interested in playing poker professionally, there are a slew of inspiring female poker players to emulate.
