Most Famous Women Gamblers Ever
Gambling dates back thousands of years, and its transformation into fun and entertainment dates back to the 1800s when there were primitive and unregulated versions of the most popular casino games. However, even though the early stages of gambling date back hundreds of years, in most countries women were not allowed to gamble until later on. For example, in the United States, women were not able to gamble legally until 1960.
Nowadays, things are changed and everyone is welcomed in the casino space. The classic image of a casino gambler as a well-dressed man in a suit playing the most popular casino games is outdated just because now there are also many women that enjoy gambling just as much.
Now even though women are allowed to gamble, they are still underrepresented when it comes to gambling. However, some women decided to change this way of generalizing the casino industry and managed to build quite successful gambling careers. These famous players will inspire you to win a jackpot in any online casino games.
Let’s find out which are some of the most popular women gamblers ever.
Venessa Selbst
Since we are talking about gambling celebrities, one of the games that generated the most professionals, and the game that heavily depends on skills is poker. When it comes to poker, Venessa Selbst is without a doubt one of the best female poker ever.
She started her professional poker career back in the early 2000s and finally decided to level up the competition by entering the Las Vegas World Series in 2006. This is where she managed to earn nearly $12 million by climbing to first place. Since then, she has won three WSOP bracelets and has been in over 25 final tables across many different professional tournaments.
To this day, she remains the only woman ever to reach world #1 on the Global Poker Index including both men and women. She retired from professional poker in 2018.
Kristen Bicknell
Here we have another female professional poker player, that was introduced to the game on various websites during her first year of university. She immediately fell in love with the game, and started playing professionally in tournaments where she earned her nickname “The Ultimate Grinder”.
At the beginning of her career, Bicknell managed to earn 7.5 million in poker hands and participated in several major tournaments all around the world. As of now, she has earned more than $5 million dollars playing poker professionally.
Gladys Knight
Here we have an interesting transition where Knight managed to change her passion from being a music artist to a professional gambler and both times managed to do it successfully. Gladys Knight is a multi-platinum singer with seven Grammy awards to her name.
However, apart from being a successful musician, Gladys Knight is also a professional gambler with more than a decade-long presence in the gambling world.
Gladys Knight mostly plays baccarat and blackjack, and sometimes has a lot of success. Even though she decided not to chase a professional gambling career, she has spent a lot of time in casino halls across Vegas improving her skills.
Annette Obrestad
We are moving back to poker with a familiar face that every poker enthusiast should know. We are talking about Anette Obrestad, that is mostly known for her YouTube channel where she shares make-up-related videos, as well as for her exceptional poker career.
She started playing poker at an age of 15 using her parents’ credit card to sign up for various online poker sites. Between 2005 and 2006, she made over $1 million in prize money and she decided to continue her passion for professional poker tournaments.
At 19 years old, she participated in a World Series of Poker Europe and managed to win a million in prize money.
Victoria Coren Mitchell
Here we have another proof where regular people start to chase their professional gambling careers. Victoria Coren Mitchell is one of the most popular female poker players coming from the UK, and she is also a published author and a BBC presenter.
Due to the nature of her job, she put playing poker professionally aside and was the only thing preventing her from entering the Women Poker Hall of Fame. Throughout her professional poker career, she managed to earn more than 2.5 million dollars in poker prize money.
Judy Bayley
Judy Bayley is a woman that changed how the world viewed professional gambling and opened a pathway for every woman that wants to start playing casino games professionally. Judy Bayley, also known as the first lady of gambling, was born in 1915 in Dallas, Texas and from a young age, she show promise in both dancing and performing.
She married Warren Bayley, who was the owner of a large chain of California-based hotels, and at age 21 they decided to expand their business to Las Vegas.
They opened a Hacienda Hotel-Casino in Nevada, and after her husband died, she became the first woman ever to own and operate a hotel-casino. Even though Judy Bayley wasn’t a professional gambler, she loved to play some of the games found in a casino.
However, Judy Bayley had become a popular name in the gambling industry due to the ownership of a casino, and she was partially responsible for changing the rights for women to gamble and opening the casino doors for the female audience.
