In celebration of women's day - The most famous women in casino and gambling history

International Women's Day was just last week, this is a day celebrated on the 8th of March every single year, and the purpose is the focal point in the movement for women’s rights. Women’s rights should indeed be celebrated, and this day is a landmark to remember all of the strong women throughout the years who have fought for women's rights and are still fighting. International Women’s Day is primarily about unity, reflection, advocacy, and action, and the very first women's day was held in 1911.

Since March is a great month to celebrate women all over the world, it would only be right to talk about the women in the gambling world.

It isn’t something you hear very often because many people still feel as though gambling and the casino world is something primarily for men, however this is not how it is anymore and there are in fact, many women showcasing their skills and earning the big bucks playing poker, roulette and many more casino games. In this article we will go through some of the biggest names within the gambling industry, this means we will have absolutely every inch covered from pokerstars to boss ladies with CEO positions.

Barbara Enright

The first top woman in the gambling world is Barbara Enright, this lady is an extremely well known professional poker player, motivational speaker, and editor in chief for Woman Poker Player magazine. As a woman who wears many hats it doesn’t come as a big surprise why she is so widely known throughout the casino industry, however one of the pivotal moments for Barbara was winning three bracelets at the World Series of Poker, and making it to the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em main event final table! She did not manage to win but she was very close indeed.

Vanessa Selbst

There should be no question about women and their capabilities, but for some reason still to this day there is some speculation of it, but the world is getting better. Our next power woman is the one and only Vanessa Selbst, she is a successful poker player and is the only woman to have ever reached the number one ranking in the world on the Global Poker Index. The Global Poker Index incase you are unsure of what it is, is a leaderboard index that ranks over 450,000 Live Tournament poker players in the world. The GPI poker rankings are updated on a weekly basis, and players will be assessed by their finishing positions in poker tournaments occurring over six periods of six months.

Vanessa Selbst accumulated over $11.8 million dollars in live poker tournament earnings, and is a member of the Team Pokerstars Pro. Winning 3 World Series of Poker bracelets and being the first and only female to have won them in open field events she is within the same boss level as Barbara Enright. These are women to keep jotted down in your mind!

Denise Coates

Next up is a lady who calls herself ‘the ultimate gambler’. Not because she is constantly at the poker table gambling, but because herself and her brother John risked a mortgage on their whole chain of family-run betting shops to launch an online casino startup which was a 50/50 risk. Luckily for Denise and John it worked out just fine and this startup grew to become the multi-billion pound online casino and bookmakers Bet365. Denise Coates is a British billionaire and outstanding businesswoman. The fact that she founded and is the join chief executive of online gambling company Bet365, has led her to have an estimated net worth of $4.6 billion.

Anne Duke

Our next boss lady is Anne Duke, she is an American professional poker player and author. Annie holds a WSOP gold bracelet from 2004, and she used to be the leading money winner amongst women in poker history. Anne managed to win the 2004 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, along with the National Heads-Up Poker Championship in 2010. Anne is not only a fantastic poker player and a leading lady within the gambling industry, she is also a great role model for giving back. She co-founded the non-profit ‘Ante Up for Africa’ along with actor Don Cheadie in 2007. This charity was founded to benefit charities working in Africa nations and has raised money for other charities and non-profits through playing, and hosting poker tournaments.

Alice Ivers

This next poker power woman you may or may not have heard of. Her name wasAlice Ivers Duffield Tubbs Huckert, and she was born on the 17th of February 1851, and died on the 27th of February 1930. As you can see this is one for the history books, Alice was known by her acquaintances and friends as Poker Alice. Poker Alice was an English Poker, and although she was born in Devon, England, her family moved to Virginia in the US where she was educated and grew up. Poker Alice’s husband, Frank Duffield was the one who got her into the game of poker, however unfortunately he will killed a few years after they married.

Alice didn’t let the death of her husband hold her down because she realised what a fantastic poker player she was. Alice made a name for herself by winning money from poker games all around the US, and became one of the most famous figures of the American Western frontier. Poker Alice wasn’t exactly one to save her winnings though, she would splurge on trips to New York City purchasing the latest fashion and accessories, and she also decided that re-investing her poker winnings into selling illegal alcohol and opening brothels were good ideas. Let’s just put it this way, she was a hustler!