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It is not a secret that the casino world had been closed to women for the majority time of its existence. At the time, women in any casino served as decoration to attract more male gamblers. But times have changed, and now the gambling field is welcoming for anyone willing to take the risk. Not only casinos but also other games are common among both sexes. In Australia, for example, the total online gaming audience in 2022 had over 17 million users, according to “WeAreSocial”. One of the most popular online gaming segments is MMO, where the Australian region is the third-largest by number of players.
But here, we will focus on the gambling part of gaming. Over the last century, the world has seen significant female characters who left a mark on the history of gambling. In the article, you will read about remarkable women who became true gambling legends.
Carlotta J. Tompkins – the First Female Poker Player
The history of casinos’ evolution was long. The gambling world started with dice and sports betting and developed into online casinos with PayID deposits. Veriff and other widely used technologies. The woman I want to introduce to you first lived in a time when gambling was still far away from its modern look.
Carlotta J. Tompkins, better known as Lottie Deno, was born in the mid-19th century in a family of a wealthy racehorse breeder and gambler. Carlotta’s father had a passion for card games. He was the one who taught her to play cards and showed tips for winning in casinos.
The tragic loss of Carlotta’s father during the Civil War led her to move to Detroit. The black streak of her life resulted in poverty. Looking for opportunities to earn money, Carlotta began gambling. She soon managed to get enough money not only to live by herself but to support her mother and afford education for her sister. Later, she remembered her old skills of playing cards, created a nickname and began making income as a talented player. Due to her underground activity, Carlotta travelled a lot in every new place she would introduce herself by different names: “The Angel of San Antonio”, “Mystic Maud”, “Queen of the Pasteboards”, and most famous one “Lottie Deno”.
By the end of the 19th century, having the fame of “the best of all men and women in poker”, she and her husband were running several businesses, including gambling one.
Judy Bayley – First Lady of Gambling
Judith Florence Belk was born in Dallas in 1916. The girl showed a love for dancing and performing. Later, Judith graduated from Southern Methodist University with a music and English degree. At the age of 20, she married a businessman, Warren “Doc” Bayley. Being a former travelling writer, the man ran a chain of hotels called Hacienda in California. Over time, the business grew, and the couple moved to Las Vegas to expand it. There, Warren Bayley opened a unique hotel with a miniature golf course, pools, a quarter-midget racetrack, and a casino after obtaining the gaming license.
Judy Bayley has always been in the shadow of her husband, although he prepared her to replace him after his death. So, when the time came, Judy Bayley, with almost no business experience, took over the hotels. Warren Bayley left the company drowning in debts – it was dying. Judy Bayley quickly realised that the business needed a new strategy, so she decided to work on promoting herself and the hotels. Soon, Judy became a director of Casino Operations Inc. Then, the US learned about the “First Lady of Gambling”.
Annette Oberstadt – the youngest champion of WSOPE
Annette Oberstand is a Norwegian poker player. She was born in 1988 and, since her childhood, gained an interest in gambling. Annette started her career in an online casino at 15 and soon quit school to dive into her true passion. The initial bankroll she gained by winning freeroll tournaments online.
On the 17th of 2007, one day before her 19th birthday, Annette Oberstadt won the World Series of Poker bracelet. This day made her not only a genius player but also the youngest person to win the tournament.
With worldwide fame, Oberstadt got numerous sponsors, which paved the way for her to participate in different international poker tournaments all over the globe. After over a decade of successful poker career and a total winning earning over $3.9 million, Annette Oberstadt left the gambling world, saying she had lost her passion.
Vanessa Selbst – the Best Professional Female Player Nowadays
Vanessa Selbst, the future best female poker player, stepped into the poker world while studying law at Yale.
The first big win came to Vanessa Selbst in 2006 when a 24-year-old woman earned $107,000 by taking seventh place in a WSOP side event. Later, in 2008, she won her first WSOP bracelet, setting a start for Vanessa’s big poker success. Two years later, Selbst won over $2.5 million within eight months.
The beginning of 2010th brought Vanessa several significant victories: 2012 – WSOP bracelet, 2013 – win in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller tournament and 2014 – another WSOP bracelet. During that time, she also was a part of Team PokerStars.
Now, Vanessa Selbst is no longer a professional poker player. But she admits that still keeps an eye on the poker arena, saying, “I can leave poker, but I don’t think poker will ever leave me”. By the way, throughout her poker career, Vanessa had never left studying, which came in handy when she quit her gambling career.