The Most Impactful Female Figures in the Gambling Industry

It was once said that “men run the show and women are just for show”. We might see the gambling industry as a male-dominated world, but women, the ‘weaker sex’ continue to rise to the top positions in the sector. Different women have managed to position themselves as excellent competitors in the traditionally masculine world of gambling.

They have shown they can compete at the top levels in a variety of casino games, from poker to pokies, and from land-based table games to online games. Below are some of the most impactful female figures in the history of gambling. These women have not only left their mark in the industry but also in society as a whole, demonstrating that a different gender does not hold them back from success.

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Denise Coates: Great Britain, Owner, and Founder of Bet365

UK-born and bred Denise Coates is sometimes referred to as “the ultimate gambler”. Along with her brother John, Coates took the risk to mortgage their complete chain of family-run betting shops to launch a risky online betting start-up from a portable building in the central English city of Stoke-on-Trent. Luckily for the two, that move paid off. The start-up business grew to become Bet365, a billion-dollar online bookmaker that now takes in a yearly revenue of £ 2,85bn (NZ$ 5,65bn). Denise Coates is the majority shareholder of this internationally operating online casino and strikes in millions of dollars per year. This makes the first-class econometrics graduate the highest-paid boss in Great Britain today and the wealthiest woman in the UK. Denise Coates’ estimated wealth in 2023 is £4.5 billion (NZ$ 8.9 bn). That’s what we would indeed call the “ultimate gambler”.

Vanessa Selbst: United States, Professional Poker Player

Vanessa Selbst is widely considered the most successful female poker player of all time. Selbst is the only woman ever to reach the number one ranking in the world on the Global Poker Index. The Brooklyn, New York-born Selbst has earned approximately NZ$ 19 million in live poker tournaments and won three World Series of Poker bracelets. Additionally, the 38-year-old American is the only poker player ever to have won two North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Main Event titles in a row. Selbst called time on her sparkling 12-year card-playing career in 2018 to do a different type of risk-taking: hedge fund trading. The poker talent from Brooklyn officially retired from poker in 2018, at the age of 33 years.

Pansy Ho: Hong Kong/Macau, Casino Entrepreneuse

Pansy Catalina Ho Chiu-king is a Macau-born and Hong Kong-based billionaire businesswoman. Ho is the daughter of Macau-based businessman Stanley Ho, and the managing director of various companies that were founded by the late casino magnate, including Shun Tak Holdings. Pansy has major interests in two of the six casino license-holding gambling companies in Macau. Daughter of legendary gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, Pansy certainly had a major advantage in the gambling industry from an early age. Born, as she refers to it, “with a silver gambling chip in my mouth”, she made her way to the spotlight in 2008 when she opened the MGM Macau which was done in alliance with the American giants MGM Mirage. Stakeholders expected her father to take up this role.

Ho crushed rumors she was just a ‘face’ who was favored because of her father’s legacy at the time by showing the world she was a clever businesswoman who had the ambition and determination to become a successful woman in this tough sector that is even more male-dominated in Asia. Her fierce and rather aggressive approach, along with her entrepreneurial prudence, has seen her invest wisely in the gambling industry, as well as in multiple other sectors, including those of real estate and logistics. Ho was listed 25th on Forbes’ list of Hong Kong’s 50 richest people in 2021 with an estimated wealth of HK$31.8 billion (NZ $6.51 billion), and the second richest woman in Hong Kong.

Ruth Parasol: United States, Founder PartyGaming

In comparison with the previously mentioned casino typhoons, United States-born Ruth Parasol may be a less well-known name, but her family is also an online casino software pioneer. The American businesswoman was one of the four founding partners of PartyGaming. This operator launched their flagship brand, PartyPoker.com in 2001 and became one of the biggest brands in the US before Black Friday, the day that online poker was banned in America. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2005 at US$ 8.46 billion. At the same, it was a record valuation and the biggest online poker room.

In recent years, they merged with their Austrian rival Bwin. As previously mentioned Bet365, they extended its offering and provided the full spectrum of the online gaming experience, including the fields of sports betting, online poker, live dealer casino, and online casino games. Parasol’s company was acquired by Entain Plc. Her wealth has largely come from the gambling industry as well as a worldwide operated property portfolio. Today, Parasol is worth more than NZ$ 1,52 billion.

Katy Lederer: United States, Poker Professional, and Author

Katy Lederer is a Jewish-American-born poet and author of the memoir “Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers”. She is also the sister of Howard Lederer, an also famous poker player. Katy Lederer herself is considered an experienced casino table game played with many WSOP final table appearances and different bracelets to her name.

In 2003, she authored and launched her memoir that takes the reader back to the time she spent immersed in the gambling industry. She does not have any major prizes as a poker player, but the book gives a personal look at her life as a professional poker player and her youth as a kid growing up in a family of skilled gamblers. Lederer is well-known not just for her poker skills, but also for the humanitarian projects she dedicates herself. Lederer has given a vast amount of her poker earnings to organizations in need. Ledered has also written other novels in other fields than poker.

Jette Nygaard-Andersen: Denmark, CEO Entain

Jette Nygaard-Anderson is a Danish national who has worked her way to the top of the gambling industry. Nygaard-Andersen holds a master’s degree from the University of Copenhagen and was presented as the CEO of Entain UK in 2020. Entain is known as one of the world’s biggest sports betting and gaming groups and operates different online platforms. The group owns online casino brands such as Bwin, PartyPoker, Coral, Sportingbet, and Ladbrokes.

Online, Entain has casinos offering the full catalog of casino games including live dealer casinos, table games, and online pokies. Nygaard-Anderson became CEO of Entain the same year it rebranded itself from the former name GVC Holdings. Initially founded in 2004, the Isle of Man located group employs more than 25,000 people in 20 offices across five continents. Websites offered by Entain are available in New Zealand as real money casinos.

Annette Obrestad: Norway, Professional Poker Player

From Norway, Annette Obrestad also competed internationally in the poker world. She was just 15 years old when she first started playing online poker, but she soon rose to the top and was long considered as one of the best poker players. When she won the 2007 WSOPE Main Event in London, she set a record as the youngest player to ever do so in the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE). She has since become a big poker player.

The Sandnes, Norway-born female gambler has had some deep runs in different other poker events, leading to millions of dollars in live tournament earnings. Obrestad has a reputation for playing aggressively and for her skills to anticipate moves made by her opponents. Oberstad was previously allied with the Betfair poker room and Full Tilt Poker. In April 2012, she signed with Lock Poker. As of 2020, her total live poker tournament winnings exceeded NZ$ 6.18 million. Annette Obrestad has retired from poker.

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