That’s a fact that there is significant gender inequality in gambling. Not only the majority of players but also the great bulk of casino business owners and workers are men. A number of surveys show how different are male and female preferences in gambling. They differ in what games they tend to choose, what motivation they have, how much they usually wager, and what they do with their winnings.
According to statistics, women are more likely to choose luck-based entertainments purely for recreational purposes. However, there is quite a number of professional female players. Moreover, there are women who hold senior positions in casinos, conduct gambling classes and cover industry-related topics as writers and reporters; finally, they achieve success as players, which concerns both skill-based and pure-luck games.
From Dealers to Executives
There were no female dealers in casinos until the 1970s, and the first ones had to experience some aggression from the community of regular players. In a male-dominated environment, it was harder for them to build a career, but some did make their way up.
Deborah Nutton was among the first female craps dealers. She was told many offensive things while starting in this business, but she pursued the career and started climbing up at some point. Owing to hard work and ambitions, she reached the positions of the Executive Vice President of Casino Operations at the Wynn Casino and after that – of the Senior Vice President of Casino Operations at the MGM Grand. The latter is one of the largest casinos in the world that in many ways plays the role of the industry influencer.
Delaney Gordon has made virtually the same way, moving up from a dice dealer to the position of General Manager. Just like Deborah, Delaney describes the attitude towards female casino workers as not all that much friendly.
Mastering the Game and Dealing with Intimidation
Carole P. Roman is a writer who, by chance, got interested in the craps game and mastered it. She describes her first experience at the dice table as completely intimidating. She felt an outcast among men treating female players only as accessories to the game.
She started learning the rules and the specific language people use at the table to indicate one or another result of the dice throw (like ‘yo’ or ‘horn’). Armed with knowledge, she participated in several games, noticing that men didn’t take her seriously within the biggest part of the process. Now she’s a regular craps player who writes articles on the peculiarities of the game and focuses on gender issues in gambling.
Another award-winning author, Vera Sanchez, got even more engaged in the game of craps. She has improved her technique with the help of the best instructors and is now a professional player and dice controller who, like Carol, writes about craps and gambling. She was the youngest intern in the training team of the Golden Touch Craps dice control classes (whose leading instructor, Dominic LoRiggio, is claimed to be the best craps player). Even though this entertainment is usually regarded as the one that doesn’t require skills, there are some techniques of controlling the dice that lead a player to success. There are many ways to set the dice that define what is referred to as controlled shooting. People interested in improving their skills are taught these ways, along with betting strategies and other craps tips.
Amateurs Winning It Big
There are stories of occasional female shooters who made a fortune at the craps table. In 2009, Patricia Demauro became the talk of the town owing to her record-breaking winning streak. She rolled the dice 154 times without ‘seventing out.’ The odds of this happening were calculated as 1 in 1.56 trillion. On average, players have eight rolls before ‘seventing out,’ which makes 154 a groundbreaking number.
Women Playing Craps
There are not so many women who are fond of craps, as well as of gambling in general. Guys tend to think that these games are created especially for them and bet nearly twice as much as female players. Interestingly enough, craps is surrounded by many superstitions, including gender-based ones: a woman coming to the table for the first time is believed to bring good luck, while a male novice is believed to do the opposite.
The situation remains more or less the same over the years: the vast majority of shooters are men. It doesn’t mean, however, that they dominate the game: there are enough female players, both professionals and enthusiastic amateurs, as well as some influential businesswomen ruling reputable casinos.