In the history of gambling, a term that Anglo-Saxons use to indicate gambling, there is also space for the other half of the sky, namely women.
Man, in this case intended as a species, has always bet on the outcome of future events. Whether they are of natural origin or by himself concocted. But the first certain news about groups of women who spent part of their time gambling can only be traced back to 18th century England. Obviously they were ladies who were part of the aristocracy. Free time for most people is, in fact, a recent invention of the last twentieth century. We don’t have certain surnames about these ladies, but we know for sure that they were indicated with the title of “faro ladies”. Because? Simple, the lighthouse was a card game imported overseas from France and as popular at the time as poker.
For the first certain names, however, we have to wait only a few decades and, so to write, cross the Atlantic Ocean.
It is in the dusty west that three figures reach the present day: Poker Alice, Calamity Jane and Madame Mustache.
Alice Ivers, was a girl of British origin, at least according to her stories, who had learned to play cards simply by watching her husband at the saloon tables. Widowed, she decided to turn the game into her source of income. In short, a sort of professional anti–literal gambler. His name, which soon became Poker Alice, became popular in the cities of Colorado and New Mexico.
Everything and the opposite of everything was written by Martha Jane Canary-Burke. The first gunslinger woman, head herd, adventurer, apparently had a weakness for the green table too.
On the origin of Eleanor Dumont, aka Madame Mustache, the news is mixed. For some it was of French origin. For others she was born in the United States of America, but in a city, New Orleans, where the French were at home. He became famous for his ability to make a living playing blackjack or other typical saloon games and which we now at the operators listed on www.13wins.com. Above all it is known for having opened the “Vingt-et-Un” in Nevada City. As an advertisement in a local newspaper said, it was the “best gambling emporium in northern California”, meaning “the best gambling store in Northern California”. Inside, by regulation, only well-groomed and well-behaved men were allowed.
To conclude our roundup we could not miss an anecdote that calls into question the layout of slot machines in modern casinos.
These machines are almost always found at the entrances or in the first rooms because they were introduced as a sort of pastime for those wife or girlfriends who would have accompanied their sweetheart to play a hand in poker, blackjack or try their luck at roulette.