These female gamblers have carved out a role for themselves in the male-dominated world of gambling, whether out on the tracks or playing from home.
And They’re Off!
Meet the women raising the stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Stay-at-home Gamblers
Women make up more than half of online gamblers. The anonymity, privacy, convenience and the absence of male intimidation have made online gambling popular for women, but its ease has also created problems for them.
The Craps Queen
Gardenia Jennings once won $32,000 at the craps table in Atlantic City. But she’s had some losses too. Listen to her describe what it’s like to win and lose big in a table dominated by men.
And they’re off!
Women bet on the ponies at Aqueduct Racetrack
By Emily Lever
Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, Queens, a towering brutalist block of a building, looks to all the world like a bus terminal. But the screens the mostly male clientele are glued to aren’t displaying departure and arrival times for trips to Cleveland. They are showing horse races from all over the world — just in case the action at the track outside isn’t enough.
Practically the entire population of the track on a recent Sunday afternoon — young and old, sharply dressed or disheveled, of every ethnicity and every level of inebriation — is male.
Horse racing is, as the song goes, a man’s man’s man’s world. Gloria, 55, a 20-year regular at the oval track and one of the few women, has a theory about this gender gap: Historically, the racetrack was a space associated with the underworld, and women were there for entertainment or decoration.
“It dates back to the time of the Gambinos and all of that,” said Gloria, who did not want her last name used. “I think horse racing and women and drinking and gambling started as a thing for men.”
Times have somewhat changed, of course, and she believes the appeal of the sport transcends gender: What’s not to like about graceful, 1,000-pound animals attired in bright colors running past you at breakneck speed?
“New York state has not a lot of attractions as fabulous as horse racing,” said Gloria, who said she fell in love with the horses the first time she came to the track.
Enjoying the sight of the races is one thing; betting on them is another matter. A more persistent barrier to entry for any aspiring racetrack regular is understanding how to even place a bet in the first place. You have to know how to read the program, a thick booklet full of unexplained numbers and abbreviations.
You need an initiate to show you the ropes; this fact maintains the racetrack as an insular world. The basic reason there aren’t more women at the racetrack is simple, said Annette, 58, of Kew Gardens: “Most women don’t know how to bet.”
Annette’s uncle began to take her here when she was 8 years old. Now, she comes alone. She feels at ease in the stands, in what used to be essentially her childhood playground, among a crowd that she estimates to be “95 percent men.”
When she bets, her approach is relaxed. She’s informed, but not hyper-invested (and she doesn’t want to win a large enough amount to pay taxes on it — $600 or more).
“I usually bet on the long shots, and that’s how I win the most,” said Annette. “I made $300 once.”
And she leaves room for whimsical choices.
“I like the gray horses,” she said, smiling and pointing to a thoroughbred with a dark gray coat dappled with white, wearing the number 2. “I think No. 2 is gonna win.”
All of the women we talked to at Aqueduct found their way into the world of horse racing through a male relative. Amanda Dharamjit, 28, grew up in the industry because her father came to the United States from Guyana with a passion for racehorses and owns several. Now, she’s raising a third generation of horse racing aficionados: She comes to the oval regularly and brings her toddler.
“I’ve been coming since I was a kid with my parents, and now I have my son and he enjoys it too,” she said. “Part of the fun is just being here, you know? I fall in love with the horses.”
“I like the gray horses,” she says, smiling and pointing to a thoroughbred with a dark gray coat dappled with white, wearing number two. “I think No. 2 is gonna win.”
Photos by Rachel Rippetoe
As much as she has a connection to the races, she is analytical and a canny gambler. “One time, by chance, I made a maybe 10-cent bet and I made almost $1,500 off of that bet,” she says. “I guessed all four horses. That was cool.”
What is her secret? Maybe it’s her philosophical approach — she was the only gambler we talked to who acknowledged the obvious, but rarely verbalized, fact that it’s largely luck: “It’s just by chance, it’s all in the fun of the game.”
Dharamjit does have a deep technical understanding of the sport, though: “I go first of all visually based off how the horse looks,” she said. “After that it’s their record, how many wins have they had consecutively, or what type of track are they supposed to be good on.”
And finally, there’s a more intangible quality.
“I like when they look ready,” she said. “Some of them just look ready.”
WOMEN ARE REACHING FOR THEIR PHONES — TO GAMBLE
Female bettors who avoided casinos are now drawn to the risks and rewards of playing online.
By Rosemary Misdary
More than half of online gamblers are women.
Most of them reach for their phones to gamble. The average American checks a phone about 50 times a day, and the gambling industry has designed its online games to resemble phone games like “Candy Crush,” which are popular with women.
The growth of internet casinos and made it easy for gamblers like Valerie to lose a lot of money.
Valerie, 51, always had a good time going to the casino with her husband or a group of friends. She would enjoy the free drinks, cheer on her friends, but never gamble much.
The casinos with their bright lights and serious male dealers did not make her feel comfortable enough to make wagers or take a seat at the dealer’s table. The machines, like the slots, were for old ladies, she thought — until she discovered them online.
She constantly lost, hundreds of dollars a day sometimes — driving her to get cash advances because she was short on money from gambling.
“I don’t go out with friends anymore. I work, come home and go online and gamble,” wrote Valerie in a chat message. “I always say to myself that this is the last time, but it never is.”
According to casino.org, an online gambling industry database, more women bet on the internet mostly because it is more convenient than a brick-and-mortar casino. A woman in New York City pays $44 for a roundtrip bus ticket to Atlantic City and spends five hours traveling before booking an overnight stay, where the average cheap hotel is $100 per night. And that is before a dollar is spent on meals and gambling. These expenses make gambling a weekend-only venture.
Online gambling removes all these obstacles, and makes gambling accessible anytime from home or work from a computer, tablet or smartphone.
“I have, for years, suffered an online-poker addiction,” wrote another female gambler, whose screen name is VideoJunkie. “No other forms of gambling appeal to me. I now have no ability to resist the compulsive.”
The casino.org survey found that online gambling is more comfortable for women, who, like men, are searching for that rush that comes with gambling. Casinos can be an intimidating, male-oriented environment, according to the survey, while online gambling provides anonymity and safety. Women tend to bet smaller amounts, which can be also be intimidating when it’s an all-in poker game. There is also still a taboo about a woman participating in a craps game.
But online, women can try out new games and are free to bet any amount. The sexily dressed women of the average gambling site have been replaced with more appealing prizes, themes and images like jewels and flowers.
“Gambling online offers nonstop access to a game in which anyone, including women, can lose themselves in,” said Stacey Frohnapfel-Hasson, chief of the Bureau of Problem Gambling in the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.
Female-only gambling sites such as Manhattan Slots are catering to this new clientele. The first mainstream online gambling site to cater exclusively to women, the site is designed as an upscale department store that promises fine jewelry, designer perfumes, couture stilettos and a virtual high-end spa. The grand prize on the site is a $10,000 shopping spree in Manhattan, which all gamblers are eligible to win after three betting visits.
“Stigma of women gambling is gone, and all gambling entertainment industries are tailoring services to attract women — women-focused slot machines, lessons for table games in casinos, online games like Candy Crush and other games that tend to attract women,” said Frohnapfel-Hasson. “These all open the gambling world up to women.”
Industry leaders predict that online gambling is the future, not just for women. Online gambling brought in over $45 billion in 2017, a number that is expected to double by 2024. As technology advances with a growing number of themed online games and celebrity endorsements, online gambling may outpace traditional gambling in the next decade, partly because young women are gambling, industry experts believe.
“Gambling offers an outlet to women for a number of reasons: excitement to relieve boredom, an alternative to caregiving of children or older parents, stress reliever, companionship after a spouse or best friend has died, something to do after retirement, helps distract from physical and/or mental pain, and can be triggered by medications that affect impulse control,” said Frohnapfel-Hasson.
Industry leaders predict that online gambling is the future, not just for women. Online gambling is estimated to exceed $4 billion this year. As technology advances with a growing number of themed online games and celebrity endorsements, its predicted that online gambling may outpace traditional gambling in the next decade partly by the introduction of young women into online gambling.
“Gambling offers an outlet to women for a number of reasons: excitement to relieve boredom, an alternative to caregiving of children or older parents, stress reliever, companionship after a spouse or best friend has died, something to do after retirement, helps distract from physical and/or mental pain, and can be triggered by medications that affect impulse control,” said Frohnapfel-Hasson.
Screen names were used in the story to protect the identity of gamblers undergoing treatment.
“I don’t go out with friends anymore. I work, come home and go online and gamble,” wrote Valerie. “I always say to myself that this is the last time, but it never is.”
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Women who have gambled online
THE CRAPS QUEEN
This New York nurse wins big in Atlantic City
By Rachel Rippetoe and Jeffery Harrell
Meet Gardenia Jennings. She once won $32,000 at the craps table in Atlantic City. But she’s had some losses too. Listen to her describe what it’s like to win and lose big in a table dominated by men.
