By Simon Locke

While plenty of women can be found gambling it up at games like bingo and slots, it’s still much more common to see plenty of men crowded around the poker, blackjack, and craps tables. Women make up roughly ten to twenty percent of the field in most casino games, a figure that has held steady for decades. The last few years, however, have seen a significant change, with more and more women taking up gambling, especially at online casino sites as well as at the poker tables in major tournaments around the world.

The appeal of online gambling for female gamblers is easy to see, as it removes many of the intimidating barriers involved with sitting at a table of men when gambling at casinos in Las Vegas or other cities -- especially when learning new games such as craps, roulette, or poker. Many new players are scared off by the fear of looking silly while learning the rules, with online gambling easing all those fears by allowing players to learn the rules and play at their own pace. It’s also possible to check online strategy guides and game tips as you play, which can be a huge help when learning blackjack basic strategy or poker rules.

Poker has been prime territory for a fresh crop of top female players emerging over the last few years, many getting their start online before taking the live poker tournament circuit by storm. Vanessa Selbst is a prime example, racking up nearly $5 million in lifetime earnings on the tournament circuit since 2006. Her biggest payday was collecting $1.8 million for her victory at the Partouche Poker Tour Final in Cannes in 2010, but she also has won a World Series of Poker event in addition to pulling off the amazing feat of winning the North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun tournament back-to-back in 2010-2011.

Annette Obrestad is another young female player who made a huge splash in 2007 when she won the World Series of Poker Europe tournament for a $2 million score. As a teenager she took the online poker world by storm, racking up huge profits long before she could legally play in most casinos around the world. Her nearly $4 million in lifetime earnings puts her alongside Selbst near the top of the all-time women’s earnings list, with plenty of time left for both to continue to serve as role models for other women thinking about taking up the game of poker.

So how about you, our Chat With Women readers? Do you gamble? If so what games do you play and where? Are you a frequenter at an online casino room or do you just like to have a flutter every time you’re in Vegas? We’d love to hear your stories so please feel free to start a discussion in the comments section below.