Interesting Article on Party Poker Founder Ruth Parasol in LA Times

Apparently she's a babe. And was once accused of rigging On Line Blackjack....


Billionaire Plays Her Cards Right in Online 'Gray Market'
By Joseph Menn
Times Staff Writer

November 27, 2005

Ruth Parasol has made a fortune selling vice to the masses.

Through phone sex, then Web porn and most recently online poker, the 38-year-old lawyer has leveraged a succession of new technologies to become a self-made billionaire whose net worth rivals those of Internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban and Las Vegas mogul Steve Wynn.

Like Cuban, Parasol was quick to recognize the Internet's power to transform daily life. And like Wynn, she understood the financial upside of gambling — even though the Justice Department says most of her customers are breaking the law when they ante up at Parasol's PartyPoker.com.

But unlike Cuban and Wynn, who have grown famous, few outside the porn or gambling industries have heard of Parasol, a mother of two from Marin County who shuns publicity and lives in the Mediterranean tax haven of Gibraltar.

In industries full of sharpelbowed men and sometimes shady characters, Parasol stands out. People who know her describe Parasol as "drop-dead gorgeous," a tough negotiator and a skillful investor who uses her legal training to navigate at the fringes of the law.


Rest of Article at link above.

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