Women were not immune to the gambling bug of the late 18th and 19th centuries. Their game of the day was Faro. There were even gambling hells owned and run by women.

By the end of the 18th century, "gamestresses" became so numerous that they excited no surprise, especially among the higher classes; and the majority of them were notorious for unfair play or downright cheating. A stranger once betted on the game of a lady at a gaming-table, who claimed a stake although on a losing card. Out of con-sideration for the distinguished trickstress, the banker wished to pay the stranger as well; but the latter with a blush, exclaimed -- `Possibly madame won, but as for myself, I am quite sure that I lost.'
-Steinmetz

Younger women were often seen as the victims of gambling, allegedly forced to pay off their debts with sexual favors, as a quote from the Guardian makes clear the dangers for women: "The man who plays beyond his income, pawns his estate; the woman must find something else to mortgage when her Pin Money is gone. The Husband has his Lands to dispose of; the Wife, her Person"¹" As seen below, Hogarth illustrated this type of woman gambler's dilema in his work The Lady's Last Stake. Inspired by Colley Cibber's comedy of the same title (1707), Hogarth described the scene as portraying a virtuous, married lady who has lost all at cards to a young officer, and is wavering whether she should part with her honor to to regain her losses.

While young women were seen as victims, older women were vilified as perpetrators. In 1735 Erasmus Jones in Luxury, Pride and Vantiy, the Bane of the British Nation ranked gambling as one of the banes of the nation and as for gamestresses, he thought: "A Carding Woman is a fashionable Monster; too common to be carried about for a Shew, and too Ugly to bear looking at."

But the mansion of the Countess of Trumps was pronounced by Tom to be even of a worse quality for a visitor to encounter than the Lord Bumper's Chateau. The dinners given by the Countess to her guests, it was said, were positively not to be excelled; indeed, so much were they in repute, that even the most fastidious epicure united in the general praise, for the superiority of style with which they were served up on all occasions. Tom maintained there was only one little drawback against paying his respects to the Countess of Trumps, which was, she played her cards so well, that every mouthful taken by any of her visitors was sure to cost the five guineas!
-Egan, Pierce. Life in London, 1821

"Modern Hospitality, -or - A friendly party in High Life", by H. Humphrey, 1792. The caption reads: "To those earthly Divinities who charmed 20 years ago, this honorable method of banishing mortifying reflections is dedicated. Woman! Woman! everlasting is your power over us, for in youth tho charm away our hearts, and in your after-years you charm away our Purses." In this caricature Lady Archer turns the trump as the banker in a game of cards. "The Knave wins all" is said to suggest that the Prince of Wales, seated on her left, is also secretly a winner. While politian Charles Fox, (at the far right with his hands up) is an obvious loser.

Social commentators of the time also complained of the effect late nights of gambling had on women's appearance " The beauties of the face and mind are generally destroyed by the same means ... Hollow eyes, haggard looks and pale complexions are the natural indications of the female gamester. Her morning sleeps arre not able to repair her midnight watchings -Sir Richard Steele quoted in The Itch for Play

Woman Gamblers
Woman Gaming Hall Owners
Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire