Ruth Parasol: The Poker Queen Who Made Billions Online

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Lina Almans

29 November 2023

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Ruth Parasol

Ruth Monica Parasol is a self-made billionaire who founded PartyPoker, the largest online poker room in the world. From phone sex to philanthropy — this is her story.

Top 6 Achievements

From Daddy’s Girl to Online Poker Queen

Ruth Parasol had it all. Born in 1967 to a wealthy San Francisco family, she was the first-born of 3 daughters who enjoyed the best of everything.

Ruth Monica Parasol, childhood
Ruth Monica Parasol, childhood

Her dad, Richard Parasol, was a Jewish-Polish Holocaust survivor who rose from engineer to real estate mogul. Her mom, Guna Parasol, was a Swedish immigrant who stood by her husband’s ventures.

Ruth aced Marin Academy where she broke the record with a 4.1 GPA.

Then, she pursued business at the University of San Francisco. Unsure of her career path, she went on to get a J.D. from Western State College of Law in 1992. After that, she worked for her father’s business until she had enough cash to start her own biz.

Ruth’s First Millions

In the early 90s, she teamed up with Seth Warshavsky and launched Internet Entertainment Group, a company that offered phone sex and porn services online.

Ruth Parasol and Seth Warshavsky
Ruth Parasol and Seth Warshavsky

They made millions from the fantasies of their customers, but they also crossed the line by leaking sex tapes of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee.

Ruth knew when to quit. She smelled trouble coming her way and bailed out of the company before it faced legal action.

Birth of PartyGaming

In 1997, she set up PartyGaming in the Caribbean Islands, and launched Starluck Casino.

To grow her business, she brought in some partners. One of them was Russ DeLeon, a Harvard lawyer and her future husband.

But Ruth’s gamble was not without challenges. Michael Shackleford, an American mathematician, exposed the dirty secret of PartyGaming’s games: unfair house edge over the players. The company confessed, but pointed fingers at the providers.

The Poker Boom

Ruth took online poker to the next level in 2001, when she launched PartyPoker, the 1st site dedicated to poker.

Ruth Parasol founded PartyPoker
PartyPoker logo

Did you know? PartyPoker was an instant hit, attracting 80K users right after its launch.

In just 4 years, PartyGaming earned more than $500M from 3 subsidiaries:

  • Starluck
  • PartyPoker
  • PartyCasino

By June 2005, PartyGaming went public on the London Stock Exchange, with a record valuation of £4.64 billion ($8.46 billion).

It was the 1st time a female-founded and led company was admitted to the FTSE 100 list of companies.

Challenges and Exit

In late 2005, PartyPoker split its customers from other platforms, angering its partner – Empire Online, who sued PartyPoker for $250M for the lost players. In 2006, they settled, and PartyGaming bought out Empire Online. The deal was kept secret.

But the worst was yet to come. In 2006, the US government passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which prohibited online gambling transactions involving US customers. This made PartyGaming’s stock value to plummet by 60% in one day. It also lost its place in the FTSE 100 index.

In 2009, Parasol agreed to pay $105M over 4 years to avoid prosecution.

Legacy of Ruth Parasol

In 2015, Ruth Parasol cashed out her last shares of PartyGaming and quit the gambling scene.

But she didn’t stop making a difference. Her foundation has been running since 2004 and has donated more than £40M for health, heritage and education grants in Gibraltar, UK, Israel, India, US, Spain and elsewhere.

Ruth Parasol and Prof. Ronni Gamzu
Ruth Parasol and Prof. Ronni Gamzu, Israel

In 2020, the Sunday Times Rich List ranked her as one of the richest women in the UK, with a fortune of £780M.

She is still crushing it in the business world, now focusing on real estate, asset management, and private equity. Her passion is multi-family real estate in the UK, USA and beyond.