In industries full of sharpelbowed men and sometimes shady characters, Parasol stands out. 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 .īut 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. Like Cuban, Parasol was quick to recognize the Internet’s power to transform daily life.
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. Los Angeles- Ruth Parasol has made a fortune selling vice to the masses.
