Stopping Strategies and Gambler's Ruin

Document Type

Article

Department or Administrative Unit

Mathematics

Publication Date

2005

Abstract

In this paper we show how to answer the first questions (probabilities of success and ruin) using recurrence relations. Then we introduce the language and methods of random variables, showing how these probabilities can be used to solve the duration question. A key will be two identities due to Wald, for which we give elementary proofs at the end of the paper.

Comments

This article was originally published in Mathematics Magazine. The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.

Due to copyright restrictions, this article is not available for free download from ScholarWorks @ CWU.

Journal

Mathematics Magazine

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