Skip to main content
Log in

On distibutions of first passage times of martingales arising in some gambling problems

  • Original Paper
  • Area 4
  • Published:
Japan Journal of Industrial and Applied Mathematics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Using a martingale technique we derive bounds and asymptotics for tail distributions of first passage times \(\tau _{b}\) associated with crossing a level b for some gambling strategies. In particilar, for the case of martingale games with so-called “Oscar strategy” we show that \(P\{\tau _{b}>n\}\le C n^{-3/2}\,\) for any level \(b>0\).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. \(I\{A\}\) is an indicator function of an event A.

  2. Here and further C denotes any positive constant not depending on b and n.

  3. C denotes any generic positive constant not depending on the parameters n, \(\lambda \).

References

  1. Borovkov, K.A.: An estimate for the distribution of a stopping time for a stochastic system. Siberian Math. J. 37(4), 683–689 (1996)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  2. Borovkov, K.A.: On random walks with jumps scaled by cumulative sums of random variables. Statist. Probab. Lett. 35(4), 409–416 (1997)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  3. Ethier, S.N.: Analysis of a gambling system. In: Eadington, W.R., Cornelius, J.A. (eds.) Finding the edge: mathematical and quantitative aspects of gambling. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking (.) (Vol. 4) (1996)

  4. Ethier, S.N.: A gambling system and a Markov chain. Ann. Appl. Probab. 6(4), 1248–1259 (1996)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. Ethier, S.N.: The doctrine of chances. Probabilistic aspects of gambling. Probability and its Applications (New York). Springer, Berlin (2010)

  6. Feller, W.: An introduction to probability and its applications, 2nd edn. Wiley, Hoboken (1970)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Foster, F.G.: On the stochastic matrices associated with certain queuing processes. Ann. Math. Stat. 24, 355–360 (1953)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  8. Liptser, RSh, Shiryayev, A.N.: Theory of martingales. Kluwer Acad. Publ, Dordrecht (1989)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  9. Novikov, A.A.: The martingale approach to the problem of first crossing of nonlinear boundaries. Proc. Steklov Math. Inst. 158, 141–163 (1982)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Novikov, A.A.: Martingales, tauberian theorem, and strategies of gambling. Theory Prob. Appl. 41(4), 716–729 (1997)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  11. Wilson, A.N.: The Casino Gambler’s Guide. Harper & Row, New York (1965)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shunsuke Kaji.

Additional information

Research of A. Novikov was partially supported by ARC Discovery Grant DP150102758.

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Novikov, A., Kaji, S. On distibutions of first passage times of martingales arising in some gambling problems. Japan J. Indust. Appl. Math. 34, 859–871 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13160-017-0269-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13160-017-0269-5

Keywords

Mathematics Subject Classification

Navigation