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 \(b>0\).
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
\(I\{A\}\) is an indicator function of an event A.
Here and further C denotes any positive constant not depending on b and n.
C denotes any generic positive constant not depending on the parameters n, \(\lambda \).
References
Borovkov, K.A.: An estimate for the distribution of a stopping time for a stochastic system. Siberian Math. J. 37(4), 683–689 (1996)
Borovkov, K.A.: On random walks with jumps scaled by cumulative sums of random variables. Statist. Probab. Lett. 35(4), 409–416 (1997)
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)
Ethier, S.N.: A gambling system and a Markov chain. Ann. Appl. Probab. 6(4), 1248–1259 (1996)
Ethier, S.N.: The doctrine of chances. Probabilistic aspects of gambling. Probability and its Applications (New York). Springer, Berlin (2010)
Feller, W.: An introduction to probability and its applications, 2nd edn. Wiley, Hoboken (1970)
Foster, F.G.: On the stochastic matrices associated with certain queuing processes. Ann. Math. Stat. 24, 355–360 (1953)
Liptser, RSh, Shiryayev, A.N.: Theory of martingales. Kluwer Acad. Publ, Dordrecht (1989)
Novikov, A.A.: The martingale approach to the problem of first crossing of nonlinear boundaries. Proc. Steklov Math. Inst. 158, 141–163 (1982)
Novikov, A.A.: Martingales, tauberian theorem, and strategies of gambling. Theory Prob. Appl. 41(4), 716–729 (1997)
Wilson, A.N.: The Casino Gambler’s Guide. Harper & Row, New York (1965)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Research of A. Novikov was partially supported by ARC Discovery Grant DP150102758.
About this article
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
Received:
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13160-017-0269-5