Extensions of gambler's ruin with even odds: multinomial and other models (Q1347987)

The old problem of gambler's ruin relative to two players is well known. Few people studied the same kind of problem with \(k\geq 3\) players. In this paper \(k\geq 3\) players start with the same number of coins, and at most one coin at risk per game for each player. Ten models of strategies are considered. New techniques, using difference equations, are introduced for getting exact results for expectation and variance of the total number of games needed for ruining any player except the overall winner.