The International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking

The International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking (ICGRT) is a triennial convocation of mathematicians, sociologists, psychologists, and private and governmental regulatory professionals interested in gambling. It was begun in 1974 by Professor William Eadington whose notion was to “gather the world’s intellectuals who were interested in gambling.” Also known as the Eadington Conference, it was the first gambling conference and has continued to grow in number of attendees, presenters, and international renown and influence. The organizing body is the International Gaming Institute of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, whose current executive director is Dr. Bo J. Bernhard.

In the most recent conference, the number of presenters in areas other than the mathematics of gambling was significantly greater than in past conferences, threatening to evolve the conference away from Eadington’s vision of a convocation of mathematicians. This results in part from the early pioneers of mathematical analyses of gambling, such as Edward Thorp, Arnold Snyder, and Stanford Wong, reaching retirement age, or, dying, as R. Michael Canjar and Peter A. Griffin. This trend led Aaron Brown, an active participant, to begin a mathgambling blog to ensure that mathematicians would continue to develop techniques in the field for presentation at the conference.

The 2016 Conference

The 2016 16th Conference was held at the Mirage Hotel/Casino from June 6-10, 2016. The mathematics papers presented were

• An Analysis of the Disadvantage to Players of Multiple Decks in the Game of 21, Leslie Golden, University of Illinois at Chicago, Center for Computational Astrophysics, Oak Park, Illinois
• A New Variant of Baccarat for VIP Players, Stewart Ethier, University of Utah, and Jiyeon Lee, Yeungnam University, South Korea
• A New System for Roulette Based on the Physics of the Roulette Wheel, Leslie Golden, University of Illinois at Chicago, Center for Computational Astrophysics, Oak Park, Illinois
• A New Method to Cover Online Roulette Bets Using Live Bets from Other Players, Giannis Galanis, Bet Trade, United Kingdom
• Optimal Conditional Expectation with the Video Poker Game “Jacks or Better,” Jiyeon Lee, Yeungnam University, South Korea and Stewart Ethier, University of Utah
• Self-correcting Kelly Strategies for Skeptical Traders, Aaron Brown, AQR Capital Management
• Estimating the Fraction of the Kelly Bet, William Chin, DePaul University, and Marc Ingenoso, Conger Asset Management L.L.C.
• Measuring Bookmaker Risk, Dominic Cortis, University of Leicester, United Kingdom

Mathematics Speakers at the Most Recent Conferences

These are the mathematical speakers at the ICGRT conferences for the last twenty years.

• 2016, 16th: Dalpatadu, Golden (named a 2016 Scholar by the International Gaming Institute), Ethier, Lee, Galanis, Brown, Chin, Cortis, Ingenoso
• 2013, 15th: Dalpatadu, Singh, Cochran, Hannum, Ethier, Andersson, Malmuth, Brown
• 2009, 14th: Grosjean, Ethier, Werthamer, Umbach, Hannum, Cochran, Barnett, Brown, Chin
• 2006, 13th: Grosjean, Werthamer, Chang, Ethier, Edelman, Catlin, Chin, Benter
• 2003, 12th: Hannum, Catlin, Grosjean, Benter, Werthamer, Ethier, Chin, Canjar
• 2000, 11th: Cochran, Catlin, Deloche, Ethier, Vancura, Canjar, Wong, Snyder, Edelman, Gwynn
• 1997, 10th: Ethier, Hannum, Catlin, Griffin, Vancura, Thorp, Browne, Gwynn, Cochran, Snyder

Details:

• Andersson:
• Barnett:
• Benter:
• Brown: Aaron Brown, financial analyst, professional blackjack player, author “The Poker Face of Wall Street”
• Browne:
• Canjar: R. Michael Canjar, mathematics professor, gambling writer (as “MathProf”)
• Catlin:
• Chang:
• Chin: William Chin, mathematician, mathematics professor
• Cochran:
• Cortis: Dominic Cortis, mathematician, mathematics professor
• Dalpatadu: Rohan Dalpatadu, mathematics professor
• Deloche: Regis Deloche,
• Edelman: David Edelman,
• Ethier: Stewart Ethier, gambling writer, mathematics professor, author “The Doctrine of Chances: Probabilistic Aspects of Gambling”
• Golden: Les Golden, gambling writer, astronomy professor, professional blackjack player, author “Never Split Tens”
• Galanis: Giannis Galanis, internet gambling developer, gambling writer
• Griffin: Peter A. Griffin, mathematician, gambling writer, professional blackjack player, author “The Theory of Blackjack”
• Grosjean: James Grosjean, professional blackjack player
• Gwynn:
• Hannum: Robert C. Hannum, gambling writer, mathematics professor
• Ingenoso: Marc Ingenoso, mathematician, financial analyst
• Lee: Jiyeon Lee, mathematician, gambling writer
• Malmuth: Mason Malmuth, gambling writer, professional gambler, author “Gambling Theory and Other Topics”
• Singh:
• Snyder: Arnold Snyder, gambling writer, professional blackjack player, author “Blackbelt in Blackjack” and “Big Book of Blackjack”
• Thorp: Edward Thorp, gambling writer, financial analyst, author “Beat the Dealer”
• Umbach:
• Vancura: Olaf Vancura, gambling writer, mathematician, author “Knock-Out Blackjack”
• Werthamer: N. Richard Werthamer, physicist, executive, gambling writer, author “Risk and Reward: The Science of Casino Blackjack”
• Wong: Stanford Wong (aka John Ferguson), gambling writer, professional blackjack player, author “Professional Blackjack”