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The purpose of this paper is to analyze strategies for gamblers/investors to increase their chances of reaching certain monetary and/or survival goals while facing a losing proposition.

The paper investigates the use of credit by gamblers/investors as a means of increasing their expected survival time and thus their likelihood of winning. The paper considers a strategy in which a gambler/investor engages in bet doubling and uses credit to maximize the probability of winning a specified amount.

The model presented in this paper identifies the amount of credit that will make it possible for a gambler/investor to become a winner with an arbitrarily high degree of probability, even while facing a losing proposition. However, bet doubling can lead to large losses, and negative profits can be expected if the gambler/investor is faced with unfavorable odds. As an extension, the paper considers the impact of limited liability and finds that in that case, total losses are restricted and the gambler/investor can expect a positive net gain even while facing a losing proposition. It is also shown that the cost of obtaining credit is an important consideration and that it is ill‐advised for a gambler/investor to engage in such a strategy when the cost of credit is high relative to the probability of winning.

Although bet doubling is not new to the gambling literature, this paper considers the use of credit as a means of increasing survival time and expected net gain. Applications of the model are particularly useful to gamblers/investors when credit can be obtained at low costs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the risks caused by “hazardously immoral” contracts which force external parties to bear significant losses without their consent.

The expectation of substantial future losses raises the question of how investors can become profitable by entering into such risky contracts. The authors investigate the use of such contracts, which obscure the expected cost of failure by not only concentrating risks but ultimately not taking routine charges for predictable, albeit uncertain, future losses. In their investigation, the authors look at a risk concentration strategy and discuss expected profits (losses) under conditions of limited and unlimited liability.

It is found that companies are more likely to minimize losses and maximize profits if they can obtain credit at a low enough interest rate and externalize the majority of the risk. Risks are more likely to be externalized when government and/or international agencies bail out the offending organizations to limit total damages and stabilize the economy.

The main contribution of the paper is to show that a risk concentration strategy can be used to make the overall probability of winning arbitrarily large, even when individual trials have less than a 50 percent chance of obtaining positive profits. The corollary lesson is that credit is valuable, and having substantial credit obtainable at low rates is so valuable that significant gains are probable despite negative expected profits.

This paper aims to investigate customers' perceptions of four service quality aspects – service environment, service delivery, game service, and food service – in the casino setting among Chinese players.

The study examined the proposed model through a 2(gambler type: leisure versus hardcore)×2(gender: male versus female) multivariate analysis of variance of the four casino service quality aspects.

Based on a sample of leisure and hardcore casino players, the results show significant differences between the two types of patrons on the four casino service dimensions. In addition, significant gender‐by‐player interaction is revealed.

This study sheds new light on the understanding of the direct and moderating roles of gender and type of casino players on service evaluation in the literature. The research findings should be interpreted with caution as the results are derived from a Vegas‐like casino in Macau among a mass‐market Chinese casino clientele.

The findings extend service research by illuminating perceptual differences in different casino service quality dimensions in the Asian leisure milieu. Casino operators should take customers' gender and player type into account and design service offerings that are more attractive to female and leisure consumers, as they represent a large potential casino clientele.

The findings extend the customer contact model and further the understanding in regard to the service quality perception in the burgeoning casino gambling industry in the Far East.

An optimal investment strategy is “memoryless,” because it depends on present and expected future conditions, but not on the past. This article discusses the conditions required for a single, optimal investment strategy which the authors refer to as the memoryless trading rule. As a normative theory for investment decisions, memoryless trading requires an investment strategy or future course of action to describe what the trader will do when the markets achieve a given state. Memoryless trading also implies that when traders share a common utility function (which incorporates their risk preferences), wealth level, and trading orientation, there is a single, optimal investment strategy based upon market conditions. The authors show how some standard financial tools for comparing traders and measuring risk‐adjusted portfolio performance, e.g., the Sharpe ratio, violate the memoryless trading rule. They also discuss the relationship between memoryless trading and traditional equilibrium models of asset pricing.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the evolution of Macao's gaming credit practices with reference to its promulgation of the gaming credit law after its gaming liberalization.

A qualitative approach based on in-depth interviews with casino executives, government officials and gamblers to probe their perspectives on Macao's gaming credit practices was adopted due to its underresearched nature. Documentary analysis of annual reports and court files was also used.

Despite the potential of increased revenue with more credit, the credit risk for gaming concessionaires remained under control, while VIP-rooms and junket operators have adopted more prudent policy and faced substantial challenge in credit collection. All these would lead to greater alignment with law-based credit practices.

Since gaming credit information was considered confidential, the author experienced difficulty in arranging the interviews, and the nonprobability sampling characterized by the selection bias might affect the findings.

The findings have demonstrated some major credit practices such as credit charges on credit balances and terms and conditions for repayment for different credit providers in Macao.

The different credit practices by credit providers at different levels of gaming credit have been presented in the same paper.

This case aims to chronicle the dismantling of Tenneco – a large, prosperous diversified firm. Because it failed to manage risk, its best assets ultimately had to be sold to allow its survival. Behind its actions of problematic acquisitions and questionable financial policies, are underlying dynamics that offer lessons for other companies.

The study is are based on extensive interviews of management, board members, and review of documents and publications. The paper focuses on decisions that cumulatively contributed to enterprise‐wide risk.

The paper finds that Tenneco management's blind spot was its failure to consider the interaction of its decisions and implicit assumptions over time.

Six principles of enterprise‐risk management are distilled from the Tenneco case.

Although Tenneco's financial crisis occurred decades ago, the lesson for present‐day management is clear: independent board oversight is crucial. Moreover, the enterprise risks inherent in some decisions are only apparent if the board takes a system‐wide view.

This article urges executives to expand their view of risk. Instead of just defending against bad risk events, leading companies define and anticipate the upside risks that, when well managed, can deliver the maximum rewards. The discipline of strategic risk management allows firms to raise their growth potential in addition to reducing their economic volatility. The author shows executives how to avoid the biggest risk of all – not taking the right growth risks for the business. Businesses today are exposed to greater risks across the board, ranging from political risks to product liability and environmental hazard risks. There also are a set of strategic risks that have become increasingly disruptive. These include not just the obvious high‐probability risks that a new ad campaign or new product launch will fail, but other less‐obvious risks as well in areas such as technology and customer needs. Failure to anticipate and manage this spectrum of strategic risks can expose a company to dramatic decreases in shareholder value and severe swings in stock prices. In today’s risk‐intense environment, firms must manage their economic and risk profiles more actively. The goal is not to eradicate risk, but to deliver the maximum reward for an acceptable level of risk. The author addresses some of the most important forms of strategic risk and the countermeasures that can be used to address them.

Early twentieth century transatlantic migration was both a massive transoceanic population transfer and a complex travel business. The successful growth of this multinational commerce was based not on fare reductions, but on risk management strategies. Shipping lines provided costly carrying capacity sufficient to accommodate severely fluctuating demand for transatlantic migration, and did so in a manner which improved the reliability and quality of travel for migrants.