The term gambler's ruin is a statistical concept expressed in a variety of forms:
The original meaning is that a persistent gambler who raises his bet to a fixed fraction of bankroll when he wins, but does not reduce it when he loses, will eventually and inevitably go broke, even if he has a positive expected value on each bet.
Another common meaning is that a persistent gambler with finite wealth, playing a fair game (that is, each bet has expected value zero to both sides) will eventually and inevitably go broke against an opponent with infinite wealth. Such a situation can be modeled by a...