Dear Mik, Erik, and Friends,

I'm no scholar of the term 'gamble', but it's been used by many decision theorists��in closely related senses.

For instance, Savage's (1954) section��5.2 (titled 'Gambles') uses it within his theory (of��subjective expected utility)��to refer to the equivalence class of simple acts that carry the same (personal) probability distribution over consequences.�� Savage is generalizing the von Neumann-Morgenstern sense of 'gamble'.

I grew up with the von Neumann-Morgenstern's theory of cardinal utility for gambles -- though vN-M use an extraneous concept of 'probability' in contrast with Savage's approach.

Best,

Teddy

On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 7:12 PM, Professor Bickis <bickis@snoopy.usask.ca> wrote:

Hello:

Can someone answer this question?

Was it Walley who initiated the word ��gamble�� to use in place of the classical ��random variable��?�� De Finetti uses ��random quantity��, as does Williams.�� Gamble�� is ubiquitous in the current literature, but I have not seen it anywhere prior to Walley��s 1991 book.
Walley does not seem to attribute the term to anyone else.

Mik Bickis
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