A note on on–off intermittency in a chaotic coin flip simulation

Presented is a computer simulation of a variation of the Gambler's Ruin game that is used to model intermittent chaos. A rich player gambles with a set amount of money m. The poor player starts out with zero capital, and is allowed to flip a coin in order to try to win the money. If the coin is heads, the poor player wins a dollar but if it is tails, the poor player loses a dollar. The length of time it takes for either player A or player B to reach zero is recorded for a specified number of games. The simulation presents a model for intermittent chaos, as it manifests quiescent or periodic behavior alternating with chaotic bursts.