One of the better-known stories concerned the 1978 Grand National horse race, at Aintree, in England.

Bookie Eddy DeMello lost more than $200,000 by offering different odds on any horse in the field to actually finish the notoriously difficult race. Odds as generous as 10/1 were given on some nags, recalled local bettors.

The whole idea behind the scheme, of course, was for more people to be tempted to put money on the race so the bookie could make a bigger profit. But everything did not go according to plan.

More than half the field jumped safely around the course, which was previously unheard of for the world's most dangerous horse race. Even the notorious Becher's Brook water jump failed to claim its normal quota of victims. In fact, the only person to take a bath was Mr. DeMello. He took his calamity gracefully and paid up.

Another gambler remembers betting on who would win a particular group in a World Cup soccer tournament a few years ago knowing he could not lose.

"I got a call from a friend of mine telling me to put money on because I couldn't lose,'' said the man, a high-flying businessman.

"There were four teams in the group and, after each had played two games, only two teams could possibly win the group, Argentina and Italy, if my memory serves me correctly. But a local bookie was still quoting the pre-tournament odds.'' This failure to reduce the odds as an event unfolds was precisely the mistake made by Seahorses during the British Open.

The gambler added: "If you bet $300 on each of the two teams, the odds were such that you were guaranteed to make a profit of $87 no matter which team eventually won. I gathered all the money I could and bet it. It was like having a licence to print money. You couldn't lose.'' There is another story, however, to top even them all, although it is somewhat hard to believe. The story goes that a soccer game somewhere in the world was brought forward a day and a local bookie was still accepting bets the next day without realising the game had already been played.

At least one bettor took advantage of this, according to the tale, and carried out every gambler's dream: he bet on an event he already knew the result of! *** Onto the ethics of some of Bermuda's business people now and the subject of under what circumstances, if any, businessmen are entitled to lie to the Press and should we think any worse of them for doing it.

On July 10, both Mr. Francis Vallis and Mr. Jim Butterfield denied that their firms had held any talks to merge their companies. "It's just a rumour.

there's no truth in it,'' Mr. Vallis said at the time, echoing similar sentiments from Mr. Butterfield.

Yet, ten days later, there were the two men sitting side-by-side announcing to all and sundry at a press conference that they were "pleased to announce'' that their businesses were indeed going to merge.

"We did deny something we knew was happening,'' admitted Mr. Vallis later.

"It was a `white lie' or whatever you want to call it.

"But negotiations were still going on when The Royal Gazette began making inquiries and we did not want any information coming out which may have jeopardised that.

"In future, it might be better to say we have no official comment when the press starts asking questions prematurely.''