seemingly dream-like arrangement with investment company First Bermuda Securities (FBS).

So far this year Mr. Wilson has `earned' $400,000 with ease. Several months ago, Mr. Wilson entered into an agreement which gave investment company First Bermuda Securities (FBS) an option to buy his 41.5 percent stake in Cablevision.

But Cablevision has been embroiled in so much controversy and confusion that FBS decided not to exercise the option before its expiry date on December 31, 1992.

Instead, FBS sold the option rights to an investment holding company called Sargasso, which is owned by FBS president Mr. Jeff Conyers, the firm's vice president Mr. Max Roberts and its managing director Mr. Joe Taussig.

Mr. Wilson agreed to extend the option but Sargasso must pay him $100,000 every two months until it is exercised. Sargasso has until the end of the year to exercise it, by which time Mr. Wilson could have been paid $600,000.

If the option is not taken up, he will be able to keep the money and his shares.

The sting in the tail of an otherwise dream-like arrangement for Mr. Wilson is that the amount paid to him will be deducted from the purchase price if Sargasso does eventually buy his stock.

Mr. Conyers said told the Business Diary: "We are definitely planning to exercise the option in due course. We have been trying to negotiate with the McDonalds as to what their role in Cablevision is and what they are planning to do.'' The McDonalds he refers to are American brothers Bill and his late brother Allan, who died of cancer earlier this month.

Some Cablevision shareholders have questioned the legality of an agreement which automatically sends 60 percent of the company's profits to McDonald-owned interests.

Meanwhile, as the row continues, a contented Mr. Wilson can be seen chugging around Hamilton Harbour in his steam-driven boat in which he eventually intends to take tourists out in, according to sources.

* * * Mr. David Pereira, manager of bookmaker Top Turf Enterprises, was quick to call the Business Diary last Monday morning to point out that his firm did not make a mistake about the odds of 40/1 it was quoting on golfer Mark Calcavecchia to win the British Open after he had shot the joint lowest opening round score.

"I must admit that I couldn't believe that Calcavecchia's price was still 40/1 and I called one person who had placed a bet on him and said he had been given an incorrect price,'' said Mr. Pereira. "But I then realised they were the correct odds after all and went to see him to say everything was OK.

'' Top Turf is hooked up by satellite to an odds service provided by United Kingdom-based Satellite Information System which is so on-the-ball that odds are recalculated hole-by-hole by UK betting firm Corals, he said.

"The system is put out from London and we get it from the Meadowlands in New Jersey,'' said Mr. Pareira.

If Calcavecchia had managed to win the event, he said that Top Turf stood to lose even more than the $40,000 which was stated last week. "A lot of late money was placed on him after his opening round,'' he said.

But Top Turf managed to lay off between 70 and 75 percent of its liability with a Ladbrokes betting office in Gibraltar and at the same odds of 40/1 "I cabled them the money on Thursday and then called at 5 a.m. Bermuda time on Friday to confirm they had received it,'' he said.

Top Turf uses the Gibraltar operation because it does not have to pay betting tax, unlike punters in Bermuda who give 20 percent of their total bet to the Government.

"Because of this system, I can accept bets of any amount, even one of $1 million,'' said Mr. Pareira.