You might not want to wager that the Loch Ness monster, which has made appearances either for real or in imaginations for centuries, was going to show itself indisputably any time soon. But as Ron Pollard understood, a fair number of people would make that bet.
Mr. Pollard, a British oddsmaker who recognized a human craving to gamble on anything and everything and extended the bookmaking business, legal in England, far beyond its traditional fields of horse and dog racing to politics, beauty contests and Elvis sightings, started taking bets on Nessie’s existence in 1977. CONT.
Bruce Weber, New York Times