Gift Horses

Lady Luck is always a welcome guest, but in Maine she has been a little promiscuous. Sampson Supermarkets, a 31-store chain, last summer contracted for a promotion scheme: "Let's Go to the Races." Each Sampson shopper is given a playing card printed with the number of a race horse on whom the customer has automatically "bet." Every week, films of past thoroughbred races are shown on television, and Sampson customers holding numbers of a victorious horse win $1,000. The game is really a lottery: its sponsors know that of the 250,000 cards doled out weekly only two bear the number of the first-place horse. Except for one week last month, when an extra 500 $1,000 chits were somehow distributed. Says Company President Roger Hoyt: "About ten minutes after the game was aired, we knew we had a problem." But Sampson Supermarkets are not welching: the stores will pay off all of the unintended prizewinners, and so far 330 people have collected. Says an exultant Mrs. Arthur Poulin of Lewiston: "We called them and then they called us into the store and took our pictures and gave us the check. They're all right! Maine people are very honest." They also don't look gift horses in the mouth.

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