With the start of the presidential primaries only about 10 months away, new bets on President Bush’s successor and related political wagers are much more conspicuous among Wall Street’s big guns.

Here are the latest four bets I’ve come across, with the losers at risk for losses ranging between $35,000 and $160,000.

Such bets are illegal in America, but they’re perfectly legal if placed online in overseas gambling parlors through the use of a credit card.

One of the more intriguing wagers is a $40,000 bet an institutional broker made last Monday that a former senator of Tennessee, Fred Thompson, now an actor on the blockbuster TV hit, “Law & Order,” would be on the 2008 Republican ticket as either the nominee for president or vice president. The broker got 4–1 odds on his bet — made with one of the Street’s most successful hedge fund traders — and would collect $160,000 if he wins.

Mr. Thompson, who said last month he’s considering a run for the presidency and is an opponent of legalized abortion, opposes gun control, and supports the troop surge, shows up strongly in some polls among Republican-leaning voters. In fact, in one joint USA Today-Gallup poll, he runs ahead of Mayor Giuliani and the onetime Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, but trails Senator McCain of Arizona.

However, as of now, some major betting parlors, notably Britain’s William Hill, and Costa Rica’s Sportsbook.com, minimize Mr. Thompson as a serious contender by excluding his name from their lists of presidential candidates.

Mayor Bloomberg, who has consistently denied any interest in running for president, also enters the betting picture in an offbeat wager made by a former colleague from his Wall Street trading days at Salomon Bros. This onetime associate gave the owner of a large New York auto dealership hefty odds of 35–1, or more specifically, odds of between $35,000 and $1,000, that Mr. Bloomberg would not seek the presidency.

Repeated press reports have suggested otherwise, with one asserting there was an 80% chance the mayor would jump into the race. The overseas bookmakers seem to agree. The odds on Mr. Bloomberg becoming the next president, quoted at 80–1 about six months ago, have now shrunk at William Hill to 34–1.

One retired money manager, a longtime friend of the mayor, told me yesterday that he believes it will be a last-minute decision. “I think it could go either way, a yes or a no,” he says. “Does he want it? You better believe it.” What will be the deciding issue? “If I had to guess,” he said, “I think a lot will depend on how Mr. Giuliani and Senator Clinton are faring as election time draws closer.”

One of the biggest Wall Street bets on the 2008 election involves an even-up $150,000 wager made last week by two officials at one of the city’s largest buyout firms. The head of the firm is convinced our next president will be Senator Obama of Illinois, who, he says, “not only has momentum, but is wowing the public like JFK did.” One of his partners, though, on the other side of the wager, is equally certain Mrs. Clinton will reside once again at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. If neither of their candidates wins, the bet is null and void.

It made no sense to me that the two men would foolishly make an even-up bet on the presidency when they could have gotten much better odds by placing their bets overseas. For example, on his bet on Mr. Obama, the head of the buyout firm could have gotten odds at William Hill of 7–1 or $1,050,000 to his $100,000. Likewise, the bettor on Mrs. Clinton, the clear favorite in the presidential sweepstakes, could have received odds of 3–1, or $450,000 to his $100,000.

“I just didn’t want to risk the possibility that someday our names would pop up in the press that we did something abroad that is illegal here,” the head of the buyout firm explained.

In another bet, a lawyer for a brokerage firm is said to have gotten odds of 8.5–5, or $85,000 to his $50,000 that the two opposing presidential candidates for the Democrats and Republicans would be Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Giuliani, who is quoted by William Hill at 4.5–1 to capture the White House. Mr. McCain, Mr. Giuliani’s chief rival, is pegged at 7–1, while another top contender, Mr. Romney, is quoted at 21–1.

If you think the former vice presidential candidate, Senator Edwards of North Carolina, has a shot, your odds are 8–1. Former vice president Al Gore, whose name is popping up a lot more frequently, is quoted at 10–1.

dandordan@aol.com