SOURCE: Bloomberg

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Never `More Important'

Freeing up more national markets could also aid shares of Ladbrokes Plc, William Hill's larger U.K. rival, which is expanding through the Internet after more than a century running betting shops, and Paddy Power Plc, the largest bookmaker in Ireland.

``The European market has never been more important than it is today,'' Warwick Bartlett, lead partner at Global Betting, said in an e-mail.

``The U.K. market is highly competitive with very little growth remaining.''

Ladbrokes has applied for licenses in Sweden and Denmark, as well as Norway, which follows the bloc's internal market rules. The Harrow, England-based company is suing in national courts to strike down barriers posing ``a huge restraint on our ability to compete'' with state monopolies, said John O'Reilly, head of Ladbrokes's remote gaming unit.

``The commissioner's officials have been very supportive,'' O'Reilly said in a telephone interview.

`Having a Gamble'

Shares of William Hill declined 10.5 pence, or 1.6 percent, to 637.5 pence in London. Shares of Ladbrokes fell 11.25 pence, or 2.6 percent, to 428.25 pence.

As Irish finance minister, McCreevy, who turns 58 next week, hosted a 2004 EU meeting at the Punchestown raceway in his home county of Kildare, and has rearranged his schedule the last 30 years to attend the March racing festival in Cheltenham, England.

``It's just part of my culture, having a gamble,'' said McCreevy, who has kept a few horses as a hobby. ``So I don't have any moral hang-ups about this.''

Opposition to outside gaming companies remains ingrained in France, where two executives of BWIN Interactive Entertainment AG were detained by police last September.

Francaise des Jeux, the PMU horseracing monopoly and legally controlled casinos contributed 4.6 billion euros ($6.5 billion) of government revenue in 2005, according to a report by Senator Francois Trucy last November.

Countries argue that they need to regulate gambling to control addiction and money laundering.

French Regulations

``We are open to discussion but so far we haven't seen other means, and convincing means, of reaching those public interest objectives, and at the same time opening the market,'' said Stanislas Pottier, special adviser to French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde.

``It is a sector we think cannot be regulated as any other sector.''

The Swedish government opened a review of its gaming laws last June, a week before the commission's latest warning.

``We are looking into this matter in the proper manner,'' said Joergen Lunenark, a press assistant at the Swedish finance ministry, in a telephone interview.

``We still think that we are following the rules.''

Sweden's four casinos and sports-betting monopoly took in 4.8 billion kroner ($730 million) in 2006, more than a quarter of the 18 billion-kroner national budget surplus.

Countries have the right to ``ban gambling in all its entirety,'' McCreevy emphasized.

``What they can't do is have two different systems'' for domestic and foreign companies.

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