H2 Gambling Capital, the gambling research firm, said Europe was the world's largest interactive gambling market in 2008.
Of the 17.1 billion euros in online gambling gross win -- stakes less winnings -- generated globally, Europe delivered 6.9 billion euros, H2 said in an e-mail newsletter from the European Gaming and Betting Association.
That figure -- 6.9 billion euros -- accounted for 7.7 percent of Europe's total gambling business, up from 6.3 percent in 2007.
By 2012, the firm said it expects interactive gambling -- Internet gambling, mobile gambling and interactive television gambling -- to account for 12 percent of European gross win and 9 percent of global gross win.
The European market, H2 added, grew at an average rate of 36 percent between 2005 and 2008.
Should the United States elect to regulate Internet gambling, however, the country could again become the world's largest I-gaming market, the firm said.