Americans might be restricted by gambling laws, but millions of dollars have been bet in the United Kingdom on the outcome of Tuesday's presidential election, financial news website MarketWatch has reported.

UK bookmakers are expected to finish with a total of around 5 million pounds ($8 million) in bets connected to the US elections, said Ladbrokes spokesman Robin Hutchinson. The figure amounts to more than double the sum bet on the 2004 elections - a race that according to pre-election polls was shaping up as a much smaller contest than this year's.

Other bookmakers have estimated this year's total could amount to as much as 10 million pounds, which although far from the biggest betting event in the UK, does make the US election just as popular for British punters as the average British general election.

One possible explanation for this favored by bookmakers is that for various reasons the 2008 US election has been given more international attention than usual.

"It's not just an election in the United States; it's the election for the leader of the free world... because it just affects so many countries around the globe," Hutchison said. "We take bets in 120 countries, and we've taken bets [on the presidential election] in all those countries."

As the first votes were cast on Tuesday, Ladbrokes was quoting odds of 1.06 for Democrat candidate Barack Obama to win, against 8.50 for Republican John McCain.