UK bookmaker suspends betting on a Greek euro exit

By Rhys Jones

LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - Want a flutter on Greece leaving the euro zone? It may already be too late. A surge in bets has forced Britain's second-biggest bookmaker, Ladbrokes, to suspend betting after repeatedly slashing the odds on Greece dropping out of the euro zone by year end.

The failure of Greece's leaders to form a government has renewed speculation that Greece could be forced out of the single currency.

"It is safer for us to suspend betting than to keep cutting the odds," a spokesman for Ladbrokes said. "We have been slashing the odds repeatedly over the last few days."

"If we get some positive news we will open the book again," he said.

Ladbrokes is still taking bets on the Greek stock market losing more than 25 percent of its value in a single day's trading by the end of 2012.

And if you fear Greece is just the beginning of the end for the European single currency, Ladbrokes is offering odds on the euro ceasing to exist by the end of 2012, which would make punters 33 times their original stake.

Ladbrokes said it had "plenty of support for the 33/1 on offer the currency was scrapped entirely this year."

Ladbrokes, which has around 2,100 shops in Britain, is offering odds of 5/6 that the euro will cease to exist by the end of 2015 and 4/1 on two or more states to leave the euro by the end of the year.