Founder of online bookmaker becomes UK’s highest paid boss as concern rises about number of lives ruined by gambling addictionDenise Coates, the billionaire founder and boss of gambling firm Bet365, paid herself £217m last year as her company made a £525m profit from a record £47bn of bets. Coates justified her pay packet as fair recognition for the “significant growth” in the firm’s gambling profits, which rose 15% to £514m. Mike Dixon, the chief executive of the charity Addaction, said: “It cannot be right that the CEO of a betting company is paid 22 times more than the whole industry ‘donates’ to treatment. “The gambling industry is paying nowhere near enough for the treatment of gambling addicts. The entire gambling industry donated just £8m to research, education and treatment last year.

Source: The Guardian November 12, 2017 17:44 UTC