\u00a3125 Million Tax Bill<\/strong><\/h2>\nBut Coates has also been paying her dues. While almost all UK sports-betting operators have located their online arms offshore in tax-happy jurisdictions like Malta, Gibraltar, or the Isle of Man, Bet365 has remained in the UK, in the Coates family\u2019s native Stoke-on-Trent, where it is a major employer.<\/p>\n
And while there is much talk in Britain of the aggressive tax avoidance measures of global giants like Amazon and Starbucks, Bet365\u2019s contribution to the UK public finances was more than \u00a3276 million ($360 million) in 2009, nearly twice as much as any other entry on The Times<\/em>\u2019 list.<\/p>\n\n
Coates personally would have contributed around \u00a3125 million ($164 million) in tax from her fat-cat salary, which she could have reduced by taking more in dividends.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
But she didn\u2019t. And it\u2019s interesting that the Coates family has long been a donor to the left-wing Labour Party, which, at the last election, advocated taxing the rich, curtailing the power of billionaires, and imposing tighter controls on the gambling industry.<\/p>\n
The only other gambling industry figures to make The Times<\/em>\u2019 list were Fred and Peter Done, founders of Betfred. Ranked 22nd, the Done brothers paid an estimated \u00a344.5 million ($58 million) in taxes in 2019 and are long-time donors to the Conservatives, a party that has historically been friendlier to billionaires.<\/p>\n