Denise Coates, the multibillionaire founder and boss of gambling firm Bet365, paid herself £265m last year.
This is a record-breaking pay deal for a chief executive of a British company.
Denise’s pay is over 9,500 times the average UK salary, and 1,300 times that paid to Theresa May.
Luke Hildyard, a director of the High Pay Centre, said: “Why does someone who is already a billionaire need to take such an obscene amount of money out of their company? It is difficult to find a reason beyond pure greed.
“A payment of this size would be impossible to justify for someone whose business was in unquestionably life-enhancing products or services. It is doubly offensive when awarded to a betting company CEO at a time when problem gambling is spiralling out of control.”
Mike Dixon, the chief executive of the addiction charity Addaction, said: “It’s astonishing that a CEO of one gambling company is paid 26 times more than the entire industry’s contribution to treatment. We know problem gambling affects more than 2 million people. We need a proper levy on gambling industry profits so more people can get help and support.”
Bet365 made a £660m profit last year from a record £52.6bn of bets.