He may run a company worth nearly £25bn, but Peter Jackson still has to deal with the same lockdown challenges as millions of other Britons.

Having built up a head of steam on the topic of gamblers being forced to submit payslips before placing a bet to justify they can afford it, Jackson stops.

“One second,” says the boss of one of the world’s biggest gambling operators. “I’ve got a delivery man ringing me.”

The video feed is muted as the 45-year-old directs the driver to the Cotswolds home from which he is speaking to The Telegraph. Gesticulating from a room that would not be out of place in a Farrow & Ball catalogue, one of Jackson’s colleagues, listening in, fills the void. “That’s lockdown life for you, isn’t it,” she quips.

The Yorkshireman, a die-hard Leeds United football fan, has overseen one of Britain’s biggest corporate success stories of recent years.

As chief executive of Flutter Entertainment, Jackson is responsible for a stable of betting brands that includes Sky Bet, Paddy Power, and Betfair. Across the Atlantic, FanDuel has surpassed all expectations as the US liberalises sports gambling, creating the world’s biggest regulated market.

Paddy Power and Betfair teamed-up in 2015 before a merger with Canada’s Stars Group in 2019 propelled the business from big to massive.

The Irish influence remains strong, with the global headquarters in Dublin. And Jackson shivers at the thought of the firm’s annual bicycle ride to Galway where some of the company’s young bucks force pints of Guinness down him well before the sun is over the yard arm.

Back in the UK, the gambling industry is at a crossroads. Having led the way online since Blairite liberalisation of gambling markets 15 years ago, UK operators are facing the spectre of a clampdown as MPs consider sweeping reforms to betting laws and regulations.

For the “anti” lobby, a broad church of campaigners advocating stricter reform and highlighting the catastrophic effects of gambling addiction, this is their moment.

Leading the Westminster vanguard to “stop the abuses” of the gambling industry are former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, ex-sports minister Travey Crouch and Labour’s Carolyn Harris.

“The vast majority of Parliament are now determined to see the industry brought back under control,” Duncan Smith said in December.

Ministers have insisted that the Gambling Act review will be “evidence-led”, giving Jackson cause for optimism that the review will not be the sort of one-way traffic that the Conservative backbencher predicts.

“We know as an industry we haven’t always got it right,” Jackson says. “[But] you can’t determine legislation by listening to the loudest voice.”

The Government’s review is shining a light on the link between gambling and sport. Football jersey sponsorship is just one facet of this. Premier League teams are less dependent on the money they get from gambling operators’ logos emblazoned across their shirts than the rest of the football league, whose headline sponsor is Sky Bet.

Away from football, the reliance on sponsorship gets starker; bookmakers play a key role in keeping rugby league, snooker and darts afloat.

Recent reports have suggested that banning gambling sponsorship will plunge sport into its biggest crisis since tobacco advertising was outlawed.

Jackson is not convinced. With the exception of horse racing and its intrinsic links to betting, sport will evolve and survive without the industry. “If gambling is not allowed to continue its association with sports, because that’s what the Government decides, I think there would need to be a good transition period,” he says.

“I don’t think that the switch would be an easy one because the gambling industry is a source of revenue for the sector. A lot of these sports are saying: ‘Now’s a really difficult time for us because we’ve lost all gate receipts... Please don’t make life harder for us.’

“But as we’ve all shown over the last 12 months, people are very adaptable and ... different sports could get there with enough notice.”

As the UK rows back on the liberalisation of sports gambling, the US is moving in the opposite direction. America is in the grip of a gold rush as states scramble to legalise wagering, switching on the vast tax revenues that come with it.

Eye-watering valuations are being hung on the US opportunity. Draftkings, for instance, boasts a $23bn (£16bn) market value - and is yet to turn a profit.

“When we bought FanDuel in 2018, was I expecting that we would see Paspa [laws banning sport betting] repealed within four weeks, and that we’ll be taking bets in the [New Jersey race track] Meadowlands four months later? And that here we are not quite three years after that being number one in the US market?

“No, we didn’t expect any of those things to happen.”

Jackson says that operators like FanDuel and Draftkings have a significant advantage over rival operators such as Ladbrokes owner Entain and William Hill that have concentrated partnerships with casinos to build a US customer base.

“We are winning because between us [FanDuel and Draftkings] we had millions and millions of customers who were the perfect target audience. In fact these people were giving us their money already and would have been betting it but were not allowed to.”

Less successful has been the tie-up with Fox Corporation, Jackson concedes. Rupert Murdoch’s empire is also an investor, holding a 2.6pc stake in the FTSE 100 company.

But Jackson is not going to mince his words. “They are an important partner for us. [But] we haven’t got the same market share and traction with the Fox Bet product yet because the product isn’t good enough.

“It’s not a great product and they didn’t come to market with an enormous set of customers on their database.

“What Fox bet has got, is the power of Fox behind it ... whether that’s with Fox News, Fox Sports, or Fox Entertainment.”

Jackson is evidently extremely proud of the success in America. But BetMGM, a joint venture between Ladbrokes owner Entain and Las Vegas casino operator MGM Resorts, is coming up on the rails. Entain has claimed it is only a matter of time before it is the biggest operator in the US.

But Jackson reckons Entain has backed the wrong horse. “BetMGM will be a big player in America,” he says. “But they’re not going to beat me.”