“I was broke”: Former NRL player reveals $500,000 gambling addiction, lifts lid on NRL culture

Former Canberra Raiders lock forward Luke Bateman has lifted the lid on the NRL's gambling culture, admitting he was broke during his career.

A talented lock forward born in Toowoomba, Bateman broke through to debut in 2015 with the Canberra Raiders, but was forced to hang up the boots at the end of 2019 with a knee injury.

A member of the 2013 Queensland under-20s team, Bateman revealed on Triple J's Hack program that he was earning $400,000, but at the height of his gambling addiction, was broke and needed his mum to pay his mortgage for him.

"Over the space of probably two or three years, I would have lost $500,000. I was on $400,000 per year in the NRL, and I was broke. My mum was paying my mortgage, and I couldn't buy groceries because I literally had no money. It was debilitating and horrible," he said.

Bateman revealed that gambling was part of the culture of rugby league during his career, and that half of his team would have had gambling problems.

"I would say half of the team had gambling addictions, probably not to the severity that I had it. As an 18-year-old, that's what we went and did. As a football team, when we had spare time, it was like let's go to the races or let's go down to the pub and have a beer and a bet.

"I developed those behaviours, and then when I had larger issues, those behaviours deepened or accelerated at the same rate that my pain accelerated."

Australians lose more than $25 billion on gambling per year, the largest per capita in the world.

Bateman said the culture of gambling in Australia was part of the problem, and that things needed to change.

"My biggest problem was that I had a bookie on my phone. If I had to go to a race course or a TAB, if I had to be there physically, I never would have developed a gambling addiction.

"When you're playing footy, we could have been done by lunch time, so you go home, eat your lunch, then have the whole afternoon to yourself, so you sit down, chuck on the races and on a Tuesday afternoon you could lose a couple of thousand in a couple of hours.

"I think that's the issue, the convenience of it. If I had to go get cash out, go see someone or put a bet on myself, it wouldn't have been an issue. It's the unregulation of it. If you want to deposit $100,000, you can do that in an afternoon.

"It made it super easy for me to be very secretive about it, too. I could have been at a wedding, sitting at a table at a wedding and putting a bet on. People just think I'm sending a text or whatever."

Bateman admitted that the knee injury that ended his career was actually a blessing in disguise, as it allowed him to escape the culture of footy.

"At the time, my knee injury was at the bottom of the list of my problems," Bateman said.

"The top of my list was depression and addiction. 2019 was when I did my knee, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back, really, because at that time I was struggling with addiction, depression and a general lack of purpose, direction or joy in life.

"Then the knee injury came, I was off-contract, and it all just became one big vortex of pain and misery for me.

"I look back on it now, and it was kind of a blessing in many ways. The knee injury, bringing about the end of my career, gave me the opportunity to remove myself from that culture and gave me the space to process, heal, and work on myself. I don't know if I would have had the same desire or opportunity if I remained in that space."

The former forward, who is now free from gambling after undergoing rehab, spends his time as a farmer and as a book influencer on TikTok. He said he doesn't look back on his career all that fondly, while admitting that the culture of the sport isn't ideal.

"I don't really look back on it (my career) very fondly," Bateman said.

"I look back on it now through the lens of a 30-year-old man who is very different to the 18 or 19-year-old man who entered professional sports.

"It's hard for me because a lot of the worst times in my life happened while I was playing football, and while I don't blame football, per se, for everything because I take ownership and responsibility, it's not a culture or an industry that really develops mature, wholesome, integrated men, in my opinion.

"There are a lot of parts of the industry that are very corrosive to young men that aren't prepared mentally to be exposed to.

"I think the culture of football, and especially once you get to a professional level, it really becomes win at all costs, and any cost you have to pay at all costs, and any price you have to pay to win, cheating, breaking rules, lying, whatever you have to do to win is justified.

"When you're part of a culture like that, a very, very ruthless culture that is devoid of virtues and morals, it really seeps into who you are as a person, and you can't be involved in that all day, every day."

If you need help, contact the National Gambling Helpline on 1800 858 858.