Ex-NRL player Luke Bateman alleges gambling company offered him drugs

A former professional rugby league player says gambling company employees offered to secure him illicit drugs to “strengthen” their relationship when he was in the grips of a financially crippling wagering addiction.

Luke Bateman, 31, who had losses of “tens of thousands of dollars a month” at the peak of his problem gambling, gave evidence about his personal experience at a Senate inquiry into the federal government’s legislation to restrict gambling ads in Canberra on Monday.

The two-day inquiry is due to hear from medical experts and welfare charities urging Labor to strengthen its proposal, while the gambling industry has argued against tougher measures.

Bateman, who played in the NRL for the Canberra Raiders and is now a social media influencer with a two-book deal to author his own fantasy series, last month told Australian Story how he survived his gambling addiction and was now advocating for an end to so-called gambling inducements.

Members of the crossbench, opposition and some backbench government MPs are also backing this push, while last month delegates at Labor’s national conference voted to include a commitment to tackle inducements in the party’s policy platform.

The government’s legislation proposes restrictions on TV gambling ads between 6am and 8:30pm and on radio during school pick-up and drop-off times, as well as an opt-out system for online ads.

‘Relentless’ gambling inducements take their toll

Bateman previously held multiple online wagering accounts across several companies and said as a high-spending punter he was assigned account managers as a personalised point of contact.

In an interview with the ABC before appearing at the inquiry, he said these managers would seek to build a rapport with him, offering gambling inducements, like bonus bets, and invitations to exclusive events with travel, hotels, food and alcohol all paid for.

“They enter into this knowing that the reason that they are creating a friendship with you is to encourage you to bet with them and to continue to lose lots and lots of money,” he said.

“They are not doing it out of any duty of care.”

Bateman described the promotion of inducements as “relentless”.

“I was a racing punter. Obviously, Saturdays are your main race days, so every Friday I would receive a message of, ‘Hello, this is your exclusive offer for tomorrow,'” he said.

“That would happen every single week.”

Drugs offered in bid to build personal relationships

Bateman has also alleged there were “multiple times” when, after accepting an invitation to an interstate event, he would be contacted by his gambling account manager offering to arrange access to illicit drugs.

“The week of the event, they’d sort of send you a message and be like, ‘Hey mate, you know, do you want any … drugs on the weekend?'” he said.

Bateman said these offers were not made in any “official” capacity on behalf of the wagering companies, but he believed it was a “tactic” to “strengthen friendships and bonds” with his account manager.

“That obviously … came with the expectation that then I would continue to gamble with their company specifically, and nobody else,” he said.

“Creating a sense of trust, creating a sense of friendship, absolutely came with the underlying desire to make sure that you lost all of your money with them.

Bateman said illicit drugs were a part of the “sporting, partying male culture in general” that was “part and parcel” with the “racing, sporting drinking sort of scene”.

“That was happening in all areas of life,” he said.

“I was also like a very happy and willing participant of this. No-one was forcing me to do this.

Bateman tells inquiry he took drugs with gambling CEO

Bateman on Monday told the Senate hearing he was invited to an exclusive event hosted at a rental property on the Gold Coast where he took illicit drugs with senior members of the gambling company.

“The entire sort of C-suite of the company was there, all management team, administration, and they were all sort of in the back room doing drugs together, and I was in this room doing drugs with all of them,” he said.

“This is like the CEO, the founders, the VIP managers, and you know at that stage I would have been a 23-year-old.”

A visibly shocked ACT independent Senator David Pocock asked Bateman to confirm that not only account managers working on commission, but senior levels of the gambling companies were aware of the behaviour.

Bateman responded: “Not only did they know, they were participating in it.”

Mark Kempster, who is a “lived experience advocate” with the Alliance for Gambling Reform, then told the hearing he knew “dozens of examples” like the one described by Bateman.

“That is a regular thing that happens across nearly all of the major VIP programs that I’ve seen,” he said.

In an unrelated case, Alliance for Gambling Reform chief advocate Reverend Tim Costello told the inquiry TAB and Sportsbet had funded travel, escorts and drugs for a high-spending gambler who was now in Silverwater prison on charges related to the theft of about $12.3 million.

Rev Costello said the man was preparing to plead guilty to stealing the money from his company over a 17-month period to fund a serious gambling addiction.

He said during this time Star Casino frequently gave the man free accommodation.

“He was the TAB’s biggest customer in that time. They were giving him $50,000 bonus bets,” he added.

“He was also Sportsbet’s biggest customer.

“They were flying him to grand finals. They were offering him escorts, drugs, whatever he wanted. He was doing turnover of more than $20 million a month.”

Mr Costello did not name the man, but said he would provide character evidence for him in court.

A Sportsbet spokesperson said the company had “no evidence whatsoever” about the allegations made by Rev Costello and had “zero tolerance for conduct of this nature”.

“No information has been provided to us beyond what was referenced during the inquiry proceedings,” the spokesperson said.

“Given the seriousness of these allegations, we ask that any evidence supporting them be urgently provided to us so that we can investigate them thoroughly through the appropriate channels.”

A Tabcorp spokesman said the claims made at the inquiry “do not form any part of Tabcorp’s customer offering”.

Inducements make it hard to ‘break away’

Bateman told the ABC when he was losing tens of thousands of dollars, his account managers did not offer help, seek to verify what his earnings were or indicate he should seek support.

Instead, he said there were times after a “big loss” he would be contacted with a bonus bet offer where the company would tip in an additional amount of funds to gamble with.

“When someone reaches out to you and offers you … this really attractive deal to do it again, it’s so motivating to re-enter gambling,” he said.

Bateman said the inducements were also “incredibly triggering” when he was trying to “break away” from the patterns, people and places linked to his addiction.

Despite his experience, Bateman said he had a lot of “grace” for the account managers who were just doing their job.

“I’m not going to sit here and say that these people are completely evil, but the industry creates the opportunity for this to happen,” he said.

Bateman said he would like to see the government remove promotions and inducements sent by text, email or phone call, whether as a mass-marketing campaign or through personalised account managers.

“Removing those direct contacts and those direct promotions and inducements would be incredibly helpful,” he said.

“It’s not [about] trying to stop anyone from having a bet.

“What we’re trying to stop is the relentless targeting of vulnerable individuals.”

Labor stands by ‘strongest-ever’ reforms

A spokesperson for the federal government said Labor was focused on implementing its proposal, described as the “strongest-ever” reforms to tackle gambling harms.

“Among these measures is a strengthening of BetStop, the national register that allows people who don’t want to place a bet or get inducements to opt out,” they said.

“There are also existing restrictions on gambling companies for inducements, including that direct marketing may only be sent to customers who have provided their consent to receive them.”

But Liberal MP Simon Kennedy said the gambling industry had shown self-regulation did not work despite the government leaving “predatory gambling inducements out of its reforms”.

“Labor’s own national conference has recognised the problem,” he said.

“Now the prime minister needs to show the same leadership.”

In submissions to the Senate inquiry, St Vincent de Paul Society CEO Toby O’Connor also said “stronger action” was needed, while the Royal Australasian College of Physicians called for an end to online gambling advertising.

Meanwhile, peak industry body Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA) has said Labor’s proposal will “materially reduce funding for broadcasting, sport and racing” and argued the measures went “further than required” to meet the government’s objectives.

“This will reduce funding flowing to sport, local clubs, community programs and racing,” the RWA submission said.

RWA said illegal offshore gambling was a growing “threat” and argued reforms should be “carefully calibrated” to avoid pushing consumers toward these markets that were “beyond the reach of the very protections Australia has established to keep them safe”.