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<\/p>\nFormer NRL star Luke Bateman has alleged gambling company executives coaxed him into taking drugs, while promoters offered to supply him with cocaine and alcohol. <\/p>\n
The 31-year-old influencer told a gambling Senate inquiry on Monday that he had often been invited to exclusive events while he was suffering from a betting addiction. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Luke Bateman giving evidence to a gambling inquiry.\u00a0Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were times where I would be flown interstate and taken to race days, put in marquees with alcohol and food provided all day,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBefore getting there, your VIP manager would go, \u2018Hey, mate, what drugs do you want? Do you want a couple of bags for this weekend? We\u2019ll organise that for you. We\u2019ll have that ready for you when you get here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He did not name the betting company. <\/p>\n
In one case, Bateman alleged he took drugs as a young man with senior executives of an unnamed betting firm at an event on the Gold Coast. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll the management team, administration, and they were sort of all in the back room doing drugs together, and I was out in this room doing drugs with all of them. This is like the CEO, the founders, the VIP managers,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt that stage, I would have been 23 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are men in powers of positions, of power with influence who should be looking out for your welfare, and this is the kind of behaviour that they are drawing you into, encouraging you into, and coaxing you into, and normalising.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bateman\u2019s gambling addiction cost him an estimated $1 million. Despite being a well-paid NRL player, he retired from the game more than $250,000 in debt. <\/p>\n
Despite his bets often becoming erratic and losing thousands of dollars in a single day on hundreds of races, he said he received no welfare support from gambling companies. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey identify immediately within your first hour to first week, whether you\u2019re going to be a whether you show signs of problematic gambling, and also how much you\u2019re gambling with the amount, and then they will assign you a VIP manager,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
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Australians lose more per capita to gambling than any other country.\u00a0Photo by Mark Dadswell\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, once again, they identify you as vulnerable, and then they exploit that vulnerability with zero welfare.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Senate inquiry will hear about gambling harm as advocates call for the federal government to strengthen its proposed reform bill. <\/p>\n
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young told reporters on Monday there are holes in the legislation and called for the Coalition to support the Greens and independents to block it in parliament. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt fails to protect people from the predatory and insidious nature of this gambling industry,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that people will still be bombarded with gambling ads online on streaming services, that there is no national regulator, and that people will be subjected still to the predatory and highly targeted inducements, it is heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Communications Minister Anika Wells said the government wants to introduce its changes without delay.<\/p>\n
On the matter of inducements, she said gamblers can opt out via the BetStop service. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously we wish to do everything we can for people who are suffering from gambling harm,\u201d she told reporters on Monday. <\/p>\n
There are many different ways to get help and information about gambling. You can visit the National Gambling Helpline or call on 1800 858 858.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NRL star Luke Bateman has alleged gambling company executives coaxed him into taking drugs, while promoters offered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-842127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}