{"id":488819,"date":"2026-06-12T06:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/488819\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T06:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:29:09","slug":"nrl-news-2026-referee-ashley-klein-admits-to-gambling-addiction-lost-400000-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/488819\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Referee Ashley Klein admits to gambling addiction, lost $400,000, statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NRL<\/a>\u2019s No.1 referee has admitted that he was forced to seek help for a gambling problem.<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>, Ashley Klein<\/a>, who will take the whistle for State of Origin II on Wednesday, said his gambling problem related to horse racing and greyhounds.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

NRL referee Ashley Klein.\u00a0Mark Nolan<\/p>\n

The SMH report claims he lost $400,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany years ago I developed a problem with gambling on horse racing and greyhound racing,\u201d Klein\u2019s statement said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis gambling was not related to any betting on Rugby League, and my job as a referee has never been impacted. <\/p>\n

\u201cI received help to deal with the problem and closed all associated betting accounts. This was a difficult period of my life but one which did not in any way influence my job as a match official.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NRL confirmed to the SMH that it became aware of Klein\u2019s issues with gambling seven years ago, and that it was \u201cinvestigated to the satisfaction of NRL management\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NRL subsequently took appropriate steps to ensure there were no breaches of NRL rules and policies,\u201d an NRL spokesman told the SMH. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt no stage has Ashley Klein\u2019s position as an NRL match official been impacted. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe NRL takes proactive steps as a matter of course to provide education relating to rules and policy. Given this is an employment matter it would not be appropriate to comment further.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRL\u2019s No.1 referee has admitted that he was forced to seek help for a gambling problem. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[163,85,46,522,523],"class_list":["post-488819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}