Former rugby league player turned social media personality Luke Bateman has told a parliamentary inquiry that gambling companies supplied him with cocaine and alcohol during his long battle with gambling addiction, a habit that ultimately cost him close to $1 million.

Bateman, now known across TikTok and the BookTok community for his content, appeared before the inquiry on Monday and described attending a private event on the Gold Coast hosted by a gambling company, where he said senior figures took illicit drugs alongside clients.

He urged the Albanese government to strengthen its planned restrictions on gambling advertising, arguing that people vulnerable to problem gambling need far stronger protection than what is currently on the table.

“There were times where I would be flown interstate and taken to race days, put in marquees with alcohol and food provided all day, things like that,” Bateman told the inquiry. He said VIP account managers would ask him directly what drugs he wanted for the weekend ahead.

Inside the Gold Coast event

Bateman described one occasion in particular that captured how deeply embedded his gambling addiction had become in his relationship with betting companies.

“I remember when I went to an exclusive event through a betting company, hosted in a rental property on the canals of the Gold Coast,” he said. “The entire senior leadership team was there, all the management and administration, and they were doing drugs together in a back room, and I was out in that room doing drugs with all of them.”

He was just 23 at the time, sharing the room with chief executives, founders and VIP managers, people who he said should have been looking out for his welfare rather than drawing him further into addiction.

“I put my hand up, I was a willing participant of that,” Bateman said. “But these are men in positions of power with influence who should be looking out for your welfare, and this is the kind of behaviour they are drawing you into, encouraging you into, and normalising.”

The financial cost of addiction

The toll of his gambling addiction was severe. Despite earning $400,000 a year, Bateman built up debts of more than $250,000 and estimates his total losses from problem gambling reached close to $1 million.

“There’s absolutely zero duty of care, absolute zero care for you as a human,” he told the inquiry. “There’s zero care for your wellbeing, for your mental state. Absolutely nothing of that.”

A darker case before the inquiry

Anti gambling campaigner Tim Costello gave evidence of an even more extreme case of alleged industry misconduct. He told the inquiry that TAB, Sportsbet and Sydney’s Star casino had offered one problem gambler drugs, escorts and free accommodation. The man, now facing charges over unrelated illegal activity, is currently held at Sydney’s Silverwater prison.

According to Costello, the man was given free accommodation at Star casino but had to leave the premises each week so the venue could argue he was not technically living there, before returning the following morning.

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

Costello said the man, raised in a church going family, felt deep shame about what had happened and intended to plead guilty.

Political pressure builds

The inquiry also heard from representatives of Racing NSW, Racing Victoria and Lottery Office chief executive Jaclyn Wood.

Under the Albanese government’s proposed legislation, the number of gambling advertisements broadcast each hour would be capped and gambling ads would be banned during live sporting matches. Critics argue the plan does not go far enough, falling short of the total advertising ban recommended by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy in her landmark report into gambling harm.

Liberal MP Simon Kennedy, who wants the Coalition to push for tougher limits than Labor, said Bateman’s testimony should serve as a reality check for the prime minister.

“The prime minister’s gambling reforms protected the use of predatory VIP gambling inducements instead of protecting Australians from them,” Kennedy said. “Even Labor’s own national conference has recognised this needs to be addressed. Why won’t the prime minister listen?”

Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young challenged opposition leader Angus Taylor to take a firmer stance on the issue.

“Labor members and Coalition members and senators are being bombarded every day from their constituents to say put in place laws that protect us and stop protecting the gambling industry,” she said. “We’re all hearing the same thing. The question is, do you have the guts to deliver it?”

A stark warning

Bateman’s account adds to growing pressure on federal politicians from across the political spectrum to close loopholes that allow gambling companies to shower high value clients with inducements, drugs and alcohol under the guise of hospitality. As the inquiry continues, his story stands as a stark reminder of how quickly gambling addiction can take hold when problem gambling is left unchecked by the very industry profiting from it.

Source: dbrecoveryresources