Former NRL player Luke Bateman has opened up about his devastating gambling addiction that consumed his football career and left him with nothing to show financially despite earning hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The 30-year-old, who played 71 games for the Canberra Raiders between 2015 and 2019 and represented Queensland in Under-20s State of Origin, became emotional while speaking about the support his mother gave him during his darkest days.
Appearing on Nine’s A Current Affair on Wednesday, Bateman broke down in tears as he recalled how his gambling spiraled out of control during his NRL career.
“I was on a very high income in the NRL and I had no money in the bank,” Bateman told A Current Affair.
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“My mum was paying my mortgage for me. I couldn’t buy groceries. I would go a day without eating because I simply could not buy food.”
When asked why he was getting emotional, Bateman said:
“It does make me teary because mum … she gave me life and she also saved my life. To cause her so much pain, it hurts me a lot.”
Last month, Bateman told Triple J Hack that during his time in the NRL he was earning over $400,000 a year, yet still found himself spending far more than he earned.
“I was broke,” he said.
“It was debilitating and horrible. Hundreds of thousands of dollars over the space of two or three years.”
He estimated that he gambled away more than $500,000 during that period.
“It Either Ends Up With Me in a Coffin or I Get Help”
Bateman admitted that at the height of his addiction, gambling had taken over every aspect of his life.
“The accountability and ownership of it rely solely on me,” he said.
“It actually got to the point where I said, ‘this goes one or two ways, it either ends up with me in a coffin or I get help.’”
He added that confronting the issue was extremely difficult, especially given how normalized gambling is within rugby league and broader Australian culture.
“I would say half of the football team had gambling addictions,” he said. “It is a really big problem.”
After stepping away from rugby league, Bateman has completely transformed his life.
Now living in a caravan in rural Queensland, he works as a logging contractor, cutting pine trees with a harvester.
Since going viral on TikTok as the “hot farmer who reads books,” Bateman’s wholesome fantasy book reviews have earned him a massive online following.
He has since signed a two-book deal with Atria Books Australia, a division of Simon & Schuster, and launched a book review podcast, marking a powerful new chapter in his story.