From addict to advocate, Luke Bateman is on a mission to see real change to gambling advertising, revealing he lost every cent of his $400,000-a-year pay packet he earned as an NRL player.
The career chameleon, who made his NRL debut at 20 with the Canberra Raiders, became a #BookTok influencer and budding author. Now he’s advocating in parliament to “protect young men” from the same fate.
What inspired him was his crippling gambling addiction which, at the height of his ‘shameful’ habit, cost him $80,000 in just one month.
He told Australian Story the federal government’s proposed changes to restrict gambling advertising will ‘barely move the needle’.