During his darkest chapter, things would go missing from Luke Bateman’s apartment.
“My partner would come home from work and be like, ‘Where’s this?'” the former NRL player-turned-fantasy writer tells Australian Story.
“I would’ve taken it to Cash Converters and sold it for cash so I could go and gamble.”
Luke Bateman says in the elite sporting environment gambling was “like breathing”. (Australian Story: Tom Hancock)
It was 2019, and Bateman was at the height of a debilitating gambling addiction so severe he couldn’t afford to feed himself. He was a professional NRL player with the Canberra Raiders at the time, earning $400,000 a year.
“I was so broke … I couldn’t pay for anything. I couldn’t buy groceries,” Bateman says.
“My gambling…