Former rugby league player Luke Bateman has told a Senate inquiry that gambling company promoters supplied him with cocaine and alcohol to build a relationship with him, as a parliamentary probe into gambling harm heard allegations of widespread industry misconduct.

Bateman, now a TikTok influencer, testified before the Australian Senate's inquiry into gambling on August 3, 2026 (Sporting News, ABC News). He alleged that gambling company employees unofficially offered him illicit drugs in order to cultivate a relationship with him (ABC News).

Bateman told the inquiry he attended a private event hosted by a gambling company on a Gold Coast canal property at which senior company figures took illicit drugs with clients when he was about 23 (The Guardian). He estimated he lost about $1 million due to his gambling addiction. He was earning $400,000 a year but had no money, with his losses leading to debts of more than $250,000.

The former NRL player said VIP account managers — staff assigned to high-value clients to keep them engaged and betting — sent him personalised inducements including 'bonus bets' and that he was flown interstate and taken to race days with alcohol and food provided. Bateman told the inquiry the betting industry exercised no duty of care and called on the Albanese government to go further in its plans to limit gambling advertising.

Anti-gambling campaigner Tim Costello alleged to the same hearing that TAB, Sportsbet and Sydney's Star Casino offered a problem gambler drugs, escorts and free accommodation (The Guardian). Costello said the problem gambler was the TAB's and Sportsbet's biggest customer, given $50,000 bonus bets, flown to grand finals and doing turnover of more than $20 million a month. The individual is detained in Sydney's Silverwater prison facing charges.

These allegations land before a parliament that has been grappling with gambling reform in fits and starts. Back in November 2023, the House of Representatives considered amendments moved by the member for Banks to the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Bill (Parliament of Australia). A House of Representatives Hansard record from 6 February 2024 records Deputy Speaker Ms Chesters adjourning a debate and ordering its resumption to be an order of the day for the next sitting (Parliament of Australia). More recently, a Hansard record from 5 March 2026 includes statements by Luke MP (Gosling) about gambling advertising (Parliament of Australia).

The broader context here is a parliamentary landscape where gambling reform has been kicked around the chamber without landing a decisive blow. The Banks amendments and the subsequent adjournment of debate in early 2024 are a case study in the legislative inertia that has characterised this issue for successive governments. For insiders, the pattern is familiar: strong rhetoric from MPs, procedural delays, and a lobbying apparatus that keeps the status quo largely intact. What Bateman and Costello have done is put specific, granular allegations of corporate hospitality practices directly on the parliamentary record. Whether that translates into legislative momentum or simply becomes another footnote in the Hansard is the question that now sits with the Albanese government and the crossbench.

The distinction between the two sets of allegations matters for how the inquiry and any subsequent regulatory response might treat them. Bateman's account is a first-person testimony about his own experience as a VIP client. Costello's claims about TAB, Sportsbet and Star Casino relate to a third party who is now in custody. Both paint a picture of an industry whose VIP client management practices extend well beyond complimentary scones and a punters' club badge. The naming of specific corporate entities by Costello, coupled with the sheer scale of the turnover he cited, puts those companies squarely in the frame. For an expert audience, the key question is whether these allegations, now formally on the parliamentary record, will be referred to the relevant regulators, including AUSTRAC and state gambling commissions, or whether they will be left to the inquiry process to absorb.

Bateman's call for the government to go further on gambling advertising restrictions aligns with the ongoing debate that Gosling and other MPs have been pushing inside the House. The government's existing plans to limit gambling advertising are already the subject of intense crossbench negotiation. The testimony from Bateman and Costello gives those pushing for stricter curbs a fresh and vivid set of facts to deploy in those discussions.