Owen Craigie warns of gambling pitfalls

Owen Craigie warns of gambling pitfalls
James Hooper From: The Sunday Telegraph

BE it horses, trots, greyhounds, poker machines or card games, you name it and former NRL star Owen Craigie used to punt on it. Hardcore.

For 12 years, Craigie wrestled the daily demons of a gambling addiction that ultimately cost him everything that he had earned from playing rugby league.

In total, he lost more than $1.5 million. Houses, relationships, friends, family - Craigie went all in and lost the lot.

If ever rugby league needed a reminder about the damage gambling can do, this is it.

Broken to the point where he contemplated suicide, Craigie turned to psychologist Phillip Hilder and Gamblers Anonymous for help.

Slowly, he's confronted his addictive personality and the triggers behind it to the point where he has rebuilt his life to work as a gambling education officer for Mission Australia in Newcastle.

Now, as the ramifications of last year's NRL betting scandal continue to detonate over rugby league, Craigie wants to become an NRL gambling education officer.

"You don't have to be a scientist to work out that gambling is a problem in Australian society today, especially among Aboriginal people," Craigie said.

"You've got to manage it like it's a chronic disease, because it is.

"The topic of gambling in Aboriginal communities is just as big as your drugs, alcohol, domestic violence and your sexual abuse.

"Back in the day, I'd gamble every day. When you've got an addiction and a disease, that's what you do. There's no line, there's no limits, reality is you've got a problem.



"All up, in over 12 years of punting, I would have won about $10,000. And I would have lost $1 million plus, easy.

"It's scary and it doesn't make sense.

"Sometimes I'd look at myself in the mirror and I'd think, 'I've just blown a house on the punt. How embarrassing'."

Described by Andrew Johns as "the most naturally talented player I played with", Craigie made his NRL debut as a schoolboy aged 16 and won a grand final with Newcastle when he was 18.

During his 10-year, 153-game NRL career with the Knights, the Wests Tigers and South Sydney, he pocketed more than $1.5 million in earnings.

In between training and game days, his life was built around TABs and pubs in Newcastle, Rozelle and Redfern, always chasing the next big collect.

These days, instead of rushing to his local every Saturday to settle in for an afternoon of punting, you will find Craigie preaching the value of education.

As part of Mission Australia's Gambling Smart project, he has travelled to 11 Aboriginal communities in the past eight months and has nine communities still to go.

As far north as Tweed Heads, as far south as Nowra, west to Brewarrina and then in the Sydney suburbs of Redfern, Mt Druitt and Campbelltown, Craigie talks about everything from the stolen generation and alcoholism to the awful habit of sniffing petrol and glue.

Ten days ago, Rugby League Week magazine published a poll of of 100 players, with 20 per cent of current stars admitting they knew other players who were gambling on rugby league.

And last Wednesday, Sydney real estate agent Greg Tait became the fourth man arrested and charged over the NRL's betting scandal from last year's round 24 Bulldogs-Cowboys match.

It got Craigie thinking.

"I bought my first house at 17 and another one at 20. But I had a sickness and I wasn't taught the value of money or how to respect a dollar," Craigie said.

"A lot of people might laugh at my story and say it's my own fault. And it is. But I went and sought medical help and professional assistance and I'm living proof that you can get the right help and come out the other side.

"My place in life now is to educate people about the dangers of problem gambling.

"I'd love to get to talk to the current generation of NRL players.

"It's a very sensitive subject. Everyone knows it's there, but a lot of people want to dodge the issue.

"From what I'm hearing, it's still there. Given where I've come from and what I've been through, I reckon I could help."

In May, when South Sydney halfback Chris Sandow signed a four-year $2 million deal with Parramatta, it emerged that gambling debts had become an issue for him.

NRL chief executive David Gallop was happy to hear that Craigie had raised his hand to assist.

"With these types of issues it has worked well to have ex-players who have been through the problem and come out the other side," Gallop said.

"The players can relate better to that so certainly getting Owen involved would be useful."