supercoach
Well-known member
Or he was a terrible at reading a form guide
Ashley Klein gambling Problems
- Thread starter Lestronge
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mtd#2
Well-known member
Thats some pretty terrible punting!
TheEnz
Well-known member
watched the replay and they did retain their challenge on the escort...which made no sense at all as even klein was pretty adamant it was not an escort. The commentators just assumed it was a burnt challenge and kept mentioning that whenever there was any questionable decisions afterwards and it also looked like Titans thought they did not have a challenge left.....was all a bit confusing.
Here you go champion @Viva_Zapata:
Klein should stand down from Origin duties following gambling revelations
As the NRL closes in on what it hopes will be a $4 billion broadcast rights deal, it is now dealing with unwanted attention.www.smh.com.au
Can someone post this?
Klein should stand down from Origin duties following gambling revelations
June 15, 2026Roy Masters
Referee Ashley Klein must stand down from Wednesday night’s second State of Origin match, now that the NRL has refused to sack him from the code’s showpiece game, despite his gambling problems escalating significantly under the watch of the current administration.
Rugby league is on the eve of signing the richest broadcasting deal in Australian sport at a time when the credibility of the code is under siege after this masthead revealed the NRL’s top referee had a $400,000 gambling problem. Yet, Klein has been appointed to officiate a game watched by four million viewers, where one wrong call could decide the result.
Wednesday night’s game at the MCG will be Klein’s 14th Origin in a row, and the middle match in the annual three-game series.
The past two series have turned in the second match in controversial circumstances. In 2024, after Klein justifiably sent off NSW’s Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii in Sydney, the Blues enjoyed a rush of repeat sets in the second match at the MCG, setting up a decider in Brisbane.
Last year, after NSW comfortably won the opening match in Brisbane, Queensland received a flood of first-half penalties in Perth, setting up a decider in Sydney.
This was at a time Rugby League Central was running an in-house campaign to attract four million TV viewers and a capacity crowd to the decider at Accor Stadium, consistent with its aim of landing a rich TV deal.
This masthead is not suggesting Klein or any employee of the NRL has acted improperly, and it must be assumed they would be above being swept up, even subconsciously, in such a crusade.
Furthermore, the 2019 investigation into Klein’s gambling discovered that he made no bets on rugby league, and when his problem was again reported to the NRL in 2023 for betting on horse racing and greyhounds, he registered with BetStop, the national self-exclusion regulator.
However, this masthead’s revelation will expose Klein to intense scrutiny, especially with NSW having won the first game of this year’s series after he sent off Queensland’s Kalyn Ponga for a shoulder charge on NSW’s Tolutau Koula – again justifiably. The pressure will build, particularly if the Maroons square the series and again set up a decider.
Magnifying the problem is the NRL’s decision to expand the territory in which repeat sets can be awarded in 2026.
The punishment for breaches occurs on the run, and there is no audit or explanation, which frustrates players and coaches. With six-agains now being awarded across almost the entire field, referees have never enjoyed more power.
Referee inconsistency has become an increasing source of discomfort to many past and present players and coaches, with many pointing to decisions favouring the code’s glamour player, Reece Walsh, through last year’s finals series.
Klein is therefore in an untenable position. Neither NSW nor Queensland were happy with his recent performances, with Brisbane’s Courier Mail newspaper naming him “man of the match” in Origin I after he sent off Ponga, and NSWRL officials protesting the lopsided penalty count after last year’s match in Perth.
If Klein takes the field in Melbourne, the centreman, as a referee is sometimes called, will be the glaring centre of attention.
Each decision will be scrutinised, on Wednesday night and microscopically by coaches and media afterwards.
It is the first integrity crisis involving a referee since 1978 when I coached the Western Suburbs Magpies and leading coaches, such as Jack Gibson, protested against the refereeing of Greg Hartley, who was suddenly elevated on the eve of the semi-finals from reserve grade to officiate the top fixtures.
Confidence in the game suffered until NSWRL general manager John Quayle called a public forum for all stakeholders.
NSWRL chairman Kevin Humphreys subsequently resigned following a Four Corners investigation that revealed significant gambling debts.
The game took no money from the gambling industry then, although illegal betting was rife.
Now, the NRL collects $50 million in product fees from bookmakers, plus has a $15 million sponsorship with Sportsbet, while four NRL clubs have similar commercial relationships with online operators.
A significant proportion of that revenue is expected to be invested to protect the integrity of the sport, such as equipping the code with resources to monitor gambling by officials and players, as well as the education of all stakeholders about its dangers.
It is astonishing that the NRL allowed Klein’s betting to escalate after 2019, when his bets were revealed to be modest, yet material.
Guardrails imposed by the NRL that year gave it access to all his betting activities, yet his punting escalated to $400,000 by 2023.
Klein has been a guest of Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club at racecourses as a plus one of his partner, who was until recently an adviser to NSW Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris.
So, rather than a $400,000 headache, the NRL now has a $4 billion one as it closes in on a rich broadcasting deal, with the headlines after Wednesday night’s game to be all about Klein.
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Buttface
Well-known member
You’ve seen his refereeing, I’m betting his punting is on par, hence the outcome of some of his games.
hank37w
Well-known member
Could be worse, could be tip of the Greenberg.
At least it would be fair, if not consistent.
Tito Santana
Well-known member
The guy is Al Capone mate. He would have everyone’s wheels greased to make this issue go away.
hank37w
Well-known member
Smash a few heads with a baseball bat.
Rock Hopper Steve
Well-known member
Yes sir Mr PVL anything you say, nobody wants to wake up with a horse head next to you in bed.
AmericanHistoryX
Well-known member
Tito is on song.
Being $400k in debt to gambling and clearly addicted, you could probably tell he does not have much in the sense of willpower/discipline. So I wouldn't be entirely surprised if he hasn't AT LEAST had the thought of using a proxy to place bets on the NRL. Someone that deep into addiction and debt with no clear discipline at all, you never know how desperate times can get at the worst of it
All allegedly of course
AmericanHistoryX
Well-known member
400K in debt? HTF you know Man. And that automatically suffocates everything else you wrote.
Like I said, all allegedly. But that is the figure being reported. And knowing that the NRL gained access to his betting history from 2019 onwards, I'd say that's probably how the reported figure got out.
Gambling ref Klein sat in on stewards inquiry while ‘training’ with Racing NSW
Chris Barrett
June 15, 2026 — 5:17pm
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Ashley Klein, the State of Origin referee who had a $400,000 gambling problem known to the NRL, has been undertaking professional development with the integrity department of Racing NSW including sitting in on stewards inquiries.
Klein is due to officiate the second game of the series between NSW and Queensland before a crowd of more than 90,000 at the MCG on Wednesday night, continuing his run of taking charge of every interstate clash since 2022.
However, there have been calls for him to be stood down after the Herald revealed he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars betting on horse and greyhound racing with the NRL’s knowledge.
In another twist to the scandal that has rocked the NRL, it has now emerged that Klein has been doing career training at Racing NSW. Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys, who is also chief executive of Racing NSW, declined to comment.
Klein was pictured sitting on the Racing NSW stewards panel observing a protest hearing after a race at Royal Randwick racecourse on April 27.
According to a source with knowledge of Klein’s activities at Racing NSW, he has regularly spent one day a week with its integrity team shadowing staff.
The 46-year-old, who has been a referee in the NRL since 2009, has also done a day’s work experience with the Australian Turf Club, which operates Sydney’s racetracks, and is said to be interested in working in sport administration when he hangs up the whistle.
Klein has been a guest of Racing NSW in racecourse function rooms with his partner, Elly Howse, who was until recently policy director for NSW Racing Minister David Harris and now works for NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley.
Klein was also contacted for comment.
His gambling was investigated in 2019 by the NRL, which cleared him to continue refereeing at the top level when it was established he had not punted on rugby league.
At the time, the NRL gained special access to his betting accounts in order to monitor his betting on racing, which it otherwise would not have been able to track.
Despite that, Klein ran up most of his losses in the years after the NRL probe before shutting down his accounts and placing himself on BetStop, the national self-exclusion register, in 2023 when fresh concerns about his betting were brought to the sport’s governing body.
There is no suggestion he has ever acted inappropriately in his on-field capacity or that he has bet on rugby league.
However, the fact that the NRL allowed Klein to continue adjudicating the sport’s biggest games uninterrupted as his gambling problem spiralled has stunned officials around the game.
Klein’s gambling was first flagged with the NRL in 2019, when Todd Greenberg was CEO and Peter Beattie was chairman of the ARL Commission.
His gambling escalated over the following four years, and his losses with corporate bookmakers ballooned to over $400,000.
In 2023, he was questioned again by NRL HQ. He then closed his accounts and put himself on BetStop.
It is unclear how Klein’s betting was left to accelerate despite a plan having been put in place to monitor his transactions.
A source with knowledge of the matter said it had been reported to the Beattie-led commission after the initial investigation seven years ago.
But Beattie, who was chairman until V’landys took over in October 2019, said the commission was not briefed at the time.
On Monday he asked the NRL company secretary to go through the minutes of board meetings to check whether Klein’s betting had come up when he was chairman.
“I checked the records and it never went to the commission,” Beattie said.
The Herald understands at least one other ARL commissioner was shocked by last week’s revelations, feeling blindsided they weren’t informed the game’s top referee had such a large gambling problem when it was known to the NRL.
The NRL has declined to answer questions about whether V’landys and the other seven members of the commission were aware of the 2019 investigation and the subsequent monitoring of Klein’s betting in the years after it.
Greenberg, who left the NRL in 2020 and was replaced by Andrew Abdo, declined to comment.
Racing NSW derives most of its income from betting on horse racing in the state, reporting $303 million in wagering revenue in the 2025 financial year.
It has also employed former NRL referee and referees boss Bernard Sutton as an equine property welfare manager.
V’landys, who has run racing’s controlling body for 22 years, will take four months’ long-service leave from July 15 to become interim CEO of the NRL when Abdo departs to take the top job at Tennis Australia.
He has left open the possibility of becoming a full-time executive chairman of rugby league, an appointment that would need the approval of NRL clubs and the NSW Rugby League and Queensland Rugby League.
If he took such a post it would bring an end to his two-decade long reign over the state’s $3.3 billion racing industry.
Racing NSW’s powers are the subject of a government-commissioned independent review being conducted by former NSW health minister Brad Hazzard, who is due to hand his report to Harris by the end of the year.
Controversial NRL ref Ashley Klein in new relationship with minister’s staffer
Controversial rugby league whistle blower Ashley Klein has set tongues wagging on Macquarie Street, engaging in a new(ish) relationship with a staffer in Premier Chris Minns’ government.Controversial NRL ref Ashley Klein in new relationship with minister’s staffer
September 23, 2025 - 11:11AM
Ashley Klein’s decision to spare Reece Walsh a footy finals send-off prompted pundits, punters, and even the Premier to mouth off at the bungled headbutt call.
But the man described as NRL’s “most hated man” has set tongues wagging on Macquarie Street for a different reason during the last few weeks.
We can reveal that Klein is in a new(ish) relationship, with none other than a staffer in Premier Chris Minns’ government.
Klein began dating Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris’ Policy Director Elly Howse a few months ago.
The pair first bonded over their shared love of Rugby League.
They certainly have a lot in common, due to Harris’ responsibility for racing.
Racing NSW CEO Peter V’landys, of course, is also the Australian Rugby League Commission Chair, meaning PVL could be seen as Klein’s ‘big boss’.
To avoid any perceived conflicts, we understand that the pair have disclosed the burgeoning relationship to the relevant powers that be.
Klein and Howse have been spotted together recently in parliament, including on Thursday - where Klein was a surprise star attraction at parliament’s bar.
NRL’s most controversial referee lived up to his reputation on Sunday when the Bulldogs went down to reigning premiers the Penrith Panthers.
We imagine NSW Premier Chris Minns was less than impressed by some of Sunday’s calls - something he can no doubt bring up next time Klein comes to parliament for a few drinks.
https://archive.md/o/NuTnv/https://...r/news-story/e83d1a1cb254ec77ae51246446ce9cbc
Seems a lot of sweeping has been going on in the past few years
The more that comes out the murkier the waters are getting. If this whole fiasco is not bringing the game into disrepute I don’t know what would be.
Tigerwould
Well-known member
If the NRL doesn’t stand down Klein, then he should step down himself. I can see this ending badly.
Every journalist in the country is all over this and it detracts from the games integrity.
Every journalist in the country is all over this and it detracts from the games integrity.
Not surprised neither NRL360 or 100% Footy made any mention of this whatsoever
Corrupt to the core.
Corrupt to the core.
