NRL referee undertaking professional development at RacingNSW
State of Origin referee Ashley Klein, who has a $400,000 gambling problem known to the NRL, is undertaking professional development with Racing NSW’s integrity department, including taking part in referee investigations.
Klein will referee the second match of the series between NSW and Queensland in front of more than 90,000 fans at the MCG on Wednesday night and will continue to take charge of every interstate clash since 2022.
However, there were subsequent calls for his dismissal. reporter He revealed he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars betting on horse and greyhound racing with the knowledge of the NRL.
As another result of the scandal that shook the NRL, it was revealed that Klein had career training at Racing NSW. Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys, who is also Racing NSW’s chief executive, declined to comment.
Klein was filmed sitting on the Racing NSW stewards panel watching a protest hearing following a race at Royal Randwick racecourse on April 27.
According to a source with knowledge of Klein’s activities at Racing NSW, Klein regularly spends one day a week working with the integrity team’s staff.
The 46-year-old, who has been a referee in the NRL since 2009, also has a day’s work experience with the Australian Turf Club, which runs Sydney’s racetracks, and is said to be interested in working in sports management when he closes the whistle.
Klein was a guest of Racing NSW at the racetrack event rooms with his partner Elly Howse, who until recently was 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 by the NRL in 2019 and he was allowed to continue refereeing at the highest level when he was found not to have gambled in rugby league.
At the time, the NRL had special access to betting accounts to monitor race betting that it would not otherwise be able to track.
Despite this, Klein recouped most of his losses in the years after the NRL investigation, before closing his accounts in 2023 and placing himself with BetStop, which has a national ban record, and fresh concerns about his bets were raised with the sport’s governing body.
There are no allegations that he acted inappropriately on the field or placed bets on rugby league.
However, the NRL’s decision to allow Klein to continue calling calls in the sport’s biggest matches without interruption as his gambling problem grew has stunned officials in the game.
Klein’s punting was first flagged by the NRL in 2019, with Todd Greenberg as CEO and Peter Beattie as chairman of the ARL Commission.
Over the next four years his gambling increased and his losses at corporate bookmakers ballooned to over $400,000.
He was questioned again by NRL Headquarters in 2023. He later closed his accounts and devoted himself to BetStop.
It’s unclear how Klein’s bets were allowed to accelerate despite a plan put in place to monitor his transactions.
A source with knowledge of the matter said the incident was reported to the commission, led by Beattie, following an initial investigation seven years ago.
But Beattie, who chaired it 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 review board meeting minutes to check whether Klein’s bets were brought up when he was chairman.
“I checked the records and it never went to commission,” Beattie said.
reporter He understands that at least one ARL commissioner was shocked by last week’s revelations and that the game’s chief referee was caught off guard by not being informed of such a major gambling problem when the NRL found out.
The NRL refused to answer questions about whether V’landys and seven other members of the commission were aware of the 2019 investigation and the monitoring of Klein’s bets in the years thereafter.
Greenberg, who left the NRL in 2020 and was replaced by Andrew Abdo, refused to comment.
Racing NSW generates the majority of its revenue from horse racing betting in the state and reported betting revenue of $303 million in the 2025 financial year.
It has also hired former NRL referee and referee boss Bernard Sutton as horse estate welfare manager.
V’landys, who has led racing’s controlling body for 22 years, will take a four-month long-service leave from July 15 to become the NRL’s interim CEO, with Abdo departing to take up the senior role at Tennis Australia.
He left open the possibility of NRL clubs becoming full-time executive chairman of rugby league, an appointment that would require approval from the NSW Rugby League and Queensland Rugby League.
If elected, his two-decade reign over the state’s $3.3 billion racing industry would end.
Racing NSW’s powers are the subject of a government-commissioned independent review led by former NSW health minister Brad Hazzard, which will submit its report to Harris by the end of the year.
News, results and expert analysis from the sports weekend are delivered every Monday. Sign up for our sports newsletter.
Chris Barrett is senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Southeast Asia correspondent for the Herald and The Age newspapers.Connect with: X or email.
