NRL star Joseph Tapine reveals he had a serious gambling problem early in NRL career: ‘I got addicted to pokies’

Raiders forward Joseph Tapine has publicly disclosed his battle with a gambling problem that at one point could have derailed his footy career.

Tapine, a fan favourite and key figure in the Canberra pack, has established himself as one of the most respected players in the NRL in recent years.

However, the Kiwi international says he struggled with addiction in his early days.

‘The harshest lesson was probably that I got addicted to pokies,’ Tapine told Nine’s Marlee and Me podcast.

‘I was living in a share house and one of the boys said “let’s go for dinner”. We go in this pokie room and like everyone’s first time, just luck – I put a freaking $20 in and won big.

‘Three years later I was trying to have to shake that addiction. Pokies and a bit of drinking was big in the culture and that was pretty hard for me to shake.

‘Those things get you. I think athletes as well and we want that adrenaline kick and that’s what it gives you. It took a while to get off it.

‘I didn’t learn about finance or anything back home. I had to learn all of that on the go and Kirsten [wife] taught me a lot of that. After I met Kirsten, she gave me an ultimatum.

‘I think the move here helped, it was around that time when I had that drama at Newcastle. The change in environment really helped me.’

The enforcer’s comments come just a week after former rugby league hard man David ‘Cement’ Gillespie bravely shared his story of gambling addiction.

Gillespie, who played 258 games for Canterbury, Manly and Wests, winning three NRL grand finals, admitted that he developed a gambling problem that spiralled out of control after he retired.

‘Towards the end of my career I got into a bit of a vice with gambling and poker machines,’ the 60-year-old told player manager Steve ‘Chimes’ Gillis on the Chiming In podcast.

‘My marriage was breaking down in the last couple of years of my playing career, so things weren’t crash hot at home, so I got into that spiral, that addiction.

‘I ended up going to a rehab joint for six weeks and that was probably three or four years after I retired.’