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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.
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