Administrators kinda have to allow it unless there's evidence of wrongdoing.
Gambling isn't really the issue here - no one would care if it was an online casino, pokies, or if he was punting on European handball at 3am every morning.
Influencing game outcomes isn't really the issue either - players and coaches can easily do that. We could go down all sorts of rabbit holes on the personal conversations they have with friends and family. AFL and NRL players hang out together regularly, of course there's a risk they're giving each other insights into team news, tactics etc.
Debt isn't really the issue - I'm sure there are plenty involved in the sport who have financial debts, be it credit cards, poor investments, or whatever.
That only really leaves addiction - which could be anything from sleeping pills to online shopping. Look how much time some athletes spend online gaming. This is on the clubs to have the right identification processes and support services in place.
I'm not onboard with anything that just blanket bans anyone involved in NRL from doing things the average person can legally do. The only (reasonably fair) solution I can come up with would be contractual clauses that prohibit them from betting on ball sports in Australia. If they want to throw money on the football world cup, horse racing in Japan, or a poker table then go for it.
You could put that contract in front of players, coaches and officials, I just don't know how far you go with physios, dietitians, board members and other club employees - very slippery slope.
At a minimum this whole saga should ten-fold increase the monitoring and oversight of players/officials betting accounts. They should already be scaling up the AI used to detect that nowadays anyway.
If the argument is about the extent of the investigation, competency of the NRL etc that's an entirely different debate and thread.
