Brisbane midfielder Allen Christensen on his gambling addiction and why he left Geelong

There were a lot of rumours about why former Cat Allen Christensen sought a trade from Geelong. Now the Brisbane midfielder has revealed the extent of a gambling addiction that left him struggling to pay rent — and how he kicked the habit.

Former Cat Allen Christensen has revealed the consuming gambling addiction that stripped him of a fortune and forced him out of Geelong.

The Lions midfielder estimates he had lost “definitely hundreds of thousands of dollars” after battling the addiction that left him “absolutely wrecked” at training after betting into the early hours of the morning.

“I’d deposited just over $300,000 into my account,” Christensen recalled.

IT’S BACK: THE FOOTY SHOW RETURNS TO MIXED REVIEWS

SUPERCOACH: JURY’S VERDICT ON 10 MOST POPULAR ROOKIES

AKERMANIS: LIONS LEGEND BOOTED AMID CHEATING CLAIMS

“I don’t know how much I took out, but it was sort of like a cycle.

“My biggest outlay was $18,000 on a horse. It got caught on the rails.

“Losing that amount of money ... then the next race I acted like it never really happened.

“The biggest amount I won was around $50,000 in a day, but I think I lost a lot of that over the next week.

“It was like a rollercoaster, there was no consistency.”

Christensen was traded to Brisbane at the end of 2014 after realising he had to snap the cycle.

The lowest point was when he was struggling to pay his rent, “getting $5 and trying to turn that into $200 so I can pay”.

“It was always about, ‘I’ve just got to be on every race, I want to be on every race’,” he said on the Addicted to the Game podcast.

“It consumed so much of my life. It’s a craving, like a real want to bet. I needed to get out on the field to stop thinking about betting.

“It would be 2am and I would have training the next day; I would turn up to training absolutely wrecked.”

Allen Christensen with teammate Josh Walker. Picture: Peter Ristevski

Then-Geelong football manager Neil Balme stepped in, Christensen explained, saying “we obviously need to help you” amid swirling rumours he owed money.

That was “the light bulb moment”.

The shift north has “removed those triggers” to punt, Christensen said.

“Ever since I got the trade to Brisbane I was able to remove those triggers from my life and become that person I wanted to be,” he said.

“At the time I thought I needed to make a decision for me to stop that cycle.

Christensen after joining the Lions. Picture: Colleen Petch.

Christensen played in the Cats’ 2011 premiership.

“Everywhere I walked in Geelong … (it was the thought of) ‘that’s the pub that I turned $30 into $5000 or that’s the pub that we turned $1000 into $5’.

“Looking back now, I don’t know if I could have gone cold turkey straight away if I didn’t leave Geelong.

“I’m forever grateful to Brisbane for taking a chance on me at the time, because there was a lot of s--t being spoken about me.”

Christensen said he had told Brisbane “absolutely everything” before the move, and said he had not made a deposit to his betting account since October 2014.