A recovering alcoholic who revealed to Fairfax Media that he had also battled drug addiction, Butterss said: "I'm now eight years clean and sober. I would have been a whole lot better as a club president had I been sober but I learned the hard way.

"My eight years in recovery has shown me the dangers of gambling addiction and the people I've met have taught me just how destructive gambling can be ??? arguably more destructive than alcohol or drug addiction.

"I've worked with so many gambling addicts ??? many of them former AFL players. One retired player told me: 'Rod, you'll never understand the mind of a gambler ??? it's just an horrific disease.' "

Butterss, who left the Saints in 2007 after seven years at the helm, said while his key dependencies had been on alcohol and "to a lesser extent" drugs he recalled travelling with the team to Sorrento for a training camp and ??? while admitting he was probably drinking at the bar at the time ??? seeing "42 players crammed into the TAB" at the Sorrento Hotel.

"The AFL has done a pretty good job in relation to respect for women and indigenous Australians," said Butterss. "But they've done an appalling job with gambling and not much better with alcohol and drugs. I cannot fathom their drugs policy and I worry about the damage players are doing.

"The AFL has got participants and constituents from Auskick level who are learning that gambling is a normal part of football. And I see it watching the game on television every weekend when the advertisements start.

"What we have are lazy governments, lazy business leaders and lazy sporting leaders who are perpetuating these relationships while people starve. Taking $10 million a year from a gambling company to me is the laziest form of leadership. It's just weak.

"If I still had any involvement I'd be saying 'fellas, are we really that desperate for the $10 million with all our revenue streams?' What they are doing is telling people it's OK to gamble. I'm not saying everyone who gambles has a problem but statistics tell us five to eight per cent do and that's a big number."

Butterss' time at St Kilda ended when a Greg Westaway-led challenge ousted him towards the end of 2007. Westaway said pointedly during his campaign that his board would be free of alcohol and drug abuse ??? an accusation Butterss denied at the time.

The AFL during the Butterss regime also vowed to drug-test club officials and directors as part of a deal with the AFL Players' Association but that practice was never put into place. Butterss has in the past admitted to alcoholism during his time at St Kilda but only now confirmed his battle with illicit drugs.

Butterss' said he supported the AFL's new initiative on examining the Victorian clubs' reliance on gaming machines, "Project Fruit", as revealed by Fairfax Media. "When I was a club president my job was to drag in every dollar I could for the club. I was naive and I hope I'd do things differently now."

Comparing his experience with alcoholism to gambling addiction, Butterss added: "We've all done things we're ashamed of. But an alcoholic comes home three hours late and in many cases just falls asleep on the couch. I realise it's not always that simple but a gambling addict might not come home at all and the rent's not paid, mum can't afford to feed the kids or pay the bills and her greatest fear is a knock on the door.

"I come from the perspective of a guy who's recovered," said Butterss, "but my sponsor, who's a doctor, supports that. People don't realise that gambling addiction is a disease. It affects you physically and it's a mind-altering state you have to live with.

"It's a subject I've become deeply passionate about and I'm just so disappointed in Dan Andrews for extending and increasing these poker machine licences. And with the AFL for being weak and not taking a stand and instead taking money while our kids are learning to gamble through their love of football."

Butterss, who still attends weekly recovery meetings, said he was rebuilding his personal and business life and wishes he had had more wisdom when he had presided over St Kilda ??? a period in which he famously fell out with his one-time close friend and coach Grant Thomas and subsequently appointed Ross Lyon as senior coach.

"I don't look upon that period with any shame," he said. "I just wish someone had tapped me on the shoulder or I had done it myself. But I've grown up a bit since then."