Rollerson was convicted of two fraud charges but escaped without penalty after he signed false invoices which allowed others involved in pub charities to pocket almost $1 million.
He was chief executive of the North Harbour Rugby Union during the scam but the court heard Rollerson committed the crime to help the union and made no personal gain.
Rollerson wiped tears from his eyes as Judge Rhys Harrison praised his community spirit before convicting him on two fraud charges and then imposing no penalty.
He told Rollerson his offending had left him financially and emotionally destitute.
Rollerson was in the court for sentencing after earlier admitting two charges of fraud laid by the Serious Fraud Office after pokie machine money flowed into the North Harbour Rugby Union and gave others operating the machines substantial kickbacks.
As chief executive of the union he presented invoices to the union which he knew were false but which allowed others to take a commission of about $1 million on the gaming machine funds which were handed to the union.
One of those was former Kiwis rugby league player Brent Todd. Todd and co-accused Stanley Malik Champalal Wijeyaratne admitted fraud charges last year.
Todd was sentenced to home detention for 12 months and given 190 hours of community work. Wijeyaratne was fined $50,000 and ordered to pay $400,000 in reparations.
Rollerson told the Weekend Herald he had lost an inheritance and spent $100,000 on the case -- money that should have gone towards his three children's education.
The realisation of what he had done to his family was his worst moment "by miles.
"Really that was my kids' money. I should have spent that on my kids, not defending something."
He said when he left the union he was "on top of the world.
"I'd worked hard and made good investments but then all this hit the fan..."
"When you're under pressure and you don't sleep you start making some dumb decisions, and I made a couple of very bad investments," he told the paper.
The investments soured and he was left as the guarantor of several expensive loans. In one week he paid $1.4 million to the bank. Other investments that were lost included shares, two houses and a boat.
He said the poker scheme wasn't "cloak and dagger stuff" but it quickly took on a "life of its own".
When Judge Harrison said he had been "naive" and it would have been beyond his "wildest dreams" that he would ever have found himself in the situation he was in, it was one of the most powerful things he said.
The former All Black, who played 24 games for New Zealand, including eight tests, said he was looking forward to moving on.
"I accept the result 100 percent. I accept that it was wrong."
He said this week he slept through the night for the first time in nearly five years.
Others will defend similar charges in an Auckland District Court trial later this year.
