Licensed clubs have offered to back a trial of compulsory betting controls for poker machines, after evidence surfaced this week suggesting clubs have exaggerated the likely financial losses caused by the government’s proposed reformsLicensed clubs have offered to back a trial of compulsory betting controls for poker machines, after evidence surfaced this week suggesting clubs have exaggerated the likely financial losses caused by the government’s proposed reforms.

After months of opposition to the prospect of mandatory measures to limit how much a player can lose on poker machines, Clubs Australia announced this week that it had written to the Federal government offering to support a trial of compulsory pre-set betting limits on pokies.

Clubs Australia’s move follows the disclosure of an estimate by Clubs Training Australia in July that the drop in gaming revenues from the measures would be 10-20 per cent, which is half the figure announced previously by Clubs Australia.

However, such a trial may be a stalling tactic, Independent Senator Nick Xenophon said. Senator Xenophon, who has been a vocal supporter of government reforms to protect problem gamblers, says he has no issue with a trial to look at the technical aspects of the proposed reforms, but that he queries the credibility of Clubs Australia. He described the disclosure of the lower projection for losses to be incurred by pokie machine operators as evidence of “a deliberately dishonest campaign of misinformation about poker machine reforms”.

Minister for Family and Community Services, Jenny Macklin, said the government was interested in a trial before the mandatory pre-commitment system was implemented in 2014, as required under the agreement with the MP Andrew Wilkie.

The Tasmanian independent senator indicated this week his preference for poker machine reform to be led by low-impact $1 poker machines (which limits gamblers to a maximum loss of $120 per hour), rather than the more complicated mandatory pre-commitment package currently proposed by the government. Mandatory pre-commitment means pokie players must set their own daily limit – a maximum amount they are prepared to lose for the day – before they start gambling.

Senator Xenophon described ploys by clubs to get around the proposed restrictions on the use of ATMs at pokie venues, such as parking trailer-mounted ATMs outside clubs, in order to overcome a proposed $250 withdrawal limit inside, as “sick and cynical”.