The inquiry, chaired by the Liberals Brendan Smyth, is likely to call public submissions and hearings before reporting in September, with the government promising a response by November.

Its terms of reference are wide, going to the profitability of clubs, the tax they pay, problem gambling and poker machines.

It will also look at attempts by clubs to diversify to reduce their reliance on gambling money, and to "deconcessionalise" their leases so they can sell and develop their land.

The government has been dogged by controversy in recent weeks over clubs selling and redeveloping their valuable land, and over poker machines, with news in January that Gaming Minister Joy Burch had changed the law just before Christmas to allow $50 notes to be fed into machines - a change decried by anti-gambling groups.

She was forced to reverse the change after it became public, when Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the shift to $50 notes was supposed to be made alongside an overall cap on the amount that could be loaded on to a machine at one time.

After reversing the $50 note change, Ms Burch put a motion on the Assembly notice paper to set up an inquiry into cash limits in poker machines, but has never brought the inquiry on for debate or establishment. In the absence of her inquiry, Mr Smyth moved on Thursday to establish one instead.

He said there was much more to clubs than poker machines. They made an important contribution to the ACT economy, not only in tax , but also in employment and economic activity. They supported local sports and other groups and were an important meeting place, especially for older people.

"They're suffering because of the downturn in gaming revenue. They're all looking at how to diversify their income stream so they can survive," he said.

"It's been a decade of enormous uncertainty for clubs and given the number of people they employ and the knock-on effect in the local economy, we feel they deserve what they have been asking for, which is some certainty and time to change their model of operation."

Despite the inquiry, the government has indicated its determination to push ahead in the meantime with changes to clubs, including a new trading scheme allowing them to buy and sell poker machines between them and buy up and convert old poker machine licences from pubs and hotels, a new tax regime, and a new ratio for machine numbers.

Mr Smyth said it was "passing strange" that the government was going ahead with its package while the inquiry was under way.

But Ms Burch said she did not want delay to the next tranche of gaming reform, which would come to the Assembly in May.

The government wanted a "fair and reasonable and honest conversation" through the inquiry, she said.

"I would be very disappointed ... if this just went into an excuse for political bashing. It is well known that the Labor Club is owned by the Labor Party but I have stood in this place hand on heart with absolute honesty to say there is no conflict of interest for me. I can apply legislation, I can apply regulation for the benefit of all clubs.

"And as Mr Smyth has said here, all our community clubs bring value to this community, and I would hope that this inquiry does not set one club apart, because they all have an important role to play."

The committee is made up of two Labor Assembly members, two Liberals and the Greens' Shane Rattenbury.