"If you want to get serious about protecting people from poker machines and giving them a really good system to manage their money then a precommitment system is a really good way to go," Dr Livingstone said.

No Australian jurisdiction has compulsory precommitment, but Victoria has a voluntary system, whereby gamblers can nominate an amount before they start gambling.

Victoria has a range of more stringent measures than Canberra, including a cap of 10 machines for every 1000 adults (Canberra has 16.5 machines but no cap, although a ratio of 15 machines to 1000 adults is to take effect in mid 2018), a cap of 105 machines per club or hotel (at least six Canberra clubs have more than 200), maximum $5 spins (Canberra allows $10), a ban on ATM machines in venues (which Canberra allows, and also allows cash-out machines) and a $200 limit on eftpos withdraws (Canberra has no limit).

Pokies reform is the subject of negotiations this week between Labor and the Greens as they hammer out a power-sharing deal, with the Greens seeking tough action.

"For too long tackling gambling hard has been in the too hard basket," the Greens' Shane Rattenbury said. "The truth is, it's not too hard. It just requires the political courage to stand up to the gambling lobby, the clubs and the casino."

Poker machines were "addictive and manipulative" and the harm they inflicted was devastating.

"Canberrans deserve better. They deserve elected representatives who will stand up to the gambling lobby and take real action," he said.

Dr Livingstone, from Monash University's School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, said there was reasonable evidence a precommitment scheme would reduce problem gambling.

"It's not going to solve everybody's problems but as far as we know it is an effective intervention and one that is likely to be of great assistance to many people," he said. "It's about providing people with a system that helps them keep their promises to themselves even when they're in the thrall of the machine."

Precommitment schemes worked through a central network. Once gamblers nominated the amount they wanted to spend over a day, week, month or other period, the limit is set on cards which they use in machines in whichever club they play. The system can be voluntary or converted to be compulsory.

But for reformed gambler Kelly, such was the depth of her pokies addiction that she says she would have found a way around such a scheme.

"If you're an experienced gambler you're going to find a way to shift your way around it, find someone else's card. Once you think you're going to get that win, you can't stop," she said.

Kelly, who didn't want her last name published, has emerged from two years in the Salvation Army's live-in rehabilitation program and is now free of addictions to gambling and drugs and has a full-time job.

At the height of her addiction, she gambled every night, spending as much as $1000 at a time, staying in two Tuggeranong clubs until they closed at 4am then zipping to Queanbeyan before 5am closing. She is adamant the clubs knew she was addicted, given she spent so many hours in the same places.

"I couldn't help myself , it was a similar thing to the drugs, once you start doing it you just can't stop," she said. "When you're in that machine you're just zoned out on that machine, that's it."

Kelly, whose addiction got steadily worse over 10 years, sought help only when she lost custody of her three-year-old. And she says the only thing that worked was abstinence.

Salvation Army clinical director for recovery Gerard Byrne said mandatory precommitment should be one of a suite of measures.

"What we've found is one particular intervention doesn't work on its own, so it needs to be a broader approach that encompasses a number of things such as reductions in hours of trading for the machines, lower bet limits on machines, as well as precommitment," he said.

Clubs ACT was not available for comment.