Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has likened ACT Labor's reliance on poker machine revenue to an intravenous "drip" a day before a Legislative Assembly inquiry into the clubs industry begins in Canberra.
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Senator Xenophon, a long-time advocate of poker machine reform who will give evidence at Tuesday's inquiry, said the ALP's reliance on the ACT Labor Club group was a "fundamental conflict of interest".
"The ALP in the ACT and more broadly is on the drip from the ACT Labor Club," Senator Xenophon said
"Millons of dollars of revenue are coming from poker machines, millions of dollars are coming from problem gamblers."
New figures outlined in an inquiry submission have revealed the Labor Party-owned Labor Club group is one of the Canberra clubs most heavily reliant on poker machines, getting
While the coalition received "generous donations" from the hotel sector, the Labor party's reliance on club revenue was "a classic case where the overwhelming percentage of the population - something like 90 per cent - wants to see some significant poker machine reform", Senator Xenophon said on Monday morning radio.
He said poker machine operators requested more research and help for people burdened by problem gambling to buy themselves time.
Senator Xenophon said the problem was "relatively easy to fix" if recommendations from the 2010 Productivity Commission report on gambling were adopted, including a
DiallingCommission's recommendation
The ACT Gambling and Racing Commission's submission to Tuesday's inquiry, which showed the Labor Club group's reliance on poker machines, did not reveal the names of Canberra clubs.
They suggest the Belconnen Soccer Club group is most reliant, with poker machine revenue making up 74 per cent of its total gross operating revenue of $5.2 million in 2013-14.
It is followed by the Labor Club group, which made $36.6 million, of which 68 per cent came from poker machines.
Earlier this year former Labor Chief Minister Jon Stanhope called on his party sever it's connection with gambling and sell the Labor clubs. But his motion at a February sub-branch meeting was knocked back amid limited support.
The Labor Party has long insisted no conflict of interest between its association with the Labor Club and its ability to make laws governing clubs and poker machines.
An ACT Labor spokesman denied Senator Xenophon's claims about how the party was funded.
"Since 2014 the support received by the ALP from the Labor Clubs has predominantly come from gifts of room hire for local branch meetings and policy committees," he said.
"Our party will continue to find ways of improving our revenue stream so that it is not reliant on any single source of income."
Meanwhile, men accounted for two-thirds of poker machine spending and the territory's least-educated 10 per cent contributed almost one-quarter of pokies revenue, according to ANU Centre for Gambling Research data based on a 2009 study of 5500 Canberrans.
The centre will provide the Assembly inquiry with new problem gambling data from a study of more than 7000 people last year.
With Kirsten Lawson
