It's Friday afternoon at the ACT Rugby Union Club in Barton and while the restaurant and the bar are packed, the poker-machine room is completely empty.
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"They're not really popular," said secretary-manager Jeremy Wilcox. "It's only 10 per cent of our revenue."
The ACT government has released a discussion paper on allowing poker machines venues to trade their electronic gaming licences.
The RUC has 15 poker machines, which barely pay their way.
Mr Wilcox said he wouldn't mind taking advantage of the ACT government's discussion paper to do something about them
"We welcome the opportunity. At the moment we're in a holding pattern.
''There is loads of red tape around them. We could hand them back to the government, but we'd get nothing for them."
The government has also floated the idea of a new levy on poker machines, the money from which would go towards a territory-wide ''community fund''.
Mr Wilcox said any sort of levy would probably force him drop the club's poker machines.
"We'd have no choice. If it's tied to a levy we won't be able to afford it. This is a small independent club."
The introduction of a poker machine licence trading scheme is expected to see many smaller clubs sell their pokies to larger organisations.
Gaming and Racing Minister Joy Burch said some smaller clubs may welcome the opportunity to sell.
"It costs as much to run and maintain them as the income into their club. This is an opportunity for them to relinquish or to move on those machines,'' she said.
Ms Burch said the government had offered smaller clubs grants of up to $15,000 to help them develop proposals for diversifying their income away from poker machines.
"To support the small clubs to move away from the reliance of the income stream on machines is absolutely important,'' Ms Burch said.
Canberra hotels and taverns own 68 ageing poker machines because they are not permitted to purchase the modern gaming machines used in clubs.
Australian Hotels Association ACT general manager, Brad Watts, said hotels should be permitted to access the trading scheme to upgrade their machines.
But Ms Burch said the government's policy preference was for poker machines to be owned and operated by community clubs.
