The Tradies club is pushing the ACT government for a level playing field with the casino, including giving clubs casino-style multi-terminal games and scrapping the $20 note limits in poker machines.
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The Tradies club, which is one of the organisers of a breakaway club industry group, has drafted a blueprint of demands in return for its support for poker machines in the casino.
It suggests that allowing multi-terminal machines such as rapid roulette and blackjack in clubs would be a good negotiating point with the Greens. Clubs could surrender five poker machines for each multi-terminal, turning it into a poker machine "reduction strategy". If clubs got 300 multi-terminals, poker machine numbers would be reduced by 1200.
The blueprint, which has been obtained by Fairfax Media, labels multi-terminal games a "not negotiable" condition.
Its leaking has caused more anger in an industry already torn apart by recriminations over an expensive and failed campaign against the government at the last election.
The government has agreed in principle to 200 poker machines in the casino, breaking the club stranglehold on poker machines, but the detail has not been worked out.
The main clubs industry group, Clubs ACT, ran a costly campaign against the move at the last election, and is now paying the price, with Chief Minister Andrew Barr slamming the group as a "wreckage" and a "joke" and refusing to deal with it.
Instead, Mr Barr will negotiate with the new industry group, centred on the Tradies and other clubs which have yet to be named.
The document penned by Tradies chief executive Rob Docker is described as a "briefing note" and says, "We do not oppose the Canberra Casino operating 200 electronic gambling machines on the basis that the Canberra Casino does not gain any competitive advantage over the Canberra club industry".
But Mr Docker, "very very frustrated" at the leak, said the document had "no formality" and "no strength" and was a discussion paper that he had shared with the Clubs ACT board before he and then board president Athol Chalmers resigned in March. It was yet to be adopted by the new industry association, details of which would be announced soon, he said.
It says the Greens' condition of $1 maximum spins and $500 maximum jackpots is "completely unacceptable".
The casino "must not ever" get more than 200 poker machines, a condition labelled "not negotiable".
If the casino is allowed to operate poker machines that take $50 and $100 notes, clubs should also be allowed the high-denomination notes. At the moment they can only take $20 notes, after a failed attempt by the government to allow $50 notes two years ago.
Clubs should be allowed to advertise gaming products in the same way as the casino, and should have the same ATM withdrawal limits as the casino, the blueprint says. At the moment, club ATMs are limited to $250 a day, although most clubs have installed eftpos machines that are not limited.
In another "not negotiable" demand, it says if a club pays workers above award rates, that should count as a "community contribution" under the compulsory community contributions scheme.
The casino must not be allowed to offer jackpots larger than clubs (Mr Docker's document suggests the maximum should remain at $100,000), player incentives and enticements should not exceed what clubs can afford to offer, and a no disadvantage test should apply to any casino initiatives.
It says Clubs ACT had made itself irrelevant and the government must consult with clubs not aligned with Clubs ACT, including the Tradies, Burns and Belconnen Soccer clubs. That condition, at least, has already been met.
While most of the measures are "not negotiable", Mr Docker's blueprint has some demands that "can be negotiated". Among them is a suggestion that clubs should be able to run poker tournaments as they can in NSW. Another is that if the casino was allowed to serve alcohol at poker machines, clubs should be allowed to also. A suggestion of tax concessions for clubs to make up for the fall in revenue is also up for negotiation, as is a suggestion that sign-in rules be softened or abolished.
Mr Docker said the briefing note was his own draft and no formal proposal had been put to government. It was confidential and written for discussion purposes, he said.
"It's my sentiments, which I shared with the Clubs ACT board," he said. "That document is dormant. It has no formality. It has no strength. It's a discussion document and that's it."
Mr Docker said he was not opposed in principle to the casino making poker machines, but expected goodwill and fairness from the government and no disadvantage for the clubs industry.
