Mr Stanhope's attempt last week to revive debate about the party's reliance on gambling revenue was formally voted down at a sub-branch meeting, and this week various of the party's MPs distanced themselves publicly from his crusade to sell the source of that money, the Labor Club Group.

Mr Stanhope has also been criticised by retiring Senator Kate Lundy - and longstanding member of federal Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories - for failing to canvass her views about Norfolk Island governance, an issue on which the former chief minister has been equally outspoken.

The moral and political dimension of ACT Labor's poker machine revenue has been discussed widely in recent years, and though there is a growing view that it is no longer publicly defensible for the party to continue to benefit from the proceeds of gambling, few appear prepared to go to the barricades with Mr Stanhope to ensure the nexus between the party and the Labor Club Group is cut.

As chief minister, Mr Stanhope lobbied hard for the clubs to be sold and the proceeds invested in more of what he saw as ethically sound business ventures, but he was ultimately unsuccessful. That being the outcome of a fair and democratic process, the matter ought perhaps to have rested. And perhaps it would have, had the Barr government not embarked on changes to poker machine regulation at odds with community sentiment for fewer machines and opportunities to rack up big gambling losses.

In October, Gaming Minister Joy Burch announced that the government's target of 4000 poker machines across the territory would be progressively abandoned in favour of a number based on a ratio of 15 machines for every 1000 people, with the number pegged to population increase. With the old 4000 figure representing 17 machines per 1000 people, the change was sold as a plus.

However, it was soon pointed out that a ratio of 15:1000 was still greater than any other state or territory, bar NSW. Then, in the days before Christmas, Ms Burch quietly made changes allowing poker machines to accept $50 notes instead of $20 notes. After this change was revealed by The Canberra Times, and Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury condemned it and threatened to overturn it with the support of the Canberra Liberals, Chief Minister Andrew Barr hurriedly reversed the decision.

Both proposals were implemented with the input and imprimatur of Clubs ACT, the peak industry body for Canberra clubs. Such consultation is common in the formulation of government policy, but overlooked in the political ruckus was the fact that the government, as the owner of 488 poker machines via the Labor Club Group, also had a vested interest in ensuring the changes were benign and not likely to cause revenue to drop.

Given all this, it's difficult to disagree with the view that poker machine ownership remains an incentive for Labor to continue to tinker with industry regulation and to minimise concerns that problem gambling is exacerbated by an abundance of pokies. Nor is it easy to dispute Mr Stanhope's assertion that the proposal for a quadrupling of public funding for political parties from $2 to $8 for each vote makes the sale of the Labor clubs more compelling. Regrettably, the parties appear to view the funding increase not as an opportunity to reduce their reliance on donations from individuals and organisations, with strings attached, but as a windfall that will allow them to ramp up their election spending.

Just to what lengths ACT Labor will go to preserve and protect its gambling revenue streams can be found in the specious claims by Mr Barr and federal MPs Gai Brodtmann, Andrew Leigh and Kate Lundy that the sale of the clubs is a matter solely for the board of the Labor Club Group and its members.

Such sophistry hasn't fooled fooled Mr Stanhope, and it probably won't wash with those voters who view pokies as a social scourge. However much some in the Labor Party might wish the former chief minister off the political stage for good, his concerns cannot be lightly dismissed.