The ACT government, acting at the behest of The Greens, has been working to reduce the number of such machines here since 2014-2015. It is extremely unlikely the Labor-Greens coalition will reverse its position now.

It would also be poor policy to create a situation where local hotels, which have largely proved they can remain viable without pokies revenue, are suddenly afflicted with a gaming dependency.

That is the situation in many other jurisdictions and it has not always delivered good outcomes for hoteliers. This is especially the case for smaller venues not suited to large scale gaming.

The real mystery is why the ACT branch of the Australian Hotels Association has made the request, which runs directly counter to the shift by many local pubs away from keeping their "old school" class B machines, at this particular time.

AHA ACT president Michael Capezio, who has been highly critical of the gaming act amendments that have allowed clubs to trade in poker machines since 2015, would be better aware than most that his members have been flogging off their older machines at every available opportunity.

It has been little more than a year since Fairfax reported the Fyshwick Tavern, Moby Dick's, the now defunct Wood Duck Inn and P. J. O'Reilly's sold their machines to the Vikings and the Raiders for about $18,000 a unit.

The sales took place because the B class machine entitlements can be converted to C class entitlements, covering modern electronic machines, once they are purchased by community clubs.

The downside, from the point of view of the clubs and pubs, has been that one out of every four poker machine entitlements must be surrendered every time a block of four changes hands. This is part of the push to cap machine numbers at 15 per every 1000 residents.

Publicans have been compensated for the loss of entitlements of very limited value to themselves and the number of machines in the Territory has fallen.

While not everybody may agree with the stand taken on gaming by The Greens, the current position has been arrived at through democratic processes and would require a significant shift in voting patterns to change.

This is one of those occasions when the small size of this jurisdiction, and the willingness of some of our politicians to use the city as a social incubator, can lead to a positive outcome for the community.

Problem gambling is a major concern and, even in the wake of the changes, there is evidence to suggest not enough has been done by gaming machine operators to minimise its impact.

Reducing access to the one armed bandits is a start.