Gaming minister Gordon Ramsay has confirmed that he also will not deal with Clubs ACT. Mr Ramsay failed to even respond to a letter from Clubs ACT chief executive Gwyn Rees in March, offering to work "in a cooperative and constructive manner" and requesting a meeting to discuss "future credible strategies necessary to tackle problem gambling".

Greens Cabinet Minister Shane Rattenbury has agreed to a meeting, scheduled for Tuesday.

Clubs ACT represents 70 per cent of the city's clubs, including some of the biggest groups - the Raiders, the Vikings, the Southern Cross club, and the Ainslie football club.

But after the group waged an expensive campaign against the Labor government in the lead-up to last year's election, fighting its decision to allow poker machines in the casino, Mr Barr turned against it.

In May, he blasted the group as a wreckage and a joke, and said he would deal only with a new breakaway group, set up by a Labor friend, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union's Dickson Tradies club, with the Burns Club's Athol Chalmers as its president.

In response to questions, Mr Ramsay said he had met the group earlier this year but not since March when the Tradies and the Burns club resigned from Clubs ACT to set up their own group, Canberra Community Clubs.

Asked whether he had received an instruction or suggestion from Mr Barr to the effect that he shouldn't meet with Clubs ACT, Mr Ramsay said, through a spokeswoman, "The minister's views are consistent with those of the chief minister and the government - that Clubs ACT is not representative of the industry, nor apolitical."

In contrast, he had met with Canberra Community Clubs, saying, "This new industry body has been vocal about its willingness to engage with the government on harm minimisation."

While he will not meet Clubs ACT, Mr Ramsay said he would work with individual clubs, including those which belonged to the group.

Mr Rattenbury said he was unaware of Mr Ramsay's stance and had not been asked to join a government boycott.

"[Mr Barr] expressed his personal frustration with the organisation, that's fine, that's his view. But I guess I've always held the view that you need to meet with people you disagree with, as well as those you agree with. That's how you learn things and get better informed."

Mr Rattenbury said Clubs ACT "for too long now have had their head in the sand about addressing some of these important issues".

"They've become a de facto lobby group for poker machines. They don't represent clubs, they represent poker machines, and that is a problem," he said.

But he hoped for serious discussion on Tuesday about an alternative future for clubs.

Meanwhile, former head of Clubs ACT and senior bureaucrat Jeff House has re-entered the debate, posting vehement criticism of the government's move to ban bash out from ATM machines in clubs on Liberal Mark Parton's facebook page.

Mr House, who has a long history in the Labor Party, said the policy was "dumb, ineffective and dangerous", also labelling it a "vindictive, lazy, retaliatory shot in the dark",

Mr House, blasting the media as "totally biased" in its anti-gambling agenda, said his message to voters was "it doesn't matter what side of the debate you're on, you're being treated like idiots by your government and one day, maybe not today, it will be on an issue that is personally important to you".

Clubs are now worried about who will qualify for the $10,000 grant offered by the government to help clubs diversify away from poker machines. To get the money, clubs must demonstrate how they will use it to diversify.

The government has also asked for feedback on ways to reduce poker machine numbers by abut 1000 within three years, from 4985 to 4000. It is considering a proportional surrender, based on how many machines each clubs has, a proportional surrender based on how much money each club makes from poker machines, or a "revised trading scheme".

The government has given no detail of how a revised trading scheme might work, In 2015, then gaming minister Joy Burch introduced the current trading scheme, which allows clubs to buy and sell machines between them, with one machine forfeit for every four traded. Ms Burch said then that she expected an immediate reduction in poker machine numbers but in two years the number of machines has reduced by just 37.

While there are 4985 machines authorised in Canberra, clubs are operating only 4425 of those.