The club, which collected more than $9 million in pokie revenue last financial year, will begin exploring development options for its 14,000-square-metre site, which was valued at $20 million nearly two years ago.

The assessment will be boosted by a $100,000 grant from a fund designed to help Canberra's community clubs diversify their revenue streams away from gambling.

Hellenic Club chief executive Ian Cameron said the club board was considering development options for the Woden site that included sports and recreation facilities, theatre, arts and cultural events space and retail and accommodation areas.

Mr Cameron said the club would definitely remain on the Woden block, but the redevelopment would lessen its reliance on poker machine revenue.

"The Hellenic Club has made good progress in diversifying its income stream in recent years to reduce our reliance on gaming revenue," Mr Cameron said.

"We will continue to do so and it's pleasing to see the ACT government support these initiatives. The Hellenic Club exists for its members and whilst there is a commercial reality to consider, the needs of our members and the broader community will always be at the forefront of our thinking."

The club will conduct an appraisal and risk analysis of its options, partly funded by the grant announced earlier this week.

The Hellenic Club's Woden site, at the corner of Callam and Launceston Streets, is right beside multiple redevelopment projects which are fast increasing the number of residents in the area ahead of light rail's arrival in the precinct.

The nearby 93-metre-tall Lovett Tower is set to be converted into a residential complex, while other new high-rise apartment buildings are replacing car parks and former office buildings.

Colliers International ACT residential director Shane Radnell said Woden was a booming town centre, with development activity giving more people reason to live and work there.

"People are now willing to live there in higher numbers than ever before, and therefore if there are more employment options around that town centre, that just adds to the mix. Obviously you've got large departments there already ... so it's already an employment hub for the Commonwealth and ACT governments," Mr Radnell said.

Mr Radnell said there was a limited future for open-air car parks like the one which took up the bulk of the Hellenic Club site.

"With developers now being able to replace those car parks underneath, there are absolutely development opportunities above those on-grade car parks that are certainly under realised at the moment. I've got no hesitation in thinking that the Hellenic Club will go and look to redevelop that car park, for sure," he said.

The Hellenic Club took in more than $9.7 million in poker-machine revenue across its Woden and Civic sites in the year to June 30, 2020, with net revenue of $5.5 million after taxes and community contributions.

The latest ACT government poker machine snapshot shows the Hellenic Club operated 204 machines at Woden and held 204 licences. Two years ago, the club held 254 licences for the venue and ran 205 machines.

Since August 2015, the number of poker machines in use in the ACT has fallen by 1443, from 5022 machines to 3579.

In an effort to reduce the number of machines in the territory, the ACT government had offered $12,000 in cash to small and medium venues for each gaming machine authorisation given up, while larger clubs were offered discounts on future land and development costs.

The policy to reduce the number of pokie machines in the ACT by 20 per cent was part of the agreement between Labor and the Greens when the parties formed government after the 2016 election.

The current agreement between the parties includes a commitment to reduce the number of gaming machine licences in the territory to 3500 by 2025. There are currently 3868 authorisations.

However net poker machine revenue has more than doubled in Queanbeyan, which saw a spike in profits while gaming machines were switched off in Canberra during the coronavirus pandemic shutdown last year.

In six months to May 2017, poker machines running in the Queanbeyan-Palerang area made $15.9 million in net revenue, which has jumped to $31.5 million in the six months to November last year despite a small reduction in the number of machines being used.

Community clubs in the ACT operating poker machines are required to pay into the ACT government's diversification and sustainability support fund. The territory matches the clubs' contributions.

Gaming Minister Shane Rattenbury on Tuesday said he was confident grants from the fund would help reduce the number of operational pokies in Canberra, despite the grants not requiring clubs to turn off machines to access the money.

Mr Rattenbury said there was an opportunity for more Canberra clubs to become poker-machine free with ongoing support from the ACT government.

"We want the clubs to continue to be part of our landscape. It just can't be on the basis it has been for the last couple of decades, which is driven by a phenomenal growth in poker machine revenue," Mr Rattenbury said.

More than $3 million from the fund was paid out to clubs as COVID emergency relief funding, after the government dipped into the pool to keep club staff employed.

Clubs posted multimillion-dollar losses last year after COVID restrictions forced the venues to shut their doors for an extended period.

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