Pokie battle an unlikely war: expert

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie's battle against poker machines is unlikely to convince the next federal government to declare war on them, a gambling expert says.

Mr Wilkie, the newly elected member for the Tasmanian seat of Denison, could be a key player in the future minority government.

In Canberra this week to continue discussions with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, he has named poker machine law reform as one of his top priorities.

It is an issue that fellow independent, South Australian senator Nick Xenophon, has been focused on for years.

However, it has gained little wider political traction.

Gambling expert at Melbourne's Monash University, Dr Charles Livingstone, doubts Mr Wilkie's position of power will change that.

"I don't want to be pessimistic about it, but it is hard to see how, in the current political climate, we are going to influence the states that radically," he told AAP on Tuesday.

"If the government, whichever colour it is at the end of the day, is able to start the process of reform and keep it going in a serious way then Wilkie would have achieved a considerable amount."

Dr Livingstone said the states were hooked on billions of dollars of poker machine revenue, and only a brave federal government would take them - and the nation's pubs and clubs - on.

"It's hard to see how any ... Labor government or indeed a Liberal government is likely to take on those vested interests," he said.

"In some ways they are almost as powerful as the mining companies, and certainly they have the resources of mining companies at their disposal."

Clubs Australia is already on the offensive, rubbishing Mr Wilkie's request for $1 maximum bets on poker machines, as recommended by the Productivity Commission in June.

The organisation's executive director Anthony Ball said the independent claimed a gambler could lose $15,000 an hour - a far cry from the $1200 stated in the commission's report.

"Andrew Wilkie needs to stop speaking and start reading because he clearly hasn't bothered to read the most exhaustive report on problem gambling in Australian history," he said in a statement.

Mr Ball said the net benefit of gambling, even taking problem gambling into account, ran into the billions.

Clubs Australia had received commitments in writing from both Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott not to implement the $1 crackdown, although neither letter mentions the reform directly, he added.