Gillard makes pokies pledge

The NSW government has welcomed Prime Minister Julia Gillard's promise to crack down on problem gambling, after she told the states to fit poker machines with devices that limit losses or risk a federal intervention.

In a deal struck with Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie on Thursday, Ms Gillard pledged to tackle problem gambling in exchange for his support in parliament's lower house.

New pre-commitment technology - such as smart cards - would eventually be installed on every poker machine in Australia under a re-elected Labor government.

It will allow punters to nominate the maximum amount they can lose in a certain period, and then stop them from playing on once that limit has been reached.

The technology would begin to be rolled out in 2012, with the national scheme to be up and running by 2014.

Acting NSW Minister for Gaming and Racing, Jodi McKay, said the state welcomed any discussion on gambling reform.

"Today's announcement by Prime Minister Julia Gillard is exactly the sort of conversation we have been looking forward to having with federal government," Ms McKay said in a statement.

InterChurch Gambling Taskforce chairman Mark Zirnsak cautiously welcomed the proposed changes, but said some pre-commitment systems were linked to venue loyalty schemes.

"Some of these systems have a loyalty scheme attached to them and they simply encourage people to spend more," Dr Zirnsak told AAP.

"There's actually a real danger this thing actually just helps milk people more unless it's done right."

But Clubs Australia spokesman Anthony Ball said the reforms, which include implementing a $250 daily withdrawal limit on ATMs in most pokie venues was "untested".

"There is no research to link ATM cash withdrawals to problem gambling," Mr Ball said.

He accused Ms Gillard of placing more value on a political deal with Mr Wilkie than on protecting clubs.

"This announcement shows how political imperative has triumphed over good policy," he said.

"Today's decision is a black eye for not just registered clubs, but all Australians who will now be told by the government how much of their money they can spend gambling."

Mr Wilkie said supporting clubs reliant on poker-machine revenue was still an issue that needed attention.

"This is a reform on a grand scale, and there is a lot of work now needed on the detail to make it work," he told reporters in Canberra.

"The aim is not to cause hardship, particularly for not-for-profit clubs for instance, who rely on pokies revenue to stay afloat."

Ms Gillard conceded that convincing the states and territories to cooperate with the reforms could also be hard.

But she warned that any premiers or chief ministers unwilling to adopt the changes might be overridden federally.

"The Commonwealth will act if the agreement of the states and territories is not forthcoming," she said.

"There are some abilities to use things like the corporations law and some challenges."

A report by the Productivity Commission in June found that pre-commitment systems were one of the most effective ways to target problem gamblers.

Labor responded by vowing to roll out a national pre-commitment model for poker machines, but put no timeframe on the process.

South Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon, who has been lobbying for poker-machine reform for years, said it was a historic day for tackling problem gambling in Australia.

"Poker machines will never, ever be able to cause the damage that they have in the past," Senator Xenophon said.

"When you consider that something like 50 per cent of the $10 billion-plus a year lost to poker machines comes from problem gamblers, then this is a very significant reform."