The Labor Club group continues to run the most profitable poker machines in Canberra, taking an average $51,380 profit from each machine, compared with the average overall of $33,740.
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The biggest money-spinners for the Labor Party-owned group are its Belconnen and city poker machines.
In Belconnen, the major gambling site for the group, each of the 282 machines made a pre-tax profit of $55,400 in the past financial year. In the city Labor Club, each of the 61 machines made $56,800.
The figures on poker machine profits, released by the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission this week, suggest the Labor Club dominates the Belconnen gambling market, owning a third of about 1100 machines in Belconnen.
Woden and Tuggeranong are also home to substantial numbers of machines – about 1140 in Tuggeranong and 1030 in Woden.
The Tuggeranong market is dominated by the Vikings group, the biggest pokies operator anywhere in Canberra, with 704 machines and more than 60 per cent of Tuggeranong's pokies.
But the Vikings don't turn anything like the profit of the Labor clubs off each machine, averaging a before-tax profit of $34,800.
In Woden and Weston, the Southern Cross Club is the biggest single owner, but pokies are spread across more than one club. The Southern Cross Club makes $42,600 from each of its 295 machines in Woden.
In the city, the Dickson Tradies dominates, with 400 of about 740 machines. The construction-union affiliated club makes a profit of $39,970 from each machine.
Clubs have been hit by a downturn in poker machine revenue in the past 12 months, down about $9 million, or 5 per cent, on the previous year. In all, Canberrans lost $167.2 million on pokies in the year.
The profit-per-machine was also down, from an average $34,680 to an average of $33,740.
Some machines are virtually inactive. The Federal Golf Club, the Spanish Australian Club, and the Australian Croatian Club made about $1000 a machine. But most modest of all, the Canberra Racing Club reported gross gaming machine revenue of just $335 for the year, a profit of $34 on each of its 14 machines.
