The Labor Party-owned Labor Clubs are once again one of the smallest contributors to community groups among the city's major clubs, giving barely more than the minimum required from poker machine profits.
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The report on clubs' poker machine takings and community contributions for the 2014-15 year was released on Tuesday, showing declining gambling income, down $9.4 million, or 5 per cent, across the city's clubs on the year before.
Clubs made $167.2 million from poker machines in the year, the first time profits have fallen below $170 million in the past six years.
Clubs are required to give 8 per cent of after-tax profits to community groups, and for many that means funding the sporting codes they are set up to support. Most give more than 8 per cent, with an average of 12.6 per cent.
The Labor Club group gave just 8.7 per cent, but it was one of the only clubs to give extra money to problem gambling apart from the compulsory levy, gave more than most to charity and welfare groups, and was one of the few significant contributors to women's sport.
Women's sport was the big loser in the year, with clubs giving $445,000 to women's sport, down $170,000, or 27 per cent, on the year before. That compares with $7.5 million to sport generally, also down on the year before, but still by far the biggest beneficiary of community contributions from clubs, receiving almost two-thirds of the total.
The Labor Club group gave $110,000 to women's sport. The tradesmen's union clubs gave $94,000 and the Tuggeranong Rugby Union Club, $134,000.
The Tuggeranong Rugby Union Club is the biggest owner of poker machines in the city, with 704 machines, from which it made $24.5 million in the year.
Second biggest is the Southern Cross Club Group, with 680 machines, making $24.8 million in profits.
The Woden and Dickson tradies clubs, set up by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, together have 540 machines, from which they made $19.6 million.
The Labor Clubs have 488 machines, with a $25.1 million profit.
The Raiders group has 481 machines, with a $19.3 million profit.
The Ainslie group has 423 machines and made a gambling profit of $15.2 million.
Also on Tuesday, Gaming Minister Joy Burch tabled the government's response to the parliamentary report on clubs, rejecting many of the recommendations.
She rejected recommendations that a taskforce be set up to develop an action plan for problem gambling, that clubs shouldn't be charged planning fees for developments that help diversify their businesses, that the government remove the $250 a day withdrawal limit on ATMs in clubs, and that the government match contributions to the problem gambling fund dollar for dollar.
She also rejected a recommendation to re-establish a full professorial chair in gambling studies at the Australian National University, and introduce different tax rates for clubs that had better problem gambling measures in place.
The government has agreed to change rules for entry to clubs to allow people from outside the ACT to enter more easily than the current sign-in rules allow, and says it will look at allowing "contemporary access" for Canberra residents also, where possible.
In response to a recommendation that the ACT pursue a national approach on $1 maximum bets, the government said its agreement with the clubs was not to introduce $1 bets.
Ms Burch said the government had agreed or agreed in principle to many of the problem gambling recommendations, but the Liberals' Brendan Smyth rejected the claim, saying she had rejected many out of hand, despite it being a cross-party inquiry, and had failed to take up the chance to help clubs move away from gambling.
Her response was "the epitome of an abject failure" and Chief Minister Andrew Barr should "get rid of her any way possible and give the clubs sector of the ACT the sort of minister they deserve, somebody with the wit, with the ken, to make it work for them", he told the Assembly.
