Charitable and community contributions made by clubs are nothing more than a ''smokescreen'' to disguise profits from problem gambling, according to the first research to look at donations from the clubs industry.

A Monash University study has found charitable contributions are ''minuscule'' compared with profits made by clubs and an ''extremely inefficient and high cost method of funding community sporting activities''. It also reveals that the electorates where gamblers lost the most money on pokies were all Labor seats.

''It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that poker machine community benefit claims are principally intended as a device to legitimate poker machine operations,'' the study, led by Professor Charles Livingstone, said.

''There is no doubt that poker machines cause considerable harm. Claims of community benefits are arguably a smokescreen to both enlist the support of those who benefit from them - local sporting clubs and charities, for example - and deflect attention from the harm caused by poker machines.''

In NSW, pokie users lost almost $5 billion in 2010-11 or $1003 per adult. The clubs gave $63.5 million to community organisations and charities or 1.3 per cent of poker machines losses.