THE gambling lobby is claiming a coup in its battle against the Gillard government's proposed poker machine reforms by enlisting the support of the renowned western Sydney youth worker Father Chris Riley.

The founder of Youth Off the Streets, has lent his words and image to a Clubs Australia flyer that will be distributed today to 2 million houses in 46 electorates in NSW, Queensland and Victoria. The seats are held either by Labor MPs or independents.

Father Chris Riley's flyer.

Many of the people Father Riley's organisation helps are indirectly victims of gambling addiction.

But he says the government proposal of mandatory pre-commitment technology on poker machines will not work. Nor, he says, will the alternative being pushed in some corners, to restrict all poker machines to maximum bets of $1.