POKER machines will operate slower and take less cash under a federal gambling plan to make it harder for addicts to spend their pay cheques.

The most a punter will be able to bet each time they press a pokie button will be reduced from $5 to $1, potentially saving a problem gambler up to $1000 an hour.

The measures, to be recommended by Julia Gillard's gambling advisory committee, aim to smack down claims by Clubs Australia that attempts to regulate gambling would cost jobs.

They will be part of a hybrid plan that allows clubs and punters to choose between slower machines with smaller jackpots, or faster machines that will require players to first enter what they are prepared to lose over a period of a day or a week.

Once that pre-committed amount is reached, they would be locked out from playing the faster machines for 24 hours in every club in Australia, except casinos.

It's understood Ms Gillard's committee, led by independents Andrew Wilkie and Nick Xenophon, will publish a draft report soon and a final report in May.

It is believed the hybrid plan is one recommendation.

Ms Gillard was able to form a minority Government by pledging to Mr Wilkie she would start introducing a national pre-commitment scheme from 2012, with a full system running two years later.

Clubs Australia executive director Anthony Ball said up to $20 million would be spent on fighting the "licence to punt".

"If legislation ever passed, we would certainly test it in the courts," Mr Ball told the ABC's Inside Business.

Senator Xenophon said the plan was about giving clubs and punters choices.

"The hybrid model that's been proposed will mean clubs can choose between high-risk-of-harm machines with pre-commitment technology, or low-intensity machines with reduced maximum bets and reduced losses," he said. "Either way, those who play pokies will be able to have greater control over how much they'll lose."