Illustration: Ron Tandberg He said the operation of pokies in Victoria over the past two decades had been to the ''detriment'' of the state, and characterised by ''a greedy industry exploitative of the low-income earners, the vulnerable and the addicted''. The Productivity Commission has estimated that 40 per cent of losses on poker machines come from problem gamblers. New figures show there have been more than 40,000 calls to a gamblers' help line in Victoria in the past three years. Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday told how people in her local community had come into her electorate office ''asking for baby formula because they or their partner have lost all their money on the pokies''.

''I know of one family who had to live in a driveway because they had lost their home because of gambling debts. There's nothing wrong with having a flutter on the pokies, but no one wants to see people put their entire pay packet into the poker machines.'' The loss figures come as gambling reform campaigner and independent MP Andrew Wilkie warned that the window of opportunity for meaningful national reform of poker machines was about to slam shut. He took aim at the Greens for their unwillingness to compromise on the gambling reform issue and the federal government for not bringing poker machine reform legislation before Parliament. ''The Greens are preferringpolicy purity to actually doing something to help problem gamblers,'' Mr Wilkie said. The Greens are calling for a $1 bet limit on all pokies to slow losses and are opposing a Gillard government proposal to have a voluntary pre-commitment system on all machines by 2016 and trial a mandatory system - where gamblers are forced to set limits before they play - in the ACT next year. There is no guarantee a mandatory system will be introduced in 2016, with a federal election to be held before then.

''The government is not fair dinkum, even about their watered-down package,'' Mr Wilkie told The Saturday Age. ''If it is genuinely concerned about problem gamblers and reforming the pokies industry it must bring on its bill and fight for it. ''It is convenient for the government to claim it doesn't have support.'' Greens gambling spokesman Richard Di Natale said church leaders, academics, problem gamblers and the public wanted lasting reform that would actually reduce harm. The party is pushing amendments that would make machines at least capable of $1 maximum bets - the government says the $1 bet is too expensive to implement. ''People want fewer pokies in their communities and they want the ones that are there to be less harmful. We can't push through a reform that kicks the can down the road for a later parliament to deal with,'' Senator Di Natale said. "If the trial demonstrates that pre-commitment technology reduces harm, we know the pokies industry will dispute the results. So it's important any bill that goes through Parliament is robust enough to deal with that and achieve real change,'' he said. Families Minister Jenny Macklin said the government would introduce its reforms once it had the support of the Parliament.

Loading Ms Gillard called on every member of Parliament to pass ''the most far-reaching gambling reforms pursued by a federal government in Australia's history''. The Coalition is yet to decide its position as it has not seen a final copy of the legislation. It has been briefed six times and has concerns over the trial's time frame and compensation flowing to Labor-owned clubs.