WOOLWORTHS is the state's biggest pokie baron, operating more machines than Adelaide Casino.

The Woolworths machines alone are set to rake in $60 million this year.

An Advertiser investigation has revealed major corporate organisations, including Woolworths and Coles, have led a consolidation of the state's pokie sector and own an increasingly large slice of the machines.

The Australian Hotels Association, leading a $20 million mass advertising campaign against reforms to limit problem gambling, counts the supermarket giants as members and includes Woolworths representatives on its executive.

The revelations have led to calls for the supermarkets to reveal how much they are spending on the "it's un-Australian" campaign to stop the introduction of technology forcing punters to declare how much they are prepared to lose.

Woolworths' Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group yesterday refused to reveal how much it paid the hotel lobby annually but said no additional money had been provided to fund the current campaign.

Office of the Liquor and Gambling Commissioner records also show the Hurley family, which controls pubs including the Alma Tavern and Arkaba, has overtaken the Saturno "Booze Brothers" as SA's biggest non-corporate pokie baron.

Woolworths has interests in 990 SA machines, worth $60 million per year, and operates 32 pubs including Henley Beach's Ramsgate and Brighton's Esplanade Hotel.

It has almost doubled its share of SA machines from 603 in 2007, due to the acquisition of the Taverner Group and several independent hotels. SA has 12,900 poker machines, which raised $742 million in 2010.

Coles has interests in 235 machines worth $14.4 million per year, through its Liquorland and LHG3 chains, including the Brighton Metro Hotel.

Together, the supermarket chains control 1225 pokies in SA worth $74.4 million per year, well above the 985 machines held at Adelaide Casino.

The so-called Independent Pub Group, which lists Stephen Bushaway and Greg Maitland as directors, owns 10 venues with 338 machines worth $20.6 million per year.

Independent SA Senator Nick Xenophon said the figures shattered industry claims that small-scale operators would lose the most from poker machine reform.

"It makes nonsense of claims that this is all about tiny, struggling clubs and hotels," he said.

"Let there be no mistake about this - the people behind this campaign are the big end of town.

"The cruel irony of Woolies' being Australia's biggest pokies baron is that there are people today who won't be able to afford to buy groceries from a Woolworths supermarket, because they've lost that money on a Woolworths poker machine."

Senator Xenophon also pledged to attend the next Woolworths and Coles shareholder meetings, to demand they reveal how much was being spent on a "grubby campaign of misinformation" against gambling reform.

"I'm calling on them to come clean. Woolworths and Coles are iconic brands, and they need to be up front with the Australian public," he said.

Senator Xenophon and independent Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie are demanding the Federal Government force pubs nationwide to install pre-commitment smartcard technology.

Australian Hotels Association SA general manager Ian Horne said the state was already leading the nation in minimising harm from gambling, and clubs had supported a trial of voluntary spending limits.

Mr Horne conceded there had been substantial recent industry consolidation but claimed the majority of pokie pubs was owned by small operators that could not afford to install the new technology.

SA has the oldest poker machine fleet in Australia and pubs were facing a $265 million bill if the reforms were introduced, he said.

"The small end of the market is terrified by the implications of this. They simply don't have the capacity to meet the technological requirements that Wilkie is trying to impose," Mr Horne said.

"This is not about Coles and Woolworths - this is the vast majority of mum and dad pubs, and small community-based clubs."

Mr Horne said the venom of the current anti-pokie campaign was likely to "set reform back decades" as politicians, including Mr Wilkie and Senator Xenophon, demolished existing industry goodwill.

Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group spokesman David Curry said requiring a "licence to play" would not stop problem gambling and the voluntary measures tested in SA would be more effective.

"We position our businesses as family-based businesses, that people can come in, have a cold beer, have a good-value meal and, if they so choose, have a punt on the horses or on gaming," he said yesterday.

Asked what financial support the group provided to the hoteliers' anti-reform campaign, Mr Curry said: "We have not made any payment above what our normal membership fees are".

He refused to detail the size of Woolworths' annual payment to the hotels lobby.

Gambling Minister Bernard Finnigan has so far refused to commit SA to the Wilkie plan, saying he intends to work with the Commonwealth and other states on implementing reform and intends to address "revenue implications".

It is estimated up to $421 million will be ripped out of the state's Budget over three years, if SA is forced to sign up to the new smartcard regime and forfeit much of its current revenue from pokie taxes.

Under the terms of Mr Wilkie's agreement to support Prime Minister Julia Gillard, she has until May 31 to secure an agreement with the states or legislate unilaterally by the 2012 Federal Budget.

New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell this week said he would challenge the changes if forced on his state by Canberra and insisted regulating pokies was not a federal issue.

Mr Wilkie claims the gaming industry is mounting a smear campaign against him that has included death threats and warnings "compromising photos" will be released.

For more on who owns the pokies in Adelaide go to The Advertiser.