A Darwin club's decision to send its 10 pokie machines to the local wrecking yard has sparked overflowing support and even an offer of free explosives from the local community.

"Today has been a storm of interest that I wasn't expecting at all," Darwin Sailing Club manager John Melenewycz said.

The Darwin Sailing Club has gutted its small gaming room of pokies after a six-month process with NT gambling licensing authorities.

The venue had operated its old-style slot machines since at least 1985 but in the past year experienced an internal groundswell of sentiment to remove them.

"We surveyed our 1,000 members last year and asked them about the pokies [being removed]," Mr Melenewycz said.

"Overwhelmingly, people were in support of the idea of using [the gaming room] for something not related to pokies.

"There was nobody out of the 1,000 people who argued to keep them."

Removalists have gutted the Darwin Sailing Club's gaming room of 10 old-school pokie machines. ( Supplied: Darwin Sailing Club )

The decision comes at a time when other Territory clubs and pubs are installing more pokies, following an increase last year by the NT Government to the maximum number of machines that venues can operate.

Last year punters lost more than $80 million in pokies machines installed in Territory pubs and clubs — up 20 per cent on the previous year — with an additional $79.2 million lost at the Territory's two casinos.

The figures came amid ongoing concern from reformed addicts and community groups about the machines being "the crack cocaine of gambling".

Mr Melenewycz said the club's removal decision was not a political statement but management believed they were simply better off aligning the club with its "core mission" of sailing and hospitality.

"Gaming has never really fit into that," he said.

"And given the relatively poor performance of the gaming room, the decision was taken to re-use this space more effectively."

The machines took in about $25,000 last year, however after overheads like staffing, electricity and insurance, the resulting takings were not worth it, Mr Melenewycz said

"We feel we made the right decision for the club but it might not be for other clubs," he said.

The club sent the pokies to the local wrecking yard. ( Supplied: Darwin Sailing Club )

Mr Melenewycz said removing the machines had been an unexpectedly lengthy process involving much "red tape" and this meant it would hold onto its pokies licence for now.

"We were told we could on-sell them, store them, or destroy them," he said.

"After investigating all of our options, the decision was to destroy the machines."

Mr Melenewycz said his phone did not stop ringing for hours on Wednesday after reports about the pokies being removed were widely shared on social media.

"My phone's gone flat twice," he said.

"I've had to recharge twice from all the calls and texts I've had from people interested in what's going on."

He said the most interesting moment came when a Darwin company offered up $1,500 worth of free explosives to blow up one of the pokies.

But unfortunately for The Whitlams, the machines have already been sent to the wrecking yard.

Mr Melenewycz said the now-empty gaming room will perhaps be converted into a sailing memorabilia space or a part-time conference room for hire, to make up for lost gambling revenue.