Gambling critics want changes to legislation after a virtual poker machine game available to children became Australia's highest grossing phone application for 2012.

The app called 'Slotomania' requires players of any age to use real money to buy credits for a variety of pokie-style games.

The program is also available on social media websites but is currently exempt from interactive gambling laws because winnings cannot be exchanged for cash.

Experts say children are increasingly accessing the app and want it banned.

Monash University gambling researcher Dr Charles Livingstone says the game and others like it are grooming children to become gamblers.

"They are in a sense preparing kids to find gambling, particularly slot machine or poker machine gambling, an attractive form," he said.

"It's hard for governments to act when these things emerge but I do think that it is an important priority that they act to ensure that young people do not have access to games which mimic existing gambling opportunities and which have the potential to create a whole new generation of gambling-dependent young folk."

Senator Nick Xenophon will introduce a private members bill to Federal Parliament that would ban the games by having them reclassified.

Senator Xenophon says a legal loophole means the games are not considered as real gambling because money cannot be won, only lost.

"It's absurd to say that these online poker machine games aren't gambling services just because you can't take winnings out. If you can lose real money playing online pokies, surely that should be covered," he said.

"Right now there are kids across the country who are losing real money playing online poker machines.

"It's that easy access through an app, through a mobile phone that turns your mobile phone into a virtual casino.

"This clearly is something that targets kids. It's something that kids can lose real money on and it actually is educating kids on how to lose money on real poker machines down the track."

The Federal Government is currently considering the recommendations of a report into online gambling laws.