Under the proposed legislation, individual venues would be given control over EGMs, effectively ending Federal Group's 25-year monopoly on pokies in the state.

Owner of Launceston's Commercial Hotel Garry Laskey said when looking at the draft legislation he was unsure if the benefits of the proposed reform would outweigh the operating costs.

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"Well, looking at what the other states are doing it would be quite beneficial for us to run our own machines and be responsible for our own machines, but we have to be a little bit careful in regards to the guidelines that have been proposed," Mr Laskey said.

He said any increase in revenue needed to be weighed against the potential risks operators would face.

"We'd receive an increase in revenue, but the risk is also heightened. The cost, the actual expenses are quite a bit higher than what they would be now," Mr Laskey said.

Owner of the All Year Round Hotel Matthew Wardrope said the prospect of independently operating EGMs present a level of operational volatility beyond what he was used to.

He said leasing from Federal Group provided a financial safety net that would not exist under the proposed changes.

"The Federal Group has taken a lot of the brunt of the force," he said.

"We had a very volatile beginning of the year where we paid out four of these major jackpots. For a little place like this that's a very volatile sort of run where we've got to cover that amount of money."

Under the current legislation operators who lease EMGs from Federal Group receive technical support and servicing as part of their lease agreement, but this cost would pass to individual venues under the proposed changes.

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Purchasing and maintaining EGMs was a concern expressed by both Mr Laskey and Mr Wardrope.

"All these sorts of things come into a cost factor that's really hard to determine," Mr Laskey said

"The purchase price of the machines for argument's sake and where we get them from, we don't have anybody so we'd have to pay somebody to maintain the machines."

Mr Wardrope said Federal Group was not "the bad guys they have been made out to be".

"Federal Group isn't as bad as what everyone's made it seem, they did cover a lot of cost and the big one is the payouts from the jackpots," he said.

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Mr Wardrope said he may look to reduce his gaming operations in the future.

"We might get more money, but we also lose more money. So depending on the volatility of the machines on how much they payout, you know, it might not always be a good thing that we actually have full control over them."

Mr Laskey said the prospect of covering the full cost on large jackpots was one of his chief concerns.

Under the current agreement with Federal Group, operators were only required to pay 30 percent of any jackpot payout, with Federal Group covering the remaining 70 percent.

"If someone's gonna get a nice jackpot of $400,000 I mean how do you pay that out. It's impossible, you know, it couldn't be done," Mr Laskey said.

Changes to the current legislation also included an amendment to the community support levy, which was intended to address the issue of addiction and problem gambling in the community.

Mr Laskey said the proposed changes could go further and supported a higher levy to address addiction and problem gambling, a cost he believed should be borne by the operators, suppliers and the government.

"I think we could do a lot more on that side of it if we received more revenue," he said.

"Anybody who profits from poker machines should have some part to play in addressing the problems that poker machines create for the community."

However, not all operators shared Mr Laskey's view.

"A lot of money goes into that as it is now," Mr Wardrope said.

"We've got programs and brochures, we've got the numbers to call and all that sort of stuff. I can't see how more money into that area would actually bring about more from it.

"If that was to increase... I mean, if there were more programs available, then yes, but if it was just simply going to the same area I reckon they're doing a lot as it is."

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