Tasmania's Opposition Labor Party is spruiking its anti-pokies policy in regional Tasmania, but is getting a mixed response from those in the country.
The Country Women's Association (CWA) is backing the bold push to ban gaming machines from pubs.
But the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party said the policy "smacks of elitism" and people shouldn't be restricted from leisure activities.
Out on the hustings in Bothwell in the state's Central Highlands, Labor Leader Rebecca White visited a pub which has never had the machines.
She said it showed that pubs can prosper without them, despite a scare campaign from the Government that venues would close down and jobs would be lost.
"There's no doubt the Liberals are running a scare campaign, they're trying to scare people into thinking they'll lose their jobs," she said.
"We've consulted widely, we've got a package to transition, not just the venues but the work force.
"I'm quite confident that the work force engaged in venues that have poker machines will be able to find work."
Bothwell publican Dennis Ball took over the Castle Hotel in 2003, and said he never considered installing poker machines.
The town is home to 400, and the Castle is a favourite watering hole for the region's shearers.
"It never even crossed my mind to put them in, because I thought with the style of hotel it is, they would ruin it," Mr Ball said.
He admits he was terrified when the smoking ban came in, worried it would lose him business.
"But then it had no effect whatsoever," he said.
City pub flags job losses
Treasurer Peter Gutwein also visited a pub, the Marquis in West Hobart, which has 15 poker machines and relies on them for revenue.
Manager Jason Atkins said he would have to lose up to five staff members if Labor's policy came into affect.
"Just looking at the loss of revenue, that's what we'd have to do to start with," Mr Atkins said.
"Venues need to have multiple income streams, it's as simple as that, and business models have been built around that," Mr Gutwein said.
"What Labor's policy does is potentially wipe hundreds of millions of dollars worth of value off pubs and clubs across the state.
"They have taken a naive position, a position that takes the view that Tasmanians can't be responsible in respect of their gaming."
Scrapping pokies 'beyond an insult'
Two groups representing rural Tasmanians are split on the issue of pokies.
Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party candidate Lorraine Bennett said Tasmanians should have the freedom of choice.
"We recognise there are many, many more responsible gamblers out there and they should not be restricted in their access to poker machines, or other gaming platforms for their own enjoyment and leisure," she said.
"For some to suggest that because a few have a gambling addiction on pokies, then all pokies are a curse to all and sundry is beyond an insult.
"Every rational person knows this as the fabrication it is."
CWA president Lindy Cleeland said social disadvantage in areas with pokies was at a level unseen since the depression.
"That's what the pokies rely on, they rely on the fact that for these few minutes you can live in the hope that everything's going to be better, and so people do spend money that they haven't got," she said.
She disagreed that the machines were a form of social entertainment.
"Pokies make people even more isolated than they are," she said.
