Millions of dollars in pokie proceeds are sitting in the bank and not being distributed as community grants due to legal changes pushed through because of the pandemic.
Societies that collect the revenue must pay out at least 40 percent, but that threshold was scrapped by the government in July as their revenue stream came to a grinding halt during the lockdown.
The societies say they would have gone under without the changes, but others say the cash reserves they have built up shouldn't be held onto.
Emma Hatton reports.