Canberra clubs are pushing ahead with a local campaign against proposed poker machine(clay poker chip) legislation amid huge spending cuts to nationwide advertising.

Clubs Australia has scaled back its $20 million campaign against reforms proposed by federal politicians Andrew Wilkie and Nick Xenophon, who are pushing for pre-commitment technology to be fitted to every poker machine. The budget for the nationwide media blitz is now estimated at $ 2million.

ClubsACT chief executive Jeff House said changes to the national campaign would not affect local action. ''They are separate campaigns and we are proceeding with ours,'' he said.

Mr House said the campaign, launched later this month, would focus on the positive role of clubs in the ACT. ''It's a very positive campaign and it's reinforcing the message that clubs do a lot of good in the Canberra community,'' he said.

The Canberra-based campaign will include advertising through print, radio and television media and is expected to cost in excess of $100,000. ''It'll be six figures, but we don't know a final figure at the moment,'' Mr House said.

The campaign will run alongside the national push by Clubs Australia, whose spokesman, Jeremy Bath, said the $18million cut in spending did not represent a step back in the nationwide campaign. ''We're certainly not backing down,'' he said.

''If you don't include the television advertising component, the campaign will be in the vicinity of $2million.''

Mr Bath said the decision not to use television advertising was made before the campaign started due the large amount of news coverage expected.

The nationwide blitz instead features print advertising and billboards, with a radio campaign beginning next month.

The It's UnAustralian campaign has prompted a counter campaign by GetUp!, featuring a petition in favour of the proposed reforms.