Tatts claims it is entitled to compensation if its licence is not renewed beyond 2012. In 2011-12 pokies earnings accounted for 36 per cent of Tatts’ EBITDA, and 39 per cent of Tabcorp’s EBITDA. Following more than a year of case management and legal jostling over whether particular documents could be submitted as evidence, the action will begin in the Victorian Supreme Court on Monday.

In response Tatts and Tabcorp sued the state government for compensation, of $491 million and $687 million respectively. The break-up of the duopoly hurt both companies, which were heavily reliant on pokies earnings.

Tatts and Tabcorp operated Victoria’s 25,000 pokies outside of Crown Resort’s Melbourne casino until August 2012 when a reform by the previous Labor government to transfer the management of the pokies to individual pubs and clubs came into play. As gambling giants Tatts and Tabcorp begin their $1.2 billion court action against the Victorian government over the loss of poker machine licences, Tatts chief executive Robbie Cooke has lamented that the dispute could not be settled out of court.

Pokies long