North CEO and Managing Director Carl Dilena says the club’s industry-leading stance to not be involved in pokies operations and gambling sponsorship is finally starting to get the public attention it deserves.

North hasn’t had gaming machines since 2008 while Essendon, Hawthorn, Geelong, St Kilda, Richmond, Carlton, Western Bulldogs, Melbourne and Collingwood share about $90 million in pokies revenue each year. It is the only Victorian club that doesn’t rely on any pokies or gambling revenue.

“It’s been a pretty long term stance that we wouldn’t be in pokies,” Dilena told SEN.

“We took a stance not to get back into them at that point and continued on with that.”

“We also signed a charter a few years ago with the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation agreeing not to be involved in gambling sponsorships”

The AFL has come under fire for not doing enough to ‘to change the gambling culture endemic’ within the industry by a leading public health academic employed by the AFL Players Association.

Samantha Thomas told The Age that clubs are doing more than head office.

"There's an ethical tension when you promote your game as being family friendly and then at the same time you're heavily promoting an adult product. We've found that 75 percent of young people we've researched think gambling is a normal part of sport,” Thomas said.

"It's interesting that in clubland the clubs and now the players are moving away from gambling sponsorship and yet at the code level we are not seeing any shift in terms of backing away from sponsorship deals with these companies."

But no one is doing more than North and Dilena said turning away from pokies and gambling sponsorship hasn’t stopped the club from turning a profit. In fact the club has recorded a positive financial result for eight of the past nine years.

“We do a massive amount in the community and we’ve got a separate charity set up which is The Huddle that does a lot with young people and we just thought it was a bit inconsistent with our community values and what we’re trying to do, so there were some strong principles there.

“It certainly creates a good vibe with our sponsors. Our major sponsors are very much aligned with some of the views and values and have been quite open about that.”

North has managed to increase its football department spend and pay down debt from more than $8million in 2008 to a projected $850,000 at the end of 2017.