The Labor caucus is not behind the reforms that will force gamblers to pre-set the amount of money they're prepared to lose on the pokies, Mr Abbott told Triple M radio on Monday.
"There's only one person in a position of influence who really wants it and that's Julia Gillard because she needs it to stay in government," he said.
"But I don't think the Labor caucus like it. I think if she tries to ram it through, if she's still the prime minister, this could be (the issue) which kills her."
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Labor plans to adopt mandatory pre-commitment systems for high-intensity poker machines by 2014 as part of an agreement with Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie.
Mr Abbott says the shadow cabinet will meet in the coming days and announce a formal position on poker machine reforms "shortly".
"But I don't like it, it's not Liberal party policy," he said.
"... This is taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut, it will be very, very expensive, hundreds of millions of dollars at least to introduce and it's not going to work.
"If you're a problem gambler, you can set your pre-commitment at such a level but you can still gamble enormously.
"And if there aren't pokies, there's the internet."
