LEWISTON – Three years ago, Dick Kendall’s company Chipco, in Raymond, bought technology from a Canadian company to insert radio-frequency sensors inside professional poker chips.

The house could tell in a second if someone letting it ride at roulette was playing with authentic chips rather than fraudulent ones.

Kendall, Chipco’s chairman, said that same Canadian company then sold those same worldwide distribution rights to someone else. Then to someone else again.

The company has spent $150,000 in legal fees, sales have flattened and now Chipco needs help reassuring banks that it’s still a good bet.

“I’d like to leave this room knowing who I should talk to,” Kendall said Thursday during a forum for small business manufacturing hosted by U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe at City Hall.

For two hours, business owners across Maine directed questions to Snowe, Steven Preston, head of the federal Small Business Administration, and Roger Kilmer, director of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

Some bemoaned lack of good labor. Some said they’d gotten costs down, but still needed help to grow.

Snowe said she’d take concerns back to Washington and guaranteed that MEP programs would get funding. (That promise drew lots of “ooohs” and applause.)

In an interview afterward, Preston said a few needs are universal to most small businesses: they want a fair tax structure, a health care system, less regulation.

In Maine, there’s added regional competition from Canada, higher shipping costs to work around and a rural population.

“Manufacturing is essential to Maine’s future,” Preston said. “Small business really is the game in town.”