TERREBONNE, Quebec (CP) – While Mainers weigh the wisdom of allowing slot machines at harness racing tracks, their neighbors in Quebec seem to have found a way to allow gambling minus the pitfalls of financial losses by unlucky bettors.

Serge Sigouin has set up a business to help himself and other problem gamblers. Housed in a convenience store on a rural highway north of Montreal is Sigouin’s Cafe Mini Casino, a new cashless casino believed to be the first of its kind in Canada.

It started when Sigouin bought his own video slot machine, turned it into a piggy bank of sorts and spent 10 years playing and saving. The countless coins he plunked into the machine helped create the cafe. About 140 problem gamblers, many with their own keys, drop by whenever the mood strikes.

They play one of four video slot machines, or pull up a stool at one of six tables that offer blackjack, poker, roulette or baccarat.

But the only jackpot at this casino comes from the satisfaction players get from knowing their chips and tokens cost them nothing more than the coffee or hamburger on the cafe’s menu.

Maine voters Nov. 4 overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to build a gambling casino in the state, but authorized slot machines at commercial harness racing tracks if voters in the communities where the two tracks are located also OK it.

Proposals to allow slots near Scarborough and Bangor are in the midst of local reviews and await state regulatory scrutiny. The proposed slots are much different than what folks play at the Cafe Mini Casino.

For their $1 cup of coffee, a gambler gets 100 credits for the machines or $100 in chips. Likewise, a $3 hamburger results in 200 credits or $200 in chips.

No other money is spent or won and that’s the way everyone likes it, says Sigouin.

“A gambler is like a baby, you can never take away his toy,” Sigouin said before dealing a few poker hands for the only three customers on a recent weekday morning.

“A gambler will always gamble because it’s a toy for them,” he said.

The person who says they’ve quit gambling, in their head they’ve never really quit. They may have stopped because they ran out of money or didn’t want to self-destruct but if they had the money they would keep going.”

The breaking point for Carol Joly came nine months ago after she had racked up $20,000 in gambling losses.

She tried Gamblers Anonymous but found the program too strict.

“You can’t even bet a coffee just for fun,” Joly said in between poker hands. “It’s black and white. I’m not saying it’s no good, but I didn’t like it.”

Since the cafe opened in June, Joly spends up to 12 hours a day there playing cards and slots.

But unlike her darker days as a problem gambler, she always goes home from the cafe happy.

“I don’t want to bust the machine, I just want to play,” said Joly. “I come here every day, I spend a little money to eat and drink, I have fun and it costs me nothing.”

Sigouin, whose addiction started as a child playing marbles in the schoolyard and progressed to criminal activity to support his habit, said his primary aim is to help addicts, not make money.

But his cafe differs from traditional gambling treatment programs. It embraces a philosophy of playing for fun and truly understanding the odds rather than quitting cold turkey.

“This is a more sincere approach,” said Sigouin. “What can psychologists and psychiatrists say if they’re not gamblers – ‘Stop playing’? That will do what? I say “Come here and learn to play and you’ll see that there is no chance against the machines to make your dreams come true.”‘

While Sigouin readily acknowledges he’s not trying to run an official treatment facility, those experts who are involved in more traditional assistance still question the cafe’s effectiveness in permanently steering gamblers away from real casinos.

“I don’t personally believe in it,” said Claude Bilodeau, a recovering gambling addict who recently founded a treatment center near Montreal.

Bilodeau, who once worked as a male prostitute to pay for his habit, said gamblers must change their behavior by walking away from the games.

“In my opinion it’s still maintaining an illusion,” said Bilodeau. “It could become dangerous because if people feel they’re lucky, it could be an incentive to return to the Montreal casino or video-lottery machines.”

The Claude Bilodeau Centre focuses on rebuilding self-esteem and reintegrating into society with help from doctors, psychologists and fitness trainers.

The Quebec regulatory body that oversees casinos and video lotteries was not aware of Cafe Mini Casino when contacted for comment. Spokesman Rejean Theriault said the agency would investigate to ensure the cafe does not violate provincial regulations governing recreational casinos.

Richard Garlick, a spokesman for the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, said he has never heard of another casino in Canada like Sigouin’s. He said a controlled study would be needed to assess the benefits, if any.

But he said it likely does little to address the underlying problem the person may have with their addiction.

“While they may enjoy gambling for no stakes in this mini-casino, I can’t help but feel that activity would sort of keep their interest alive in gambling and the temptation would be pretty strong to go somewhere and do it for money.”

But Joly said she’s confident that even if Cafe Mini Casino were to close its doors, she would not return to her losing ways.

“It hurt a lot this time,” Joly said of her last crash. “If I cannot play and have fun, I won’t go.”

AP-ES-11-30-03 1302EST