In the little town of Weston, W.Va., Mayor Jon Tucci thinks the vacant insane asylum can be turned into a $300 million casino-hotel.

Gambling opponents think he is mad.

They contend that the casino plan is unrealistic and illegal. So they will march into court Wednesday and ask a Lewis County judge to throw the casino referendum off the Nov. 2 ballot.

Tucci favors the proposed casino because he believes it would create as many as 600 jobs and make Weston, population 4,300, home of the only full-fledged gambling operation in West Virginia.

The state already has 13,000 slot machines at racetracks and bars, but none offer table games, which might draw gamblers from Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

Poker, blackjack, roulette, baccarat and slot machines would be played in what once was Weston State Hospital, 130 miles south of Pittsburgh. The hospital is 124 years old and has been empty for a decade.

Tucci and a handful of others in government think a renovated asylum could attract moneyed gamblers.

"Personally, I see the economic benefits of the idea," Weston City Manager Dan Minney said.

What Minney has not seen are the financing and business plans put together by the casino developers, brothers Lowell and Linn Davis and their sons. They call themselves the Mountaineer Group, and say they can turn the asylum and its 39-acre campus into a resort with a hotel, golf course and casino.

West Virginia's state government gave the Mountaineer Group an option on the property for a $25,000 down payment. But the state has yet to decide whether to sell the developers its old mental hospital, which once housed 1,800 patients and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Opponents say the casino plan amounts to economic fantasy. They doubt that the developers can obtain enough money to renovate the building within the strict guidelines of the historic registry.

"At best, this plan is far-fetched," said Mike Queen, a public relations man hired by the Lewis County Coalition Against Gambling Expansion.

Members of the Mountaineer Group did not respond to interview requests. They need approval from Lewis County voters to proceed with their casino, but have said little during the campaign season.

The Lewis County commissioners put the gambling issue on the ballot, so the developers are leaving it to the county attorney to defend the proposal in court.

Even if the Davises had the business acumen to do the project, opponents say, West Virginia law bars tinkering with the asylum.

The statute permitting counties to legalize full-blown casinos says any potential site must be "a well-established resort hotel having no fewer than 500 guest rooms."

This law was created with one place in mind -- Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs.

Greenbrier contains a once-secret bunker that was supposed to house members of Congress if the United States came under nuclear attack. This hideaway for important politicians and their families was built during the 1950s, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president and fears of an invasion ran high.

West Virginia legislators crafted the gambling bill in hopes of giving Greenbrier new life as a casino. But Greenbrier County voters decided against it, rejecting the gambling proposal four years ago.

Now gambling proponents in Lewis County want to use the same statute to legalize a casino at the former psychiatric hospital.

County administrator Craig Presar said many of Lewis County's 6,900 residents demanded a vote on the idea. The commissioners complied with the majority's will, he said.

Opponents contend that this case boils down to principle.

"The uses for the old hospital, under the guidelines established by the National Register of Historic Places, are very limited," said Barry Bruce, a lawyer representing the coalition against gambling expansion. "For this reason alone, my clients contend that the old hospital cannot be used for a casino."

Presar said the developers had tried to gain support by promising jobs, first in construction, then at the resort itself.

"Personally, I would like to see a resort go in," Presar said. "I'm not a gambler, so the casino part does not excite me."

The coalition opposing the casino said it would hurt the economy, trapping every dollar within its walls to the detriment of Lewis County's shops and restaurants.

"To me, they take food off the table," he said.

But, Minney said, he likes the idea of a gambling resort that could attract tourists.

Come Wednesday, the case will be in the hands of Circuit Court Judge Thomas Keadle, who must decide whether an old asylum can become a new casino.