If you could sum up in a word the anxieties of those who oppose the possible expansion of the Saratoga Casino & Raceway into the Capital Region's first full-tilt gambling hall, it might be "Pottersville."
You remember Pottersville, the nightmare version of Bedford Falls, upstate home of small-town banker George Bailey in the 1946 holiday classic "It's a Wonderful Life." Given a chance to see what life would be like if he hadn't been born, George (Jimmy Stewart) stumbles through a town where Lionel Barrymore's skinflint tycoon Henry Potter has been unopposed in his most ruthless capitalistic endeavors. In this reality, George's mother runs a shabby rooming house, his dotty Uncle Billy has been committed to an asylum, and his luscious wife Mary (Donna Reed) is the most nervous-looking librarian in the history of the Dewey Decimal System.
I was discussing this with a supporter of the racino's bid to win the region's casino license. "But when you think about it," he said, "doesn't Pottersville have a vibrant downtown?"
He had a point: Although the pawn shops might not be to George's liking, Pottersville's nightlife is jumping, its abundant taverns and dance halls packed to the rafters. Come to think of it, the fact that Ward Bond's Burt the Cop shows up just seconds after desperate George accosts terrified Mary suggests that the Pottersville Police Department has an excellent response time.
Opponents of the development of a resort-style casino in Saratoga would probably pick a darker vision, such as the middle section of the very weird first sequel to "Back to the Future." That's the one where Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) returns from the future to a dislocated "present" in which his hometown's quaint main square has been devoured by a towering casino called Biff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise, presided over by the monstrous bully who seems to pursue McFly through the ages.
You'll forgive me if we've wandered far from Saratoga Springs, but here's my point: When large development projects are proposed, we all turn into the directors of these mental movies — time-warp extrapolations in which a shovel goes in the ground and a few years later everything has gone to hell, or heaven. (This tendency has become even more acute in the debate over hydrofracking, which depending on who you talk to will result in fiery seismic apocalypse or glorious regional economic rebirth.)
Perhaps the best case for an expanded Saratoga casino might be a semi-Hippocratic one: It would do the least harm. The Spa City is, after all, a community whose identity has been bound up in legalized gambling for about a century and a half.
That's why Destination Saratoga, a Raceway-funded advocacy group, is making what might be termed the nativist case for the existing facility: "We are united in our firm belief that a Las Vegas-style casino has no place in Saratoga Springs — or in the Capital Region," said the group's co-chair Dan Hogan earlier this week.
Or, if read in a leathery upstate voice redolent of horseflesh and bourbon: Yessir, what we want is a real Saratoga casino! We don't need those flashy Las Vegas types with their fancy suits and their Cirques du Soleil coming up here to God's country, do we? Hell no! Not when we've got fine local folks like Raceway co-owner James Featherstonhaugh — uh, I mean good ol' "Doc" Featherstonhaugh — sitting out by the porte-cochere greeting his neighbors and inviting them to check out the best dang Pai-Gow poker parlor this side of Macao.
Seductive, for sure, and probably an easier sell to the state than the idea of plunking a new casino on the site of the Tobin First Prize packing plant on the border between Albany and Colonie. That location, which is reportedly of interest to a Rochester-based developer, is currently bordered by Everett Road, a residential neighborhood and the Little League field where my son hit one of his first home runs.
I'm sure they could do a lot to make a resort casino on that land seem unlike Biff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise, but it's going to be more of a lift.
It will also be interesting to ponder what Gov. Andrew Cuomo's approval this week of a scaled-down Albany convention center might mean for casino-siting hydraulics. Could it pull a gaming facility closer to downtown? ("Come for the trade show — and stay for the craps!") Or as County Executive Dan McCoy recently asked, would any image-conscious governor dare to locate a casino within walking distance of the state Capitol?
Other sites will be floated in the weeks and months ahead. Some will be more ridiculous than others.
It's early in this process, but things will start to get serious after the first of the year, when the state Gaming Commission will lay out the rules of the application game.
Merely applying for a license will cost $1 million to pay for the state's background checks. Even if you love gambling, that's not the sort of sum any smart businessman would put on a long shot.
cseiler@timesunion.com • 518-454-5619