State Rep. Richard Ross Thursday vehemently denied he caved in to pressure from House Speaker Sal DiMasi when he changed his position on casino gambling.

"There was no pressure and nothing promised," he said.

DiMasi scored a major victory Thursday as the House voted 106-46 to send Gov. Deval Patrick's bill calling for the licensing of three casinos back to committee for further study, effectively killing it.

While the House vote was all but a forgone conclusion, a vote in the Joint Economic Development and Emerging Technology Committee the day before was full of intrigue.

Ross, R-Wrentham, was the deciding vote in the committee's decision to recommend that the bill be defeated. He acknowledged that he changed his position on the bill and met with DiMasi while a committee vote was being delayed, but said no promises or threats were made at the meeting.

"What could he give me, I'm a Republican?" he said.

He said he has not requested any special funding or projects for his district this year so there is nothing the speaker can do to help him.

Ross also denied published reports that he had promised the governor that he would vote for the casino bill in committee.

He said he only told the governor's staff that he was leaning in favor of the bill. He said he changed his mind after hearing from Gary Piontkowski, head of Plainridge Racecourse, which is located in Ross's district.

Piontkowski said he lobbied Ross to vote against the casino proposal because he believes Plainridge has a better chance of being approved for slot machines through a separate bill dealing only with race tracks.

Piontkowski said he knew the governor's casino bill was going down to defeat and he did not want to be connected to it.

"I didn't want to be allied with the Titanic," he said.

A separate bill calling only for slot machines at race tracks rather than full-fledge casinos might relieve concerns by DiMasi and others about creating a "culture of gambling," he said.

Ross said he was told that if the casino bill was defeated, the speaker would allow a vote on slot machines at race tracks. The Boston media reported that DiMasi denied making any promise on a slot machine bill. Asked about the discrepancy, Ross said he walked over to DiMasi while speaking to The Sun Chronicle by cell phone and DiMasi confirmed the slot machine bill would come up for a vote.

Those seemingly conflicting statements were just one of several confusing reports coming out of the Statehouse over the conduct of the economic development committee.

The Boston media reported that the committee was deadlocked 9-9 on the governor's bill Wednesday until DiMasi arranged a four hour delay and lobbied Ross. The committee then voted 10-8 to recommend defeat with Ross casting the deciding vote.

Ross said there was no prior vote.

The Senate and House chairman then issued a joint statement in response to an inquiry by The Sun Chronicle.

Rep. Daniel Bosley, D-North Adams, and Sen. John Hart, D-Boston, said the four hour delay was due to technical questions about the voting process and there was only one vote.

Ross also said he was originally in favor of bringing the governor's casino bill to the floor before talking to Piontkowski because up until then he did not realize his "constituents" were opposed to the measure until Wednesday.

He said the race track is an important business in his district and he also heard from a couple of Plainville town officials.

This is the second time Ross has changed his position on a high-profile issue.

Last year he switched from being in favor of a ban on gay marriage to opposed after he said he talked to gay couples and searched his conscience.