This week's casino debate on Beacon Hill made for some of the wildest political theater in recent memory and state Sen. James Timilty had a front-row seat to the drama.

"I was ringside for the whole thing. I was pretty fired up about the whole issue," he said.

Timilty, D-Walpole, said he was angered over the heavy-handed way the House leadership went about defeating a proposal by Gov. Deval Patrick to license three casinos in Massachusetts.

The senator is a member of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technology, which played the key role in killing the bill.

From Timilty's viewpoint, House leaders were determined from the beginning to block the bill and took some extraordinary steps to do it. "It definitely wasn't a fair and open process," he said. First, he said, House Chairman Daniel Bosley packaged the governor's casino bill with some other unpopular measures into one massive bundle. Timilty and others objected and House leaders found out the move violated parliamentary procedure.

Then, Bosley insisted that the committee vote immediately on the bill the day after a 13-hour public hearing.

Timilty said major pieces of legislation usually are given time for deliberation and changes, but Bosley and House Speaker Sal DiMasi wanted to rush it to a vote to defeat it.Supporters of the governor's bill like Timilty wanted time to make some changes to make it more attractive to legislators.

Timilty said he was pushing a change that would have designated half of the state revenue received from casinos for aid to cities and towns.

That change would have meant an extra $200 million a year for local aid, including $489,000 for his hometown of Walpole. Timilty said the increase would have been much greater for Attleboro.

He said he is convinced earmarking the revenue for local aid would have turned the tide and helped the bill to win.

Then, it appeared the committee was going to vote 9-9-1 on the bill.

Timilty said the House leadership wanted a more decisive defeat for the bill. Rep. Richard Ross, R-Wrentham, later voted against the bill, making the tally 10-8-1 for a negative recommendation.

The vote in committee was crucial because a negative recommendation meant supporters of the bill would not be able to amend it on the House floor.

Timilty said if supporters had gotten the backing of Ross and Rep. Robert Rice - who abstained - the bill would have gotten a positive report from the committee and supporters could have amended it to suit lawmakers. Ross said he changed his position at the urging of Plainridge Racecourse, which supports a separate bill allowing slot machines at race tracks.

But Timilty said the slot machine measure has little chance because it has been soundly defeated in the House before.

"It went down 100-55," he said.

The senator said the casino bill has sat in the Legislature untouched for months, but suddenly there was hearing, a committee vote and a House vote within 72 hours.

"It was an unbelievable three days," he said.

JIM HAND covers politics for The Sun Chronicle. His commentaries appear in this space on Saturdays. Contact him at 508-236-0399 or at jhand@thesunchronicle.com.