After all those light-hearted jokes at the St. Patrick's Day breakfast, during which governor Deval Patrick and house speaker Sal DiMasi playfully sparred over the casino issue, Patrick's casino-license proposal got shot down in the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, making Sal DiMasi the winner in this round.

A turncoat was in the mix. A state rep from Wrentham, Richard J. Ross, told Patrick he would vote in favor of the casinos, only to change his mind at the last minute.

The casino debate became so heated and so much about the personalities (Patrick vs. DiMasi) that who knows whether or not casinos would have benefited the state. Was it really about casinos? Or was it about political power? The Globe quoted Deval Patrick on the subject:

"It's disappointing, but not surprising," Patrick said. "The process - given the midnight maneuvers last night, and backing and forthing today - speaks for itself."

Don't think this means casino gambling will go away. The Wampanoag Indian Tribe has blueprints at the ready, and they told WBZ that they want to start building something similar to Mohegan Sun a year from now.