HELENA -- Butte residents turned out in force Thursday to support a bill that developers said is crucial in creating a $1.8 billion entertainment zone in Butte featuring 10 casinos with wide-open gambling, at least 20 music halls, thousands of hotel rooms and other facilities.

But opponents of House Bill 757 said the bill was being rushed through the Legislature late in the session without a thorough investigation into its potential consequences, just like what happened in 1997 Legislature with electric utility deregulation. The state may pay the price for that haste later, they suggested.

The House Taxation Committee is expected to decide the fate of HB757 today in the first hurdle the bill faces. If the committee approves the bill, it will head to the House floor for debate.

At a four-hour hearing, HB757 supporters told the House Taxation Committee that the bill would breathe new life into an area of the state struggling since the shutdown of copper mining and the breakup of the Montana Power Co. The project is called "Destination Montana."

Besides the 10 casinos, the plan calls for 40 music halls like those in Branson, Mo., featuring stars from the 1960s and 1970s, a theme park, three professional golf courses, six high-altitude sports training centers, a 10,000-seat stadium, 10,000 to 15,000 hotel and motel rooms and a convention center. The project, developers said, would attract five million new tourists a year.

Developers have said the plan would create 10,000 construction jobs with benefits for three years with a $300 million annual payroll and more than 8,000 direct jobs with more than a $200 million annual payroll plus other jobs.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. John Witt, R-Carter, said HB757 doesn't ask for any tax breaks, loans or grants from the state or local government because the developers and investors would put up the money for the project. They need passage of HB757 to authorize the expanded gambling for the casinos, he said.

Witt said the state potentially could gain $376 million every two years in additional revenue from the project, with local governments also receiving $20 per person annually in revenue-sharing from the project.

Butte and Anaconda legislators lined up behind the proposal, as did Butte-Silver Bow Chief Executive Judy Jacobson.

"This is an opportunity to re-energize a community that through the years has given so much to the state and needs some assistance," Sen. Debbie Shea, D-Butte, said as many of the packed chamber of 350 people applauded.

Rep. Brad Newman, D-Butte, rapped his hand three times on the wooden podium and said: "Do you hear that? That's opportunity knocking." He knocked three more times, saying: "That's economic development knocking. Members of the committee, I urge you to answer the door."

Jacobson, a former Butte senator, called the project "a monumental reach by developers who saw Butte through new eyes."

The bill also drew support from labor leaders and construction and building trade associations eyeing the potential projects.

"In Montana, we've been on a death spiral for 25 years," said Jerry Driscoll, a former Billings legislator who now is executive secretary of the Montana AFL-CIO. "We have been saying no to everything. This is a chance to say yes to good-paying jobs."

However, HB757 opponents, including some from Butte, warned of the potential negative impacts of wide-open gambling. Some predicted the approval of HB757 would lead to more crime and social problems, more addicted gamblers and possibility of wide-open gambling expanding across the state. They called for slowing down the bill and taking a closer look at it.

"I don't think our state can gamble itself rich," said Terri Howe of Butte.

Mellda Freeman of Butte warned that passage of HB757 would open a Pandora's box of adverse unintended consequences for the entire state.

Freeman urged caution, saying: "Like the wild trout hungry for a meal, some people in Butte can see the fly floating pretty in the riffle. We need to look more closely to see if there's a hook."

Sue Rolfing of Columbia Falls, a founder of Don't Gamble with the Future, called it "preposterous to expect perhaps the biggest change since statehood to be made with so little time for study and debate." She said Montanans need to learn more about "the anonymous out-of-state investors using out-of-state developers and a team of lobbyists to get Montana to change long-standing public policy."

The proposal has divided the Montana gambling industry. Lobbyists for the Gaming Industry Association and Montana Coin Operators Association didn't take a side on the bill and instead stood up as neutral "informational witnesses," while the lobbyist for the Montana Tavern Association didn't testify at all.

Leaders of Montana's Indian tribes did not testify on the bill. Under federal law, if the state expands legalized gambling, Indian tribes with compacts with the state are entitled to follow suit. Earlier this month, developers offered to build an 11th casino in Butte to be operated by all the tribes, which would divided the profits, if they would agree to forfeit the right to open casinos with wide-open gambling on their reservations.

Rep. Ron Erickson, D-Missoula, asked one of the developers, Barrett Singer of West Palm Beach, Fla., whether the tribes had accepted the deal.

"I have no assurance the offer will be accepted," Singer said.

Rep. Joan Andersen, R-Fromberg, asked Singer what kind of profits would come from Destination Montana.

"We have not been able to specify," Singer said.