 Okay Eric Demis Haskell Kennedy, Jr. Haskell Kennedy, Jr. I think. Oh, there you are. Sean Cronin. Yes, I'm here. Bruce Stevens. Here. John Robertson. Here. Ron Hogan. Yep. And Jennifer Bonfiglio. Here. All right. Given the unprecedented circumstances resulting from the global coronavirus pandemic, Governor Charles Baker issued an order to provide limited relief from certain provisions of the open meeting lot to protect the health and safety of individuals interested in attending public meetings. In keeping with the guidance provided, the commission will conduct a public meeting utilizing remote collaboration technology. Any votes will be taken by a roll call. This meeting is being recorded. And over to you, Commissioner. Great. Thanks, Tonya. Thanks everybody for your time and in your continued support and involvement with the commission. We greatly appreciate everybody's timing commitment to the workforce to the work of the subcommittee. We'll jump right into it. We'll move on to item number two on the agenda, which is discussion of the 2021 Community Mitigation Fund guidelines. And with that, I will turn it over to Mr. Delaney. Thanks, Bruce. So just a quick update on the guidelines as of last Thursday, the commission voted the guidelines. So we will go out. Our solicitation actually starts today. Mary was working all morning to get all the documents up online and on combines and so on. But just as part of the process, you know, we opened the guidelines up for public comment. We did receive one set of comments from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. You know, we reviewed those and they were mostly dealing with issues regarding the workforce grants that we do. And actually in looking at the comments, we really allow they were asking for a few things to be allowed under the guidelines, which we really already do. So we so we just tweak the guidelines just a little bit just to make it clear that those items were eligible. And so we made that minor change brought it to the commission and they voted them, as I said, last Thursday. So the next steps going forward on this as you may remember from our discussions earlier on the guidelines as we have a number of communities that still have the reserves out that were given out back in 2015 and 2016. And the guidelines gave all of those communities until the end of 2021 calendar year 2021 to get those funds committed. So actually in the next day or two, hopefully before Thanksgiving, we're going to get a letter out to all of those communities, notifying them of that, but also to set up a workshop with those folks on December 15. We talk about what are some of the ways that they can use that money and, and, and, you know, try to get people to start thinking about it. And obviously, if people can't make that meeting, we'll be happy to meet them separately to discuss some of these things as well. And then otherwise, in the first week of January, we are scheduling two more sort of public workshops on this one for the workforce development grants what we really want those folks to do, you know, Jill Griffin is working on coming up with a list of folks to invite to that. I mean, we have all the people that have gotten grants from us before that we're going to go out to what there was. There were some other groups that are out there that might want to avail themselves of grants and maybe want to partner with some of the other groups that have come in before. So there's that one and then we're going to have sort of a general workshop for all of the other grant applications. Most of the other applications are pretty similar in nature. We're asking for the same types of information, even though they, you know, they go between, you know, some of the transportation, some of the specific impact. They all deal with the same kinds of things. And again, we want to just, you know, sort of stress to folks what they need to do to do a good application and give them some things to think about when they are pulling together their applications. You know, I think as we said last year we had some difficulty with some of the applications being a little bit less fulsome than they might have otherwise been. And then also one of the things that we talked about before is that we that with the sheriff's office in Hanning County, you know, we have been giving them money each year for lease assistance at the Western Mass Alcohol Correction Center. The commission decided as was recommended by our local Community Mitigation Advisory Committees and this subcommittee, not to sort of earmark money for the sheriff's office, but to make them certainly eligible, certainly eligible to apply for a grant, but we would simply treat them as we do any other applicant. So the other thing that I do want to do is get a letter out to them just to let them know of that decision just so they're not sort of blindsided by it at all, just to be fully up front with them that, you know, they're certainly eligible, they can certainly come in, but we're not going to sort of give them special treat. With that, I think that's it. Bruce, did I miss anything on that? I don't think so. We open it up for any any questions. Obviously, everybody's seen the guidelines. You're all familiar with them as Joe pointed out there. We had a set of comments from MAPC and felt that those were adequately adequately addressed in the guidelines, but any questions for Joe about the best practices sessions or the or the final approved guidelines or the time. Just to just to reiterate Joe's point in the commission talked about this the other day is that you know these best practices sessions we really are hope will give every community applying for a grant a better chance of success and really helping them be clear and understanding what the commission is looking for when we review applications and again we want we don't want communities to spin their wheels, but we want them to be able to come in with a good solid application if they feel there is is an impact or a positive planning grant that they should be applying for. Any other questions? If not, we can move on to the next item on the agenda. Okay. I believe as a result of our last meeting, many of you were curious or interested in what the impact of the COVID operating guidelines have had on our licensees. We're very happy to have Jackie Crum who represents on core Boston Harbor join us today and to give an impact there were an update as to how COVID and some of the guidelines that that they've worked very well with the commission to institute have had on the business. But with that, I thought I saw Jackie up there. She's here with us. I'd like to introduce Jackie Crum from on core Boston Harbor. Thank you, Commissioner Sevens. How are you? So I apologize. Is this maybe a little bit duplicative? I think you heard sort of the same speech last week, but for the benefit of the committee, I apologize to you and I'll go through the the spill again. So good morning, everybody. All good afternoon. I should say and thank you for having us here. Since we last met a couple of updates. As you all know, we temporarily seized operations on March 15 of 2020 and reopened to the general public on July 12. As you can imagine, this was a pretty difficult process for us because we have a building that was designed to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In fact, most of our exterior doors do not even have locks. So we had to figure out how to keep it closed and safe during that period. We had a very limited number of staff members on during that period, mostly facilities and security just to make sure that the asset was protected during the closure. Following reopening, we had a very successful reopening. We were essentially following three lines of guidance. One was the initial phase three opening of gaming establishments that was the minimum requirements for reopening that the Gaming Commission adopted. The second is we also had to follow all the sector specific reopening requirements that the Commonwealth promulgated. So that pertained to, for instance, our restaurants, hotel, fitness center, office space, retail facilities, private gatherings, and close contact personal services such as the spa. So we fell into category, sorry, phase three of that reopening, even though some of our other amenities fell into earlier phases. And then the third thing was we we adopted and developed our own health and Senate sanitation program, which was submitted to the MGC for approval. And this was a very detailed plan of all the measures that we put in place to keep our guests employees in the community at large safe. We developed it in consultation with public health medical professionals and fellows of Georgetown and Johns Hopkins universities. So those were the three things that we did. And as I said, we had a very successful opening reopening in July. As you all know, earlier this month, the governor instituted a further order that restrict businesses, certain businesses from operating from 10pm until 5am. As a result of that, we have changed our operating times from 9am to 9pm for the casino. We were not able to continue to operate the hotel at the current time under these restrictions. So we did have to close the hotel, and we've also curtailed the restaurant offerings. That's had a significant impact on our employee base. It impacted approximately another 1000 employees. So, you know, we're, we're, we're adapting, we're continuing to do what's required of us. Our employees have been incredibly adaptable. The gaming commission has been incredibly helpful to us in terms of instituting these new procedures. I think the main challenges we're having is particularly at the beginning enforcing mask wearing, and I think the guidance has changed on that since we reopened. So I think it's much more prevalent now that everybody knows that they have to wear a mask. When we first opened that wasn't necessarily the case. And so we had ambassadors who went around and constantly told people to pick up their masks. The social distancing, we're getting better at it, better at it with practice. Our main issue is that we have only elevators, no stairwells that lead from the casino, from the hotel and casino into the garage. So everybody needs to enter and exit, unless you're coming in through the front doors, through the elevator banks. That was a challenge. We finally, we finally got the hang of that. And now with a new restriction of having to clear out the building by, you know, 9pm every night. What we've done is we've opened the emergency exits on the stairwells so that we can get people out and into the garage in a quick, very quickly. The final challenge I think was the commission wanted to make sure that if anyone was drinking on the casino floor that they were seated at all times. We have plexiglass between a lot of the slot machines and between on every single table, every position is surrounded by plexiglass plexiglass. So that was definitely an education portion for our guests to understand. You know, they were used to sitting down on one machine having a cocktail being able to pick it up and move it to another machine. So I think, again, we, it took a while, but we finally got people to understand that they needed to remain seated and finish their beverage before they move to another machine. So I think that brings us up to date. I'm certainly available for any questions you may have. Open it up to anybody who has questions for Jackie about operations. Obviously, we're just talking about Encore Boston Harbor, but Jackie was kind enough to come on and kind of share an update as to what's going on at the property. Jackie, I have a question. Obviously, you guys operate between here and Nevada. But are you following what other jurisdictions are doing with respect to gaming operations and how Massachusetts might differ in some of those respects? Yeah, we're keeping, we're looking at that. I mean, it's no secret that our competitors in Connecticut do not have the same restrictions. And we are seeing that some of our customers because of the 9pm closing time are going back to Mohegan Center, Foxwood. So we're following their regulations quite closely. We're also watching what they're doing in New York as you may be aware, New York implemented a very similar sort of, we won't call it a curfew, but a stay at home between 10am and 5am. They've interpreted a little bit differently in New York. They've said that gaming can continue up until that 10pm mark and then shut down. So we're looking at things constantly in the different jurisdictions. Look, we're very pleased to be able to stay open. We realize this is a trying time for everybody. We're working very closely with the City of Everett, so we know their numbers are climbing. You know, we're trying to be a good community partner as well as maintain the business and obviously the jobs for employees. Thanks. Is there anybody else on the line that has any questions for, for Jackie about operations at Encore Boston Harbor? I'm hearing none. Jackie, thank you as always for your time. Greatly appreciate it. Of course, thank you for having me. I wish you and the team at Encore Boston Harbor a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. To you too. All of you. We'll quickly move on to item number four. A number of you had, you've been great about expressing interest in the different facets and operations of the gaming commission. One of those which should deserves attention is the great work that our team does regulating horse racing in Massachusetts. So we wanted to bring on our director of racing, Dr. Alex Lightbaum, as well as her colleague Chad Bork. Chad tracks all of the financial reporting that come through horse racing. Alex is obviously the point person when it comes to making sure that Plain Ridge Park as well as our other simulcasting locations continue to follow the regulations. Obviously this has been a unique year. But I know Alex is joining us and I invite her to give us an update on horse racing. The season is winding down this week. And then we'll invite Chad to talk a little bit in share a chart. I believe that shows how the money flows, not only to the state, but back to local host community. So Alex, if I can introduce you, I saw you on the screen. So welcome and thanks for your time. I know you're probably down at the track today. I am. Thank you, Commissioner. And good afternoon to everybody. Yeah, today we're down at Plain Ridge. They have live racing until Friday and then the season's over. Their season was delayed with the opening. We were just starting to get our season up and running when the COVID hit. As a matter of fact, we had a bunch of restarting items on the commission agenda and the agenda got stopped halfway through the day due to COVID. But we were very happy that we were able to open later in the summer and get a good meet off and get the purse money out to the horsemen. And that money, it doesn't just go to folks at the racetrack, but it triples down across the state to people that run tax scores, the farriers, the people who grow hay, and all different veterinarians. So the money gets spread out, not just at the racetrack, but all over the state. So we're very happy that we were able to get a good meet in. Right now in Massachusetts, there's only live racing at Plain Ridge and on a normal year they do 110 days of live racing. They also have simulcasting and account wagering and Suffolk Downs and Rainham have just simulcasting and account wagering at this point. Simulcasting takes place at the racetracks and allows people to place bets on races that are out of state. So you could go to Plain Ridge and place a bet on a race in Kentucky, something like that. Account wagering is also legal in Massachusetts and has been for quite a while. It's basically online betting. You can bet from your phone, your laptop. And this actually was a very fortunate thing for racing this year. During the shutdown, the account wagering was able to still continue because that did not involve any person in-person contact. So people could sit at their home and continue to bet. And later on, Kat can give you some figures on how, especially with the shutdown of almost all other types of gaming, we really did benefit from that and that money goes to pay the Gaming Commission's racing division expenses. And it also goes into purse accounts and obviously to the tracks to help pay for their employees. So we were fortunate in the face of COVID to still have that kind of a stream of money coming in. The division of racing has just three full-time positions right now. Myself, the director of racing, and I'm also the chief veterinarian. We have Chad Bork who's our senior financial analyst and he's in charge of reconciling all the different numbers that come in and making sure that billings go out in that type. And we also have a full-time licensing coordinator. For licensing, we usually license around 1,000 people each year at Plain Ridge and when Suffolk was racing, we would do the same there. There's about 15 different categories of licensees from rooms to trainers, owners, racing officials, and paramutral court of security. So as you can see, there's a lot of different types of jobs at the racetracks themselves. There's almost a position for anyone who is interested in racing. The division of racing has several different sections of the employees. We have judges, so every race is observed by our judges. If a driver cuts off another driver or there's a photo finish or anything like that, they make during racing decisions. They're also in charge of holding hearings if there's a drug positive or anything along those lines. We have a good veterinary staff. We test the winner of every race and at least one other horse post-race and then we also do pre-race testing. Again, we have a licensing personnel and basically anybody who has contact with the horses or with the money needs a license from us. And that gives us the ability to control who has access to the money and to the animals for regulatory purposes. We have a test barn coordinator who is in charge of keeping all the paperwork for our drug testing. And then we have veterinary assistants who take the samples, the urine samples from the horses, and they assist the veterinarians with the blood draws. And they also observe the administration of Lasix, which is the only medication a drug horse can receive on race day. So we have a nice staff. These people are seasonal and for the most part they come back year to year. They really enjoy the racing. We also have several state police that are primarily assigned to racing. And again, several of them have been with us for a number of years, so they get to know the business and are helpful on any investigations that we have. Let's see. We have a lot of regulations and protocols. We're very heavy on that as a good way to regulate the industry. I mentioned the judges before if a trainer gets a judgment against them that the judges rule. If they want to appeal that they can and they appeal it to the hearing officer. Once the hearing officer has ruled, if the person wants to appeal their ruling, they can appeal that to the gaming commission. And then once the gaming commission has ruled, if they aren't satisfied with that, they could go to the courts. So there's a very extensive appeal process there to protect everybody's rights. And it also, there's a lot of protocols that go along with that. As was mentioned earlier about COVID, that was a challenge for us this year. We had to come up with protocols not only for the live racing, but also for the simulcast facilities. So we ended up with several different protocols that we worked with the horsemen with the different tracks to come up with protocols that we thought would work. We were fortunate with Plain Ridge because their director of racing covers many different race tracks across the country. So they had already been working on some protocols in other states and had an idea on what was working and what wasn't. The interesting thing with the COVID, with the six feet in distancing, live horse racing, that works out. It's almost inherent that you have to do it because if you have a horse, you don't want to be closer than six feet necessarily to the person handling them and risk getting kicked or whatever. So some of the protocols we actually kind of used the horse as a plexiglass shield. Instead of the shield, we could use the horse. So for instance, one of the protocols was when the vets drying the blood on one side of the horse, the handler stands on the other side. So we were able to take some of these protocols that everybody may be very familiar with in general and tweak them so it would work with the horses. One thing was pens and this kind of sounds, they sound a little silly to people, but we asked the trainers to each bring their own pens. We have three or four different protocols for different things where the trainers have to sign off on like the evidence cards, on the sample cards when the horses are treated with the way six. And we figured that between the different programs that we have each day, we would have been disinfecting over 100 pens. And we just thought, you know, it'd be safer if we didn't have to worry about that. I'm sure you all have been places where they have one cup with clean pens and one cup for to put people's used pens in. We just asked everybody to bring their own pen. We also did get numerous inexpensive pens. So if somebody forgot to bring a pen, we just gave them one and they could use that. Again, most of the, with the simulcasting, most of those protocols are very similar to what might have been done at the gaming establishments at the casinos. Things about moving tables further apart, making sure people are walking around with their drinks, with their masks down and that type of thing. One thing that the commission was able to do, Plain Ridge asked to use these walkabout devices. And it's basically a mobile apparatus where you can move it around and people can place their bets through that with a peri-mutual clerk. So you still place it with a live person, but you don't have to actually go into the building. And so their idea for one of the big race days when they expected a lot of traffic was to have these set up in the parking lot. One of the parking lots that wasn't being used and people could drive through and do drive through bedding. So we did a lot of research into that and presented it to the commission and the commissioners approved the use for that day. And it was successful. Instead of a lot of people trying to get in and get out to place their bets, people were able to sit in their cars and drive through and get their bets in that way. And it limited the number of people who wanted to actually get into the building and it were able to get their bets in. And again, that's just recognizing the clientele and realizing that there are going to be people who want to come in and be there for the entire day. So those people were able to be accommodated. Obviously they had reductions on the number of people who could be in the building, but those people could come in. And the facility didn't have to worry about other people who just wanted to come in, place a bet, and then leave and maybe go home and watch the race at home on the TV. So again, that was kind of thinking outside the box and coming up with a solution that worked for everybody. Where we do a lot of different steps to be sure we're taking care of the horses. There's three different basically kinds of veterinarians. We have a track veterinarian that's employed by Plainridge that observes all the horses on race day to make sure they're fit and sound to race. And then we have our commissioned vets who are doing the drug testing and then the ones that are doing the blood gas testing. We follow what's called the Association of Racing Commissioners International. It's an international group of all the commissioned and they come up with model rules and suggested regulations. And one of the things is having a accredited laboratory. So when we came over to the Gaming Commission, we started contracting out our lab work. They have to be what's called RMTC certified, which is the racing medication and testing consortium. So they have their own certification process as well as study the in compliance with the international organization of standardization. So there's a definite, that's been an upgrade to our process as far as having a laboratory with all these different certifications. Let's see. On the thoroughbred end of it right now, obviously Suffolk isn't racing anymore. There are a couple of groups that are kind of exploring trying to open a new track. One of them is out in Sturbridge and another one's in Wareham. And as you can imagine any big project, there's a lot of different steps involved. But we are happy that places are people and horsemen are still looking at the possibility of maybe getting thoroughbred racing up and going again. You know, one of the big benefits to horse racing off the track is the farms that are out in Massachusetts. I know where I live, there's a thoroughbred farm 10 minutes into the east of me and there's a harness track 10 minutes to the west of me. So these farms are definitely out there and you know, keeping the open space is important. I'll talk just briefly on the standard bedside, there's been a big increase in the number of horses that are being bred, which has been a very encouraging program. They've tripled the number of foals born each year. They have probably around 45 different farms around the state that are breeding horses. And if you look at the map that they have, it's all over, it's north, it's south, it's east, it's west. So numerous communities within the state are affected by this, which is great. Commissioner Stebbins, is there anything else you think I should add? No, I just very familiar with the racing and often comes down to the tracks to see what's going on. And when we have people in to meet with us on the different proposals, he's almost always one of the commissioners that's involved first with us. Well, thanks, Alex. No, I think you gave a great overview to the great work that you and your team do. I would pause and give the folks at Plain Ridge Park tip of the cap this year. I think they've made a strong effort to write as many race cards as possible to benefit Massachusetts-based owners and trainers and drivers. Really trying to keep that money, as Alex said, from the Racehorse Development Fund, trying to keep it local. You know, one thing that we're always challenged by is the fact that the old racing and simulcasting statutes, which were really written and formulated for an era that's kind of bygone, really have needed some updating and continue to sunset and we get an extension of the sunset. Right now, I think those statutes have been extended through July 31 of next year. You know, there really are some changes, which Alex said we have a lot of interest in reinvigorating and restarting a thoroughbred track. And some of the updates that need to be made to those statutes could really benefit somebody looking to bring thoroughbred racing back to the Commonwealth. So we continue to work with our partners in the legislature, try to offer them some legislative proposals that would allow racing to continue to be competitive and make the best use out of simulcasting and also out of the use of the Racehorse Development Fund monies. I'll open it up though. If anybody has any questions for Alex about racing, I'll be happy to entertain those at this point if anybody had any questions. Alex, this is, this is Joe, I just, I had a question for you on some of these proposals for thoroughbred tracks. Do you think that these have any real chance of moving forward absent them getting some kind of other gaming along with it? I know that Wareham project proposes, you know, slots with it. I don't think the Sturbridge one is really, I think they were proposing a sports book with it. But do you think abs, you know, as a standalone thoroughbred track that there's really good, any good chance that that could succeed? I know the Sturbridge proposal has said that if they didn't get any added sports book or things like that, they would still be interested in going forward. They did say that if other places are getting it, that they might be at a disadvantage not having it. So, you know, that that was how they were looking at it was that it might be at a disadvantage. With the resource development fund purse money, there is an advantage in that they don't have to be as concerned about generating the money for purses from the handle, because they can get an input from the resource development fund. And clearly, the most of these proposal, well, if they're looking for sports betting or like the Wareham project, if they're actually going to try to be a slots parlor, that would obviously take legislation. So that's probably the first hurdle is trying to get any legislation done. Right. Thanks. Anybody else for questions for Alex? If you were looking for seasonal employment, wanting to learn how to be a judge, you can certainly take your calls in another time, but just kudos to Alex and her team, especially down in Plain Ridge. Like everywhere else, it's been a trying year and trying to make sure that the horsemen, the day ship ins for racing, we're doing it in a safe fashion. I know Alex, like we heard the team over at Encore Boston Harbor had to walk around doing a lot of reminding of people to pull their mask up. So, but we also had great, great cooperation from the harness horseman's association, as well as the team at at Plain Ridge Park. If there are no questions for Alex, Alex, I'll invite you to go ahead and introduce the incredible Chad Bork from your team. So Chad is our senior financial analyst. And as you can imagine, with all these betting dollars coming in and going out again for different functions, it all has to be kept track of. So that is Chad's main job, among other things is keeping track of where all the all the money that's coming in and all the money that's going out. And reconciling it and making sure that the different payments that these monies are going to that it does go through. So now I'll introduce Chad. Thanks Alex. Thanks Bruce and good afternoon everyone. As Alex stated, I'm the financial analyst in the racing division. And I guess to dumb it down a little bit. Basically, I would say my main function is to gather all the racing activity that happens throughout the month on a quarter annual basis. And we use that, you know, for monthly billings, any ad hoc or annual quarterly financial reporting, and then also to tabulate and distribute funds out of some of the trust funds. One of the responsibilities that I also do is for local aid. And what local aid is is basically where funds take where racing activities take place. There is some aid to that to that town where where the licensees are so we thought it'd be a good idea to kind of go over that a little bit and show you, you know, how the process works. And how the money flows. And then just say a quick note about how, you know, the COVID restrictions or guidelines have had an effect on on our department this year, racing overall. So I am going to attempt to share my screen. Let's do. Can you see that. We can. Yes. Okay. All right. So let me let me start here. Okay. So I created I'll just show you real quick so this one will just go over basically all the the actual process and then the second page I've provided an example of a quarterly local aid calculation. And then lastly, we'll use this to go over the activity this year versus last year. So the way that that local aid works. Again, it's payable to each city in town where racing is conducted. So we have plain reach park casino, and the town for them is plain bill. We also have Suffolk Downs, which is no longer conducting live racing as you know, and, but they do still have a pretty healthy simulcast. The simulcast and account deposit wagering footprint along with Wonderland and random park. So what I do is on a quarterly basis, what I'll do is I will take all the live simulcast and export handles and handles are basically just another term for all the wagers that were done. And it's based on racing activity during the quarter so the three months but it's a look back six months prior. And again, all these wagers are are are placed either at the track. They're done for live racing. They're done for, you know, the breeder's cup. There's races in Australia and Japan so it's really an international system here and the AWS allow for, you know, patrons in the United States to go ahead and wager on that. So once all the activity is calculated. What we do is we then multiply all that by point zero zero three five. And then each of those will have their payout amount. So obviously Plain Ridge Park goes to the town of Plainville. Suffolk Downs and Wonderland do a split. So two thirds of that calculation goes to the city of Boston and the other third goes to Revere. And then random park goes to the town of random. So here's a little snapshot of an actual paid payout from March 31 of this year. So if we look over on the left hand the Excel spreadsheet, as you'll see, we tally up all the wagers that are done with our licensees for those three months, and then we total them up. And we do the multiplication and then payout. So if we look at Plain Ridge Park, so, so for that period. At the track, there was a, you know, they wager close to seven and a half million in candle. And then they also have their own account deposit wagering account, and that accounted for 1.1 million. And then exports, which is basically other people in other jurisdictions, wagering on the actual races that Plain Ridge is, Plain Ridge is actually putting on. So that was actually a pretty good month for them. So outside of Plain Ridge Park Casino, 6.6 million was wagered. So once you tally all that up, the final number was the little north of 15 million, and you do your multiplication. And the local aid comes out to that number, the 53,114.58. And then what I'll do is I'll package all this together with the backup, bring it in front of Bruce and the other commissioners, and it goes up for vote. They look at it and, you know, make sure all my calculations are correct and all the guidelines are being followed. And then they, if they do approve, which I haven't yet. So that's where they haven't approved. So that's a good thing. We'll go ahead and then disperse the funds out to out to Plainville. So, I guess I'll quickly stop there and see if there's any questions on this or do you want to go over another one or. Yeah. Thanks Chad, and I know a number of people are dialing in by phone so we will send you a copy of Chad's presentation it's tremendously well done it is very self explanatory. Obviously, if you do have any questions about the process, feel free to reach out to Chad, and or Alex, and I know they'd be happy to answer any questions you might have after seeing the charts. Yeah, we just covered that, that last slide which obviously is indicative of some of the impacts that the closures and COVID-19 have had on revenue. Yeah, exactly. So, this year, obviously with the restrictions and the guidelines. You know, we were thinking that everyone was, you know, going to take a big hit, which has has happened. One of the things that is is has held up for racing is the fact that wagering still could take place through the adw's or count deposit wagering. It's very similar to where you just, you would log on you would sign up for an account, and then you're able to wager on tracks internationally. The racing people are, they do like to wager. So, there was definitely going to be, you know, a way that they found to be able to wager. So, some of those statistics here kind of, you know, show that. So, if we, if we look at the actual at the tracks themselves, you'll see the negative numbers here are all because the tracks were closed for such a long time. You'll see Plain Ridge, their handle was actually down almost 60% rain on almost 40 Suffolk almost 60 and wonderland over 60. So the actual at track wagering was down significantly. And that said, what you probably saw is that many of these patrons, again stating that they, you know, like to have a little skin in the game when watching the races, probably migrated over and open up accounts through these adw's, which are these here. So Plain Ridge has their own adw and there was a slight uptick in that. I think part of that too is that much of the wagering at Plain Ridge comes from the live racing. So that's why there was kind of not as a bigger uptick there. However, when you look at the TV G's, the twin spryers, the express bets and the Naira's, all those adw providers, you'll see were significantly up. So, when you compare the totals from last year over this year, our handle is actually almost up 25%. So I think, you know, if, if anything, kind of good has come into this in terms of there has been kind of an uptake or increase in interest in in the in racing itself. And the ease that that someone could get into the racing and that just always is going to flow down to the, you know, the local communities, the trust funds, the horsemen. And so it's, it's, it is, if anything, again, it's, it's shown a good light and, you know, we've seen the increase has been, has been helpful. And any questions with that are found in my presentation. If there isn't. Great. Thanks, Jen. Any questions from anyone. Like I said, I know some of you are dialing in by phone, we'll make sure that we get these slides out to you so you can watch the flow of money when it comes to betting on horse racing in the Commonwealth and what it means to the racehorse communities for each of these track for the track or a simulcast location. I had one question for Alex. You touched on it a little bit on the racehorse development fund. Do you think you could elaborate on that just a little bit about, you know, sort of where the money comes from and how much that is and how it gets distributed. That was set up by the expanded gaming act. And basically, it takes 9% of the gross gaming revenue from the category to casino, which happens to be plain rich. And that money goes to the resource development fund. And then on the two category one casinos by statute. 25% is taken off of the gross gaming revenue and of that 25% 2.5% goes into the racehorse development fund. So then that money is split into basically six different parts, if you will. 80% is to go to purses. So that goes into a purse account for standard breads and a purse account for thoroughbreds. And then 16% goes towards the breeders of each breed. And then 4% goes into a health and pension plan for the horsemen of each breed. And for a long time, the, what happened was the split was decided first on between the two breeds. So, originally, the split was 75% towards thoroughbreds and then 25% towards standard breads. And then you took from that amount of money, you took the 80, the 16 and the four. That was back when at that time Suffolk was racing a full schedule. And the statute also set up what they call the horse racing committee. And it designates who's on there. Somebody, a governor's appointee, appointed by the treasurer, a breed representative from each of the two breeds, and then a representative of the commission who happens to be Gail Cameron, one of our commissioners. So that committee meets, they try to meet once a year, sometimes due to not having a full quorum and stuff they've had to postpone it. But they try to meet once a year and see if there's been anything that's changed in the industry that might lead them to change the percentages. So over the years, I think it's been changed maybe three or four times. And the primary change has been due to Suffolk not having a full schedule of racing. So the percentage has increased each time towards the standard breads, having more money going into their difference. And talking to the state hope stakeholders. They wondered if there was a way instead of dividing the three categories of purses breeding money and health and pension benefits instead of having that have to be the same for each category for the breed. They wondered if a certain breed would benefit more from having increased purses and another breed would maybe benefit more from having increased health and pension benefits was there a way that that could be done. So we are legal. So we looked at that and felt that the statue didn't prevent that. And so the commission, it was brought to the commission and the commission voted to change the regulations so that it could be done by each individual pot basically instead of having to grow having to be done one way or the other. So this last time this year, when the horse racing committee met they decided to split the purse money and the breeding money. And so the commission voted to give 7030 to the standard breads, but they decided on the health and welfare benefits to give 60% of that money to the thoroughbred people and 40 to the standard bread people for their health and pension benefits. And that was a really the horse racing committee met, you know, numerous times. It was a hearing open hearing where all the stakeholders could speak. And again, this is all done over, you know, these zoom type meetings so it was quite an accomplishment. Committee to get all that done and hear from all the different stakeholders. And that was, you know, what they ended up doing. Right now for the last sense of 2015. We're not racing of days to use up the money that would have gone to thoroughbred purses. And so that money each year is just given out for the purses that they're actually going to use. So there is money and I think it's, you know, this isn't news to anybody it's been out in the news and all. All the figures are on our website. There is probably about 17 million in that account that would have been directed towards thoroughbred purses but hasn't been given out. And the rest of the money goes out on a regular basis so when the money comes in our financial team divides all that money and funds go to all different places. So, you know, there's other categories that get money from that from the casino so that all gets split up. And then they split it up on the resource development fund into the six different categories. And right now where Suffolk isn't racing that money stays in the pot, but the other five categories that money goes right out to plane which for the purses it goes out to the two reading organizations for their programs and then again to the two different organizations for their course. Okay, thanks. Thanks Alex. Thanks Chad appreciate your time and sharing some background on racing in Massachusetts. It is still impressive to see the numbers. There are people that are still betting on races if they aren't physically happening in Massachusetts but at other tracks around the country and the fact that that has turned almost a positive revenue number around for the Commonwealth in this in this tough year. Unless there are any other question. Any questions for Alex or Chad. Again, thanks Alex and Chad for spending some time with the subcommittee today and giving us an overview of horse racing and Massachusetts. Thank you. Joe will move on to item number five, which is next steps. What's on the table for that. Well, so I guess today's meeting really sort of concludes the activities of this subcommittee for this year. As I said the guidelines are finalized on Thursday. The solicitation for projects for the community mitigation fund hits the street today. So, and we've got those three workshops coming up one December 15 and I'm not sure we have the final dates in early January slated yet for the other two but that will be coming. Applications for the community mitigation fund are due January 31. So those are sort of the next steps in the process and I think so with our local community mitigation advisory committees. We've talked about having maybe a follow up meeting in April, just to give an update on what we've gotten in for applications and so on and then there may be a few other things that that might be of interest and I think we have some public safety coming up and so on. So I think the thought was, we should probably do the same thing with this group is try to reconvene maybe in that April timeframe where we would have some, some things to talk about, and sort of where things are going. We have this sort of focused effort in the fall and I think we wanted to try to make make it a little bit more throughout the year to give you folks updates on where things stand. So I think that's pretty much what we have going forward. Obviously, again, we'll send out a copy of Chad's presentation to everybody. I'm assuming Joe everybody is invited to attend and listen in on the, and the best practice sessions as we have them scheduled finalized we can share that with members of the subcommittee as well. Mary and I are working on mailing lists, et cetera on who all this, these are going to all go out to and, and so on again we'll be doing all these meetings via HD meeting and, you know, we'll try to put together some presentations and other things for those. Yeah, we'll certainly get those out to the GPAC and the subcommittees and the LCM ACs and then as many people as we can we just want to get as much word out as we can on these. Great. Great. Obviously, also for this committee we are still working through the regulatory process for the, for the proposed changes to the community mitigation fund setting aside some of the funds for the administrative purposes. So, some processes ongoing again we invite everybody to weigh in with your, with your comments. But I believe we should have that wrapped up that regulatory process wrapped up by the end of the year. Any other business, any members of the committee have anything they'd like to raise with us. To entertain a motion to adjourn I will just wish everybody on the committee and our team a happy healthy and safe Thanksgiving holiday. And if we don't see you for the best practice session in December certainly wish everybody a wonderful holiday season. Thank you all again for your continued commitment to the, to the commission you've been great stakeholders and advocates for us and we greatly appreciate that. And certainly appreciate everybody's time and commitment. This work is farther we get into casinos being a part of the Massachusetts business landscape. The work of this committee continues to be very relevant and continues to grow and it's important. There is no other business I'll entertain a motion to adjourn and then we can quickly do a roll call vote and actually get everybody out of here a little bit early. We're having a motion to adjourn. So moved. Thanks Jennifer. Do I have a second. Second. Second, thanks Ron. Tonya, can you do a quick roll call for us. Eric Dennis. Yes. John Cronin Jr. I just thought I needed myself. Yes. All right. Sean Cronin. Yeah. Bruce Stevens. Yes. John Robertson. Ron Hogan. Yes. And Jennifer Bonfiglio. Yes. We are adjourned. Thanks Tonya. Thanks Joe. Thanks everybody. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Safe season. Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you. Bye.