 Good morning. We are calling to order meeting number 269 of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission on May 23 2019 at 10 a.m. At the Mass Mutual Center here in Springfield Good director Petrosian, please. Good morning commissioners. Good morning. I was not Physically at the meeting yesterday. However, I was in a different state. I did attend Digioli and I managed to see the beginning of the meeting and I know There were some questions About the preparations for the opening of Angkor. I just want to fill in some of the information. I Heard mr. Ziemba talk about the preparation he and Construction manager Delaney are doing on license conditions, which is vitally important to an operating certificate The the corollary side to that is a preparation for gaming operations that director banned Our licensing director mr. Curtis who's here today and our other staff are preparing for I want to tell you that I think we're in Very good shape. It's going to be a very busy June. I don't want to underscore that But based on a lot of the expertise, we actually got out here last summer in Springfield I feel very comfortable the absence something unknown that we will be ready to open both with confirmation from mr. Ziemba on the license conditions and With mr. Band in the rest of directors on the gaming operations That we will be ready to open on June 23rd Now the process for that Would probably be a meeting The second week of June or so where it's a corollary to meeting we actually had out here last August We're all the directors Come before the Commission and give you an update on the readiness Obviously, there's still some work to do between That meeting the actual opening date just like there was out here and we'll ask the Commission for designation potentially of a designee one of the commissioners to help the rest of staff work through the rest of that time period from that meeting the actual opening date in which on the opening date they get a conditional Certificate of operations which then once It was if there were any conditions on it be brought back in front of the full commission probably the following week So full commission could ratify it but The overall message I'd like to say is we have great staff to work in very hard We have just completed a gaming agent training program. Some of you might have tended parts of it It's it's very interesting if you've not seen Games being played or people cheating It's a it's a great way. It wasn't just our gaming agents. It was our new State and Everett police were trained that also who attended that also So as absent something unexpected on the gaming side, I would expect that we would be ready To open June 23rd So the last thing I'll say is I attended digitally and I saw Mr. Van was sporting a bowtie. I said that was quite the look I am not a bowtie guy, so So that's that's it. So that's and usually obviously I would have done this in in Boston But I because I couldn't be there. I did want to follow up on that yesterday. I don't know if you have any questions No other than It sounds like we'll be setting the schedule for a few upcoming agendas. There was also a discussion about A few upcoming meetings. I meant there was a discussion as to a potential meeting next week In addition to the one you mentioned in mid-June Yeah So I think I heard also was watching that that we needed to follow up on some items from yesterday Next week next Wednesday. That's right. And then we will work on the next two days in June I had asked commission You were grateful enough to say we might have to do more shorter meetings just to keep the tempo going Yes, and I appreciate the option to be able to do that That's necessary too. Thank you Moving to item number three on Butzman Zimba, please Thank you very much chair up For consideration today is matter involving a community mitigation fund scholarship I'm going to turn to Jill Griffin director of workforce supplier and diversity development and crystal Howard program coordinator on this item and I'll just See crystal was recently promoted. So she's a program manager Congratulations I'd also like to introduce Michelle Cabral who is director of the Massachusetts Casino career training Institute to crystals right and Acknowledge that Jeffrey Hayden from Holyoke Community College is in the audience. Should we need any? reinforcement or questions So As John mentioned, we're here to entertain a request for an amendment to the 2018 workforce development grant awarded by the Commission to Holyoke Community College and By way of background Holyoke Community College was awarded a total of three hundred thousand dollars by the Commission And a bulk of that two hundred and forty thousand Focused on culinary training adult education programs high school credentialing for adults career readiness and English language classes all with the intent of advancing people in their careers a Portion of that sixty thousand dollars was awarded for gaming school scholarships At the June 2018 June 7th 2018th Commission meeting And I just want to Actually add that this is a collaboration between Holyoke Community College Springfield Technical Community College the Springfield Public Schools Adult Education Program and MCCTI So I'm gonna turn this Request over or the program over to Crystal Howard to talk a little bit about the specific request That focuses on the gaming school scholarships. Thanks Jill So the request that came in from MCCTI is specifically for Utilizing seventy five hundred dollars of those scholarship funds to cover a course that currently has low enrollment and would be canceled Otherwise there are five students There won't yeah, it won't be run under five, but those students will Get this course for free and up and they'll take as many students as they can in the course It will just be a minimum of five and they would all be able to take the course for free. So the specific request is covering the blackjack class instructor as well as the carnival games instructor which are around five thousand dollars and a Recruitment manager for around two thousand dollars to help get that class up to five and above five As well as some a nominal amount for benefits and the CPR course And I just wanted to note as well that they did let us know that the estimated total cost of running a blackjack and carnival games course Is around fifteen thousand dollars? Which includes the space the equipment and the related expenses and overhead And so there's no cost other costs associated and a lot of that is in kind from MGM There's no profit built into the calculation for what they're requesting at this point I'll hand that back to Jill. So Staff analysis found that the proposed changes meet the general goals outlined and the original purpose of the funding Regarding the gaming school scholarships They were intended to allow low-income Massachusetts residents advance in casino careers and As each student would be allowed to receive this course for free. We thought it was very Aligned with the original purpose of the grant Can I ask a question about that is the the fact that the Weren't enough individuals Interested in taking the course was that driven by cost or is there something else? Yeah, so I'd say we've got a couple factors going on and cost is the primary factor of why we Requested the scholarship funds. So I do think that's a primary factor combined with the fact that Unemployment is currently low So the people that were going after to try to get enrolled in the class are currently Unemployed or underemployed and cost is a larger factor for that population Do you have a sense of I Do like this idea Do you have an idea of would this fold into the regular schedule of classes that you have Upcoming or what's the sense of timing to get these students through it? Yes We have two classes that are starting we have a blackjack class that's starting on June 1st And we're also trying which is a weekend program is something new we're going to try and we have another class That's starting on June 3rd. I anticipate that if it's proof today, we'll use it for one of those two cohorts, okay, and The other question I had is our partners in New England farm workers are helping to recruit and identify candidates Individuals who might be unemployed and obviously this would be a hopefully a good opportunity for them If the case manager is focused on doing recruitment That just kind of seems like we are finding students Is there other things that the recruitment person or case manager is going to be doing on top of that? Recruitment effort. Yeah, it's primarily recruitment So it's making sure that they're going out to all the community-based Organizations and letting them know about the opportunity that we have available. It's making sure that we're doing Promotion through social media presence, and we're tagging the right organization so we can ensure word is getting out It's sitting with individuals who struggle to fill out the paperwork and to fill out the enrollment forms And therefore walk away and making sure that they get enrolled and they have a good first day experience So they can complete the class successfully. It's those types of activities we appear with MGM at every career fair that we can that we can find within the area and we're side by side with Them and so it would be more of that as well And I assume that you're working with MGM Understanding what their needs are too, you know, there may be one particular area that they really need Individuals and another area. They're really not having issues with attrition Absolutely true statement. So MGM has assigned a liaison to work directly with me to come up with what the course schedule is His name is Peter Fox Peter Fox, and I chat on a daily basis to make sure that we're filling the needs that MGM has I Like the cost efficiency of it. I like the effect You know, we it'd be great to have you come back at some point and talk to us about the effectiveness And kind of what the results of the program obviously it'd be great to land more than five students and obviously if my understanding is Students that successfully complete the program always have the MGM interview opportunity if they're successful correct They complete two games they get an audition and the two games will be funded by this money So it's blackjack followed by carnival games and that would prepare them for the audition should they successfully complete the classes right I Actually had a similar question, but more more broad I think by the way that this request is very modest, so I'm very much and I'm very much in target with the spirit and the goals That we set out before so I'm very much in favor of it I'm just wondering, you know, a bigger picture. Do you see some of these needs? Increasing going a little bit forward do you see some good Success ratio of people that you train and and eventually get not just an offer, but a Job and some retention. Yes. Let me brag. I'd love to Do that the overall program altogether. Yeah, so, you know as Jill mentioned We were awarded $60,000 in scholarship funds back when we were building the first set of cohorts to run through MGM And in that time frame so since February of last year, we've had about 370 people come through the school About 89% of them have successfully completed the classes and Approximately 65% of them have been hired or been offered a position by MGM If I peel all those numbers apart day one opening we had about 220 people come through the school 162 of them had completed the requirements to get job offers and get hired by MGM and as of March 84% of them were still working at MGM We've moved the needle on workforce development as a result of the funds and as a result of MGM offering a new career Opportunity for people in the region. I believe that pipeline is gonna continue to be there So we just need to offer the opportunity to the folks in the region that can take advantage of it Thank you for letting me brag You could keep going if don't be constrained by time Numbers are really strong. Yeah That's great work Madam chair if I can I'd move that The Commission approved the request to transition a total of seventy hundred seventy five hundred dollars From the scholarship application Allocation at MCCTI to cover the cost of two gaming instructors and temporary recruitment coordinator Or a course that is currently low-enrolled and would otherwise be canceled This money coming from the sixty thousand dollars that was allocated for scholarships In the 2018 community mitigation fund awards Second Any further discussion Questions all those in favor. Hi Catherine 5-0, please. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's a good work Is MGM Springfield's quarterly report for the first quarter of 2019 We'll be joined here by MGM Springfield president Mike Mathis and his team Good morning commissioners. Welcome to Springfield morning. Good morning. A little bit of a cloudy day But I think the weather's finally breaking Excited to report on our Q1 Results and also give you a little insight into some of the things we're working on for Q2 in the remainder of the summer So without further doing I'll let my team the team members introduce themselves as we transition from section to section if that's alright, so Starting with our revenues So as you can see for the quarter regenerated 66.8 million in gaming revenue generating 16.7 million in taxes What I'm really encouraged by and the team is encouraged by is is obviously the trend that you see represented in those three months Seasonally January is one of the more difficult months and that's borne out by our competitors and the numbers they report So we knew with the weather January be challenging February, of course is a short month It's just a function of days with 20 28 days In March tends to be one of the better months Throughout the season we were benefited as an industry or benefited in March for having five weekends And the difference between a weekday and a weekend is also meaningful. So Can't claim all the credit for the great results in March Because those some of those factors, but certainly what this represents for us is continuing to fine-tune the operation our promotional calendar and responding to the customers we We've launched now. I think two different Campaigns called you said it we did it where we take input from the customers And we make changes on the floor and we let them know that we've made them because of the feedback They've given us and now would be an ongoing process and that's what really excites us and that's what really differentiates the operators You don't always get it right in the beginning And it's always an evolving process and that's a little bit of the story of the first quarter for us Mike, could you give us an example of maybe what you changed that people had requested? Sure, it's it's something as simple as expanding restaurant hours for example Early on we didn't see a lot of demand for breakfast for example We turn on breakfast and one of our venues we had a brunch based on some feedback we got from our customers and You know part of it also in that case is making sure that the operation is stable enough to start Expanding those hours you want to make sure you have enough staff and that the schedules are such That the kitchen is in good enough shape to be able to take on that extra demand But they've been very successful. We did a Valentine's brunch for example and Mother's Day brunch all very successful So on the food and beverage side as simple as that also changing some of our offerings on the gaming side I think I may have mentioned this in prior meetings, but it's always interesting to see what What a certain Market wants to see in terms of gaming products. So there's a there's a black version of blackjack called let it ride it's not particularly popular in Las Vegas, but it's extremely popular here and Those early days I know as approached by a number of customers saying when are you gonna bring let it ride let it ride and We're able to through your approval process added that game got the vendors approved Very successful. So it's really as simple as those types of those types of changes and we're gonna continue to make them Thank you. Like is that a table game or a slot? It's a table game. It's a table game. Yeah The other thing I comment on March is Our our slot performance in March was the best month. We've had since our opening is The total gaming revenue for March was just barely eclipsed by September So a really strong month and something we're really building on in terms of all the successes that we saw there Mike on that on that note and and you know just keep it general how about other areas of The business loyalty card customers returning customers. How is that trend going? How is that going in general? Very well, you know our food and beverage and hotel operations are non-gaming operations are well above our expectations The hotel for example, we don't report that generally because it's not gaming related, but it is we're exceeding our occupancy I think we're close to 90% occupancy We're above $200 in terms of our average daily rate And and what's really special about that for us is we track what the other hotels are doing and what we predicted You recall was that if we built a relatively modest scaled hotel product Provided great food and beverage offerings, but not certainly not enough to feed the 10 to 15,000 customers We see daily that you would feel that impact in the rest of the downtown Red rose pizza has expanded their operation. They've added a second kitchen The reports of their numbers have never been better. There's been a new hotel opened I believe a holiday in express open when we opened. There's now another hotel being added to the downtown and From all accounts, you know restaurants are up 20% the Sheraton Is up on average daily rate as well as occupancy So you can feel that lift and it's not surprising because we just can't house or lodge all the customers We bring each day and we certainly can't feed them all You know that's just to add to that and it's a great point Especially is we I think it's a commission look at what our ongoing research agenda should be And I know Director Vanderland and send the back of the room But I think focusing on some of those details meal stack sales tax all that's collected locally It's easy data for us to get and if we looked at that not only for Springfield But for the surrounding communities, I think we could get a better picture with the overall impact is of your presence as well as what it's trying to do for the rest of the region, but I Know we also have a meeting coming up with our friends at the mass office and travel and tourism and they get Hotel information and I think to your point that they're seeing bumps and room rates You know just because of the demand going up is really helping out the greater region in this part of the valley so No question another interesting data point that we're starting to look at as well as we actually have a couple of vendors for example our Our alcohol distributors and others like that who I've had conversations with and they're seeing spikes in their orders So, you know, they told me don't let anyone cry cry cry poor in terms of the impact you're having because we're seeing Spikes on our orders as well So I think vendors are also a very interesting data point to see how they're impacting because that's obviously pretty pretty true data I'm moving on to our lottery sales again a similar trend as you can see We're continuing to grow that business and March certainly was a very strong month. So We feel like we can do better. I've seen the plane rich numbers and they are extremely strong So I'm happy to say I've got a great relationship with the executive director Mike Sweeney who's been a Real champion of our efforts here in Springfell. I'm a big fan of executive director Sweeney And he's come out and visited the property and we're we're continuing to innovate together on different promotions We just we bought a series of Boston Bruins lottery tickets that we gave us promotions It was his idea. He called me and said hey given the success of the Bruins I think it'd be a really great promotion and sure enough We gave him away to our customers and it was one of our more successful promotions So great example of partnering and working together has director Sweeney Explained why he thinks playing rich has had that success on the host community overall even I think it's 25% increase in lottery sales, of course, that's one of our mandates. So you guys are you cross Pollinating ideas to really bring it up and what was it? What is it exactly do you think that has led to the success? Yeah, you know we had that conversation. I think he's he's trying to understand it as well I think they had a very strong existing Support existing business And it just got that much stronger. So I think we were started a little bit started from scratch Excuse the pun. So we But we're trying to figure it out But in terms of pats, how many do you have do you know off the top of your head? I don't want to put anyone on the spot. I Got a decent guess that I think About 8 6 to 8 is the number I have in my mind as well. Yeah, and then keynote is placed. I'm getting caught up here. Yeah Yet our tap sports bar the sports bar. Yeah, you know in our tap sports bar We were asked that exact question recently and didn't have a great answer. So thank you for illuminating a bit And as you mentioned my my recollection also is in the past. I don't know to what degree Plain Ridge does this still they did a lot of promotions in which they offered Scratch tickets to their customers So the main purchaser of this scratch tickets for a period of time was the casino itself Which is perhaps something that you alluded to with with the promotions. That's right Yeah, we're we're a large customer. We continue to experiment with the tickets as a part of our promotional package So On the compliance side I will transition to Cameron Cray our director compliance So for the first three months of the quarter We have January it's January, February and March we saw a little bit of an increase of miners intercepted on the gaming floor We had taken we had taken The X out of the gaming floor in early fall So we knew that we would see an increase of miners being taken off of the gaming floor But our security's done very well With intercepting the miners we had as you can see we've had a small percentage of miners gaming on the gaming floor and Very few of them drinking on the gaming floor In comparison to how many member or how many guests that we've had in the casino Is there a particular part of the floor that's more prevalent than others for this, you know It's mostly just right off of the gaming floor that we're seeing that and we're having our security as we go on I'll explain but we have we have security trained now and we have posts that they're at Secured posts that they're at to actually intercept and escort folks off of the gaming floor now, so We're learning as we go if I could just add the The the numbers, you know Seeing 102 and 133 Intercepted in the gaming area, you know initially causes gives you some pause But but we suggest that that's a really good thing as we've ramped up our efforts and really Focused on training and aggressively pursuing this work that represents catching Miners who do do our design have been able to get on we find them quickly and we even look at the The time we go through reports and look at the intercept times And see how long they've been on the floor before we've caught them and that's been Decreasing as every month that goes by we're getting better and better at it and those times are really condensing so We really view this as the more we can intercept and get off before they're able to gain that that's a really Strong statistic. How are you calculating the intercept time? Is that in partnership with surveillance? I mean you're going back and look at the camera and see how long the trap literally each one of these incidents has Yeah, has a surveillance report And goes through and tracks them back from the time they entered where they came from how long they were there And so these reports are based on a stack of Documents that focuses on each individual individual incident and through surveillance here We'll see exactly the amount of time where they came in where they were And so that's how we know that that's how we know the times those surveillance The activities that are detected on surveillance probably are a good tool for security as well because they see where they missed it On the front end. They see where somebody was able to get on underage And maybe that will require a change in in security. I know you have us you have an update here So I don't want to jump it looks like there are many changes that are being made Yeah, just one one more point and I'll pass it back to Karen In response to your question Commissioner O'Brien and on that point we use the data Jason Rucker has done somewhat of a mapping exercise And so looking at those surveillance reports plotting out where the individual was And looking at whether there are any real hot spots The short answer is that it's pretty spread. There aren't we haven't been able to identify Any areas where there's a real problem? It's because of the nature of the floor people can really sneak on at any spot And you do see it spread throughout but we do that exercise to see if there are any vulnerable areas I was just gonna add it. This is this is a real focus for the for the company There are tremendous resources that are being applied here If we could do it again We might not have come up with the great porous design that makes that facility so special because in retrospect The amount of surveillance time that Seth just described we take every incident and backtrack through the series of cameras I'm you know, I'm constantly reminded by our surveillance folks how How training the exercise is for each incident our security officers, I just did a round table with our security officers and One of the Q&A comments that was made by one of one of the really great security officers That's been there since the beginning was anxiety over the enforcement of underage gaming mr. Mathis I'm always worried that you know someone sneaks on while I'm dealing with a customer You know what the discipline will be like and and it's real anxiety by our staff That tells me two things one is they understand the priority it is for us And secondly that we need to assure them that you know this commission and in your staff has been really supportive of Sort of the balance to the extent that there is a heat map exercise and I've seen it I think the the incidents are largely around the perimeter And that's because every IOA is a doorway into the casino and I'm particularly proud of the effort that Seth mentioned is when I see Four minutes three minutes six minutes in terms of the when using the surveillance the time from when the person got onto the floor And and to the time that our security officers were able to intercept them question them and get them off I mean, that's pretty tremendous for 125,000 square foot floor with 2500 machines so our goal is is zero tolerance, but but be sure there's a there's Significant amount of resources and efforts going towards Getting getting a Steve in these numbers given the amount of visitation. We have and on that note Like he's there Do you see this ongoing in terms of that effort or is there at least potentially the the effect of educating the community effectively through all these Interceptions As a way to deter, you know in the longer term some of the minors trying to get in Yeah, I believe the trend I believe we're gonna start to continue to trend down I'm glad you raised it I think you know one of the things that's really sort of disconcerting to me is when I look at some of the incidents is The number of parents that are bringing their underage children onto the floor to accompany them And I think collectively we have to talk about what we're gonna do in terms of panel penalizing folks And there needs to be a serious repercussion for sneaking on the floor. I don't know I think that right now there's a thousand dollar fine through the gaming statute, but I know in other jurisdictions But you can potentially lose your driver's license or you know real ramifications so that the word gets out It's no different than what we do in terms of some of the criminal elements that your your GU unit and Springfield police, you know make it very clear This is not a place you want to be if you're trying to conduct criminal activity And similarly this is not a place you want to be if you've you're found underage gaming But I think there's an enforcement piece that that we're not able to employ that we maybe could use your support on with the HG's office Are you referring any of those to GU in terms of if you've got proof through the surveillance Look back that a parent was the one that pulled a minor onto the floor Yeah, I just saw one the other G is involved in all of them And they see the case file. I think one of the parents just got a summons So I think we've had that conversation. I think we're starting to see some more enforced Enhanced enforcement, but I don't think that was always the case and I think we continue to do more of it Are we examples of this we talking about a parent that brings an 18 or 19 year old? That's right Yeah, not not as much the although we have seen situations where someone's put a five-year-old on the lap and and For some reason I was like it could I did a lot of hit the number which is outrageous But but more the 18 19 year old that looks you know, that looks like an adult and obviously if accompanied by a parent you assume Our staff is more assuming that they would be They'd be of age, but we still do the checks anyway And and we did have a very constructive meeting or yeah constructive meeting with GU and Brian Connors and his team a few weeks back because we had one incident where we had a Parent who had been previously trespassed and assisted with a minor getting on the floor and and so our Our message was we really have to work with with you and the Attorney General's office to Have some teeth because if it's just get off the floor and leave and then they come back and do it again And it's get off the floor and leave and they come back and do it again There's you know, the only thing we can do is get them off and trespass them, but we need we need some some help and and GU and the team from the Attorney General's office recognized that was very collaborative, and I think You're gonna see more summons as being issued for minor offenses. Hopefully moving point Thank you for that. Thank you. Maybe you were gonna get into into these later, but How is the break between finding somebody gaming at a slot machine versus table game It occurs to me that you know clearly if you're interact if you're close interacting with that with a person That that maybe that should be a different story if you woke up to a machine You have more chances of being unnoticed at least for some time Yeah, I don't have the breakdown, but it's it's high ratio of slot infractions to table games To your point any infraction at a table game is totally unacceptable to us We've had there's always some mitigating of circumstances Somebody thought someone else checked them. There was a shift change They're not excuses or explanations and we're using those learnings to figure out how to make sure that we cure some of those gaps But the the large majority of the incidents that are set forth below our slot machine instance To me the more egregious ones are the few table games once because there was a human interaction And there was a breakdown on either training or our process Is it is there is it is it safe to assume that the majority of these incidents are happening on the weekends those are your busiest times No, unfortunately, there's it's not that consistent pattern. We've seen them They tend to be in the evening. That's some commonality there but But they're largely, you know related to visitation so more of them happen on the weekends because we have more visitation But they're not just in my mind because I we looked for some of those patterns. They're not disproportionate proportionately we can Fractions and as a possible this, you know, how does it line up with your schedule of events when you're doing a lot more activities on the plaza does Does that kind of tip the numbers? Yeah, you may recall. We had a we had a big problem in November It was all around our tree lighting and ice skating activity direct correlation. So That was more maybe access violations versus gaming act violations So, you know, I think some of the things that I've talked to security about is is when events break out of the plaza Those doors are your first entree into the casino is to have a presence there so that we can push them and remind them They've got to go left and right on the on the tile versus into the carpeted gaming area But there's no question and I think the way Seth was really a champion of this percentage concept because I think it Should not just look at the gross numbers, but really look at as a percentage of visitation We expect a lot more visitation Over the summer months. There may be more incidents, but I I'm I'm confident that the percentage will go down and we'll continue to Be be aware of that Especially around family programming days Okay, I'll give it back to Karen So the next slide it just goes over some of the security plan updates some of the security plan updates that we've gone through in the last quarter We've provided extra additional underaged signage We've also eliminated some of the cross the crossing route on the floor The physical presence to check the miners at peak times That's been that's been crucial to keeping some of the miners off of the floor Permanent rovers that was a suggestion of some of the Gaming agents and that's actually been One of the One of the ideas that we have implemented into our security plan and Karen if I could just jump I'm not to elaborate What permanent rovers means? There we have rover posts security rover posts That are assigned to the floor to rove in a tent of various matters including checking for miners Because the nature of their roving duties, they would from time to time be pulled for other Whether there's emergency call for the drop and some feedback from the gaming agents was they were just being pulled too Much for other duties and we needed to ensure that On various shifts certain Certain of the rovers minimum staffing that they would we would commit not to pulling those rovers for other Responsibilities so that they were always there roving the floor and so we went back and forth with with Bruce and Burke and arrived at Numbers based on peak demand times that are now built into the security plan that we have committed not to pulling those rovers for other duties We have our hand stamp program that the security officers carry around a hand stamp they ID once they ID Someone they can stamp them that gives the employees Where they can just look at their hand and see that they've been ID But that doesn't preclude them from IDing them again if they want to so an employee always has the Ability to hand stamp or to ID anyone even if they have a hand stamp Is it for the minor to or just if you're for a minor so there's different stamps depending well It's just it's a hand stamp if someone is over 21 will hand stamp them if we've ID them But if they're under they get nothing they get nothing they need to be escort. Yeah Have you considered? Implementing a stamp for all of your guests or some other bracelet Program to really address this in physical fashion Yeah, we I mean we've we've really debated all types of programs including a bracelet I think the challenge with the numbers we have 10 to 15,000 per day It's just one managing that and two just really what the customer experience is You know even some of the customers we get now don't appreciate being stamped and having ink on their hands And if you really if you think about the customer experience that I don't think there's any Facility in the industry that that does anything like that with the crowds and the cues it just be We think be unmanageable so But we're open to any any ideas So the way it works is if you see when you say a frequently IDed patron somebody who hovers around a youthful look Finally to avoid getting Asked again, do they seek out the stamp or how does that get determined if we're gonna stamp you I? Can tell you some of our regulars that are you know There's there's probably no worse place than MGM Springfield if you're a baby-faced 40 year old Because you will be stopped by everybody in the building So our frequent customers go right to the podium and get a stamp because they know that they're gonna be stopped others will Either stop them right if you can go back one Karen So what one great sort of Call it innovation that we've made to deal with this is this podium which is at our main corner We get about 90% of our traffic off the self park garage. So that's really in high impact area This podium Feels like a checkpoint. It doesn't have sort of the barriers of a checkpoint But that's been really successful So a lot of our regulars are checking in at that podium getting stamped We stop a lot of our folks that are underage at that podium Ask them for the idea and give them the opportunity to get stamped But of course others can can come in through other entrances. So the idea is is If you're if you're stopped We always give you the choice to be stamped either will stamp you there Or we'll let them know if you'd like you can go to one of our security officers and get stamped I think sometimes they pass on that offer until they're stopped the third or fourth time And they said I better get a stamp. Otherwise, it's gonna be You know, it's gonna be a long night. So and we and we warn them of that I every time I approach the customer. I said, I know you've probably been stopped before Just to warn you probably stopped again. We're very Conscious of anyone that looks under 30 35 to really be active About checking IDs So we talked about education into the community this the education into the community will come through word of mouth. We will And as customers are already already seeing that they're gonna come to MGM Springfield and they're going they're going to be ID now We're seeing that happen They're coming right up to the podium and asking for a hand stamp because they know that as soon as they come in They're gonna be ID. So that's already happening Employees are attending underage training classes. It was a mandatory class for several of our sections within the gaming Establishment all of our table games employees all of the food and beverage employees Attended a under 21 class How to how to establish and how to ask for IDs? It was put on by Peter Fox who we talked about earlier It was an excellent class in addition to that before shift they're reminded of That they need to be vigilant with the looking for minors and also not just Looking for minors, but how do ID and ID? so that's their pre-shift for all of the security as well as table games employees Also, we have a property curfew. It comes at midnight and it goes until 8 a.m All of the doors on the perimeter are locked with the exception of two For coming in to the building they can all be they can all exit the building, but they can't come into the building and Then yeah, that's the next slide and you can see there's a slide that shows all of the locked doors Unless they're a hotel guest They're a minor and they're a hotel guest they can so I'll tell guest Can go through one of the floors? I'm sorry one of the doors that is closed With their key they can't go through the door still but they they can be in the gaming establishment But they can't go on the gaming floor. Oh, that's the curfew. Okay. Yeah Does that does that curfew cause any problems with movie times getting out, you know movie gets out after Midnight and I've taken my kids. You know, it's really an entry curfew So there's no movie that starts after 10 30 at night. I think we checked So it's people exiting the late movies are fine, but no one We're fine. This is a very successful program There's no really there's no reason in our minds for any minors to be on the property after midnight unless you're a hotel guest To be entering the property after midnight unless you're a hotel guest And the exit of the movies is going to be right there by that podium So they're going to be have to go right right there and out So at those times at night it's Security check That that appears in the picture that everybody has to be I need correct to go through Yeah, for entry, correct Yeah, and it's a bit of frustration to some of our older customers Why do I have this down the line to get ID'd but we explain the program and you know, they're generally supportive so Some of the additional measures to prevent minors from accessing the gaming and the alcohol Are Said here, but I just wanted to go over a few additional ones our food and beverage Section is also putting together a an additional training for their employees that will go over this the over 21 or IDing and Looking for over service Again, they're going to be going through all of their employees and anyone else in the gaming established that went That would like to take that class They also before every shift talk about Over service, it's it's it's their main concern as well as IDing right now We've also put together a committee at MGM Springfield that meets once a week that goes over all of the All of the under 21 Folks that we found on the gaming floor and we go over the reports that we have from surveillance And we look at those on a weekly basis now to see where they're coming in how long they were on the gaming floor what What we can do to make that a better a better situation For our casino and for the guests because we don't want them there any more than Then you want them there. We want we want it to be a safe environment for for all of us and having them on the floor especially Having interactions with them is not what we're looking for You'll see a photo here that this is a Julio Torres one of our security officers and We recently recognized him. You'll see the photo with Mike and Jason Rucker our executive director of security He's he's kind of our our minor assassin I don't know what that's a great Fine so we went through and looked at Looked at the reports and how many minors We've intercepted and who is responsible and mr. Torres 32 minors over the three months we looked at and Found one gaming and so that was by far More than any other security officer So we wanted to reinforce that with him reward him for his His good attention this issue, but he escorted all of those minors off the floor, right? Oh, yeah, so there was 32 that he escorted off the floor and one was gaming This will become a competition maybe yes, that's what we're looking for You know to that point in addition to sort of the stick of discipline We are looking at incentive programs And even this is just sort of a soft recognition so that the word is out that this is meaningful to us And you will land on our radar if you as an employee are really Achieving in this area Unfortunately, we're going to lose Julio as a security officer. He is getting promoted to be a dealer In the coming months, so at least we'll get a little bit better Little bit better performance on the table game side and but he's a great employee and it's great that he's He's growing in the company Terrific, and he'll be effective in that role possibly that's right. Yeah, I think you could bring it That's right. You could bring a new culture to the table game group And you know to that end at the prior point about you know meeting with with with other stakeholders Are there other things that you're learning? Relative to you know, how to better implement these programs or modify them going going forward I Think I touched on one of them, which is just to really one reinforced training one culturally make sure that people understand that That finding miners on the floor is something that is going to be celebrated and rewarded to change the culture and then And then really just to shore up some of our procedural gaps I think some of the shift changes and people assuming others have checked a minor is something I've seen as a constant theme The balances you risk harassing a customer But I think if you do it right and I've tried to model that there's a way to do it nicely And in fact, I'd love to get carted. It's been a long time since I have So there's a way to do it in a customer service Complimentary way and give them the tools to make sure that they get a stamp and we're able to you know stop stop them from being Intercepted so some of those things we're doing culturally and procedurally I Have two additional comments One is that in the in the training class that Peter Fox put together he did a very nice job of Showing our employees how to do how to ID employees in a very professional Nice way to where it doesn't interrupt their play so much that it that it's a that it's something that we have to do So that was it was a really it was a really I sat in on a couple of his trainings and the way he Trained our employees was excellent and the other thing was that arm our super our security is also going to be getting some infrastructure some verodox machines and some podiums so that they'll be able to take the license and scan it and See right away that they're in the customers or the guests are 21 So that's something else that will help them as well So they won't have to be standing there. They'll be able to scan the ID and and there won't be as many As much time spent with the guests Interrupting their play. Oh, so you're putting at a machine that you can just What what is that called in verodox verodox No, it'll be You don't know it's it it will be at the podiums the one said, okay So but you you don't have that now we do have verodox They actually have to take him take them to different places within the casino, but this will be security The security will have them, right? So then the whoever gets guarded Where it's doing the review? They don't need to do the math in their minds You know today minus 21 When they're effective at false IDs, it's more than just reading the age Okay, very effective tool to Okay, looking at all kinds of IDs to make sure they're legitimate I just always wondered, you know when I get carded at Fenway Park if they're really doing the math or Just Commission you realize they card everyone, right? Yes, they card everybody and I always find it frankly I don't know if they're looking really but You would be un-molested on our floor Anything further for Karen? Thank you so much Thanks, Karen. Thank you. Good morning commissioners. Good morning. My name's Ryan Geary I'm the director of finance so I've oversight of our procurement team So I'll be giving the update today on our procurement spend as it relates to our commitments So as you can see from this first slide which represents our diversity spend we continue to make strides to both Meet and exceed our commitments Overall spend quarter over quarter slightly down which can be attributed to what might make my convention earlier We have pretty soft first couple months of the year, which is in line with the seasonality of the business So as the business contracted slightly we controlled our expenses a little bit better Overall there was ten point three million dollars in identified biddable spend Which was comprised of or which included one point seven million dollars? To diversity suppliers so that percentage of sixteen point two or percent of Payments to diversity suppliers is actually a slight uptick quarter over quarter. We were right around fifteen percent and Q4 speaking Specifically about woman-owned businesses. You can see we we improved quarter over quarter still moving towards that 15% goal and We remain pretty flat in terms of the minority owned business spend and we are doing a lot of work around that To improve it. So one of the things to just touch on that for a minute is we are continuing to sponsor the GNE MSDC We are continuing to engage them going to matchmaking events. I'll speak a little bit later About some of our outreach that we're doing But they are also going to be we're going to be hosting them for their annual meeting this September at M. James Springfield In terms of veteran owned businesses, which is one of the highlights we continue to exceed We talked about these goals being a floor not a ceiling. I think last time so That continues to remain true in terms of veteran owned business spend We are always looking to continue to raise the ceiling on that One intriguing note in terms of diversity spend I want to mention today is we do have in Q1 a Quarter million dollars of spend with a diversity supplier That is not registered. So we're unable to count that so We are working very closely with the supplier and with the CWE to get that that registration Expedited so we can we can count that moving forward. So We do anticipate to see that the percentage for one of women owned spend to continue increase Brian, can you just touch on the historical? How is this trend? You're comparing two quarters the last two quarters here remind us what was In general the history of the operation side. I remember your Construction side being very successful, right? I'm thinking particularly of this category only, right? So construction in terms of operating supplies we had a very large capital budget which we were able to Lay the foundation for operations in terms of our supply base So we are still, you know seeing the benefits of that However, our our spend is significantly Less in terms of operating if you were to compare it to that that capital budget. So in Q4 I think there was there was still a little bit of Spend towards stabilization and some of that equipment that maybe we had missed Where in Q1 kind of everybody had had their feet under them And and then we were we were looking, you know at the at the season alley of the business and as like I said as the business contracted We also controlled our expenses a little bit better. So I think that you know That's the impact in terms of the overall spend quarter over quarter But as you can see the percentages Continue to increase in terms of women owned and veteran I know you continue to work with with Jill and Crystal And I think you touched on something that is we get closer to finishing up some regulations I think we have on business certification that we need to get the word out like you're doing with that one example of saying You know, you may think I'm a woman owned business or a veteran owned business But until the certification comes across right you can't count them and we can't count them So I think we should think about a role we can play to get that message out and the regulations are finalized to say These are the certifications that we accept if you're not certified with one of these agencies yet Please do so because it helps you and it helps them correct And then the other thing the team continues to do is we do Monthly analyze our non-diverse spend and see where there might be opportunities to You know either put something out to bid or or in this case convert something that that may already be diversity spend but Not have the registration our next slide represents our our local spend So local spend actually overall in the Commonwealth Went up from 10.7 to 11.5 quarter over quarter which represents just under 60 percent of our overall spend and 5.9 million of those of those payments were actually in Western Mass in the four counties Included in our host community agreement. So I think that's a great story Western Mass remained in terms of a percentage remained relatively flat But we continue to again continue to work with With our local certification partners with our vendor advisory task force with Jill's team As well as internally we're doing, you know, we do quarterly trainings now. So We really Raise awareness around the property with our operators and and I can tell you that our entire ops team takes ownership of these goals and they Utilize my team my procurement team as kind of the gatekeepers for decision-making, which is a necessity In order to keep this progress going They come to us first and and allow us to analyze the supply base Analyze the opportunity and take into account anything that needs to be done from a cost perspective To to drive these numbers Ryan are that these numbers I assume reflect now a biddable spend These this isn't this is overall spend overall Yeah, the only thing excluded from these numbers is any Any taxes or government payments? So this is everything including diversity spent including biddable spend Is it is it safe to say and you know, Mike alluded to it earlier you changed out some games to games which really there are no Massachusetts manufacturers set constitutes some of the what you categorize as non-local spend is that Stuff that you can't find in Massachusetts because of the gaming nature of it correct Gaming equipment would be in that number so to your point these these percentages would be even more Impressive if you if you carved out some of those that weren't even available for local and diverse spend That would actually be really helpful going forward to understand What truly is not available and then to the extent it is available in Massachusetts It'd be interesting and helpful to understand why it doesn't make sense for you to use the vendors in Massachusetts Because we understand there'll be business considerations, but it would probably be really helpful to understand that landscape Okay, yeah, that's something we can do in a future report. Thank you And our last slide here just as represents all the outreach that we did in Q1 I can tell you we've already exceeded the number of outreach events that we've done in Q2 We find that We're getting we're having a lot of success a partnering with our certification partners and and Jill's team, but also reengaging with our our local chambers and Going to their offices and meeting face-to-face with local diverse suppliers And I can tell you just In terms of some of these meetings that we did there are very there are opportunities in various states of completion with with local diverse suppliers So we are we are seeing success. We're making those connections and You know, we know that it it's a very important piece of our of our business and our operation to To help drive these commitments. So that's something that we're committed to continue to do Next quarter and beyond Are you looking at any opportunities in Worcester County area? I see you've got some Connecticut based things, but yes There was one Connecticut That's just the nature of the GNEM SDC Not having another event here at Mass But yes, we we go all over the state So we go east and and in Western Massachusetts. So we've been to events Not specifically in Worcester yet, but we've been you know east of Worcester numerous times Thank You Commissioner. Thank you Good morning pleasure be back I know that Jason Randall was told in the four down the last meeting But I have the privilege to speak to you about our employment numbers So on slide 14 of your packet, you'll see I want to talk to the host community agreement with our Springfield residence as you recall we have a goal of 35 percent and Currently for cue of one of this year. We are at thirty nine point three percent. That's representative of nine hundred and six individuals Women our goal is fifty percent at forty four point three percent currently 1,021 women on property Minorities the goal was fifty percent. We are currently at fifty four point six representative one thousand two hundred and fifty eight individuals and our veteran goal of two percent According to the HCA and as you recall we've made commitments to really double that when we were during the campaign year Really proud that that one continues to hold solid at six point two percent, which is representative a hundred and forty one individuals Commission your next slide will go really specifically into our total numbers. Maybe I should click the button So thank you Sarah operator here So I wanted to speak directly to the overall numbers So you can see the chart is we were able to put the numbers in from a Perspendence percentages and also rod numbers for q4 of 2018 and also q1 of 2019 you can see as you recall the numbers from q4 of 2522 total property plus our vendors and also Our campus-wide tenants so that also includes the mass mutual center where you are sitting where we have approximately About a hundred and ninety two currently in that area And now from quarter the first quarter of this year. We are at 2,303 individuals a total of 81 vendors So that is regal that is also kringle On property and then we have the total count of 2384 on property Just of note also I wanted to bring Remembered the attrition numbers that we had talked about We had set some very lofty goals Jason and the team of trying to keep the attrition rate down And I remember speaking to you about this in the campaign phase is that we are really going after that industry standard of 30% We did all of last year of 2018 we did hit close to 38% of attrition and you know what that comes from is the hard work people were Brought up to during that time in the longer hours understanding the new positions a 24-7 operation we had talked at length about that of really shifting the employment and how it worked from a Casino environment so really really proud to date. We are only at 16% So I think we are really understanding as management and supervisors throughout the entire property Focusing more on the employee as you recall we focus so much on opening that business Driving success and now we're really spending more time training Encouraging mentoring our middle management as you know those are the individuals who are really the hands-on of our front line So there's many more programs and training that will come out of Learning development that we are in charge of an HR. So that will be the focus as Mike mentioned earlier So I just wanted to pause and to see if you had any questions about those numbers Yeah, I can merit it Do you mean sorry to be precise here? But do you really mean turnover or when you when you say attrition? It's turnovers Which is endemic to the industry and we've heard and Understand those numbers in other areas as well Right, and it's sir. It's it's it's two buckets It's the involuntary those who leave for additional opportunities with on court coming on. There's a large Group of people who are transitioning going to other jobs, and then I've got a bucket. That's involuntary Unfortunately, that's job performance job abandonment Really attendance not showing up to work We have a very robust policy that an individual is allowed to have basically 14 days to call out Unfortunately, we've run into some situations. Some of our employees are using that unfortunately So there's that both buckets that involuntary involuntary and that is attrition people leaving We have about a hundred and ten Jason I believe in drug background and licensing right now Waiting to be go through the system. So those numbers you'll see them jump Given that we are ramping up with some of the product the programming that's going on the plaza and then also taking over mass mutual I just had a question about the two numbers you described it was 38 percent and then 16 percent I was trying to understand I Understand that the numbers have The attrition is decreased as you better understand and better train and offer opportunities middle management But is that so is that now compared to yes? So that I'm sorry if I wasn't clear so 2018 in totality for the 12 months. We had a 38 percent attrition rate for the first quarter of 2019 it is only it's 16 percent right now, but that is only for the first quarter, right So that's the difference of the number and so we'll continue this track this and by the second quarter We'll see where we are. Hopefully the our intent is to keep that a 16 or to drive it lower Those who leave Voluntarily do we do exit interviews to find out what that's all about we do from a management and up perspective front lines We do not But we do have basically a quick inner just a quick conversation and most The resignation letters do state they're going to another a better job more money or going to Unfortunately a competitor. Okay, you mentioned the background checks. So right now. There's about a hundred pending and those are for positions that are Going to be subject to our licensing process Some some will ma'am and some won't Predominantly the 110 it will be food and beverage and depending if they're not on the floor those positions are exempt Except so that will turn very quickly for those who are exempt Do you still do some kind of your own background? Of course? Yes So and then for the positions that are more provisional in other words You allow them to work Pending completion of the entire licensing process. Do you always do some kind of a background check initially as well? So I'll break that down. So yes, we do we do a drug and background check on every employee Coming through and it's a through a third-party vendor higher right So what we do and it's a urine test right now from it for the drug test We send them out to an area drug testing company who will then submit that information to hire Right at the same time a background is launched They put in all of their information so security and then that goes through that process And then in addition to that if the position requires a license a license Then we launched the licensing program through the LMS and that is all happening at the same time And to answer your question right now because we are Really trying to ramp up as long as the drug test and the background has been submitted We are hiring and putting people and bringing them in Contingent on the results of that very similar to what we did in pre-opening Just because of this phase we typically don't do that unless we need to get additional people on the paywall quickly We will not do that from a licensing perspective as you know It is required to have a service or up some type of license So they will not start until that is approved by the Commission and so for the background check with respect to folks who May not live in Massachusetts. Do you also run quarry checks on them as well? We do we are running the I quarry So if someone is a residence in pre-opening We are running the I a quarry on everyone coming through because we didn't want to miss anyone now We are pulling back a little bit and only doing that for a mass residence because it is only that I quarries only run for that Commonwealth we are running that also Okay, thank you. You're welcome Mary Kaye how many You have over a hundred currently going through background check how many posting you have about 40 some odd postings for jobs currently The last time I checked which was yesterday. We had 59 postings And then that accounts for additional headcount in those postings Okay, and some of those stay up because of turnover just that's right We call them ever great evergreen. So we have an opportunity when we know that we're losing headcount Based on the job or the hours we keep these ones open so that we can constantly have a turn of the pipeline And just to keep our managers ready and get people getting through the system quickly You're you mentioned losing some folks to you know our Region a licensee where are you losing people? What level of position? It's managers supervisors We will start to lose dealers soon Because it's an easier Unfortunate when because they already have a license, right? So we'll start to see those numbers in the upcoming weeks Okay, you know I Know employment numbers are always a little bit of a snapshot in time, especially in this kind of opening period but I think it would be interesting to Start to quantify promotions that you're that you're doing I think you know We've always talked about this industry having a great pathway forward for a person starting out at the entry level and you know seeing an opportunity to rise to the ranks You know tracking promotions, I think would be an interesting data point We do that sir. We just didn't I'll make sure it's included in the next quarterly reports It's something that we are very proud of and it's something that we have a Operational weekly meeting with many of the leaders and that's something that Jason Randall does talk about When we do that the people update so it is something that we'll make sure we include in the next report for you I believe we talked about that at a prior meeting and your numbers were very strong at all levels, correct? They are they are and I want to you know showcase some of those To talk to other licensees about how MGM is able to do this, right? And we're really proud of that too is that I think a lot of us sitting here Might have had multiple promotions. I can speak to myself of three Since my time with the company and so we're really trying to instill that work ethic Raising your hand taking more on and I think the company has always rewarded that hard work And we'll continue to do that within our property here. We don't want to lose others To our sister properties though that is still a promotion and a win. We want to be able to do that in Springfield Yeah, commissioner, so I was I can just tell you anecdotally only because it's fresh I was just I mentioned I was in front of the security officers for a round table event yesterday and I mentioned Julio Torres our Got to come up with a nickname than the minor assassins that's but he He represented one of 23 security officers and we advise the group that have either Transferred or been promoted, you know transfer it up or been promoted within security and that's out of a group of about 130 35 so over 10% of that group that was been turned over But over 10% of that group have transferred out and up or within the department, so And I think that's consistent with with all the with all the departments those type of that type of career growth So we should promote it and we'll make that part of the next report So they're any of them in even open a year yet. That's yeah Do you have the number of vendor employees from Q4 18? We did not to retract that man by vendor badges, so we didn't do that I would say it's in that same area or Slightly higher due to them ramping up and over hiring, but I do not have that number And we'll start to collect my Q1 of this. That's right. The last thing I want to bring to your attention is slide 16 Just our recruitment efforts very similar to what Ryan does from a supplier and diversity Perspective the team Jason Randall and Jennifer Russell who is our director of talent acquisition is always out With our education partners our community-based partners and of course mass hire for Springfield Continuing to keep the pipeline full with employment. And as you know, the Commonwealth has a Unemployment right now with 3% it's about 3.7 3.8 percent in Springfield so to the point earlier of really getting out and Really recruiting especially for the gaming school and for the property that is going to be our mission and Spending the time with our individuals to properly and continually train up And enhance their training across the property. So just a few recruitment efforts there That I'm happy to go into detail one I do want to bring to your attention is to grow the show the internal workshop in the middle Jennifer Russell. I believe a few months ago. We had every operation in operator in one of our ballrooms And we had the opportunity I think it was about six or seven hours where current employees could come and speak to other operators and Say what what they're passionate about where they see themselves? three six nine months a year from now and so we had that opportunity we had about 150 individuals internally come to speak to us and that the intent is to have that at least twice a year So we can speak to our own employees find out what they want what they're interested in and then promote as appropriate So that was a very successful event. Are you finding that your current? Employees are becoming good recruiters for you. They are I mean nothing's better Right then are one of our employees being promoted loving their job And going out and recruiting their family and friends And others so that has happened across the property and we're seeing that across some of the families the Programs that we've talked about earlier today, and we've done this for a couple of years now all the workforce training programs the community colleges the the high school Do you see that really aiding you in filling positions? I mean is there it sounds like you're all working together Effectively to make sure the programs are and the individuals are prepared for the jobs We've found great success for those programs That we're really building on those quote-unquote soft skills right really preparing people for interviews and and we have as you know We hire Based on someone's ability for customer service, and we're gonna train up for aptitude you come in for the great attitude We've said that before and we continue to do that But what we continue to focus on and what I'm hearing from Culinary is we need to constantly Get into individuals in the culinary school with Holyoke Community College Get people in and out quickly because that is also positioned with the cooks through chef said chefs They tend to move around so we want to make sure those pipelines are remain full And so we can also staff the area as we start to ramp up with the economic development That is coming down the pike when I may be able to support that as more business is coming to the area So talking about marketing our marketing can talent calendar continues to be an integral part of how we engage our Customers and and build loyalty and in Q1 it was really a focus on being flexible and evolving and really diving into the data and Changing what we need to change and responding to what the customers want We introduced a lot of different promotions new promotions Some worked some didn't and so we really were evolving every day And you'll see that even more in our next quarter report out We like to say things like today is the first the first fourth Friday Thursday in May So every day is new day. We're still in uncharted territory. So we really focus on listening to the customers and Religiously reviewing all of our data so that we can continue to provide those engaging promotions and special events That will bring people back to property We also have a continued focus on activating the property specifically our armory our outdoor plaza Even through those cold winter months. We did some really fun incredible things Talia our Executive director of entertainment will go into that a bit more, but our ice rink programming bringing in private entertainment opportunities for our most loyal customers activating around our holidays And China our first Chinese New Year was a huge success as well And then also engaging the community both locally and regionally from both on a you know Community engagement, but also a B2B standpoint. So some examples here is we were one of the bigger sponsors of the Holy Oak Parade We understand this is a cultural and Important part of the community here around St. Patrick's Day And it was something we wanted to get involved with to show our commitment to the community We also staged an event with one Berkshire To meet the important business members in the business community of the Berkshires This is we see this as a great opportunity for us to connect with them both from a customer standpoint from a business standpoint And just just networking so we had a great meet and greet event with them as well Which has led to some further conversations about various things we can do with that community And then finally one of our bigger announcements in Q1 was our Boston Red Sox sponsorship As it as a pure fan. This was pretty pretty big highlight for me But we're really really excited about what this does for our business not only from a positioning us in the sports and entertainment space, but also our ability to really Engage the community of Boston close that gap between Eastern and Western mass that we always say is there and then also provide really incredible Opportunities for our high-value customers. We had a group out there yesterday playing softball softball on The Fenway field these are really spectacular opportunities that these types of partnerships afford us for our customers So other than of course the signage that the whole branding You actually engage your customers with with the Red Sox yes opportunities to go to games or events Exactly. There's a big part of it Everyone you know the perception is it's just we're on the green monster But there's so much more that comes along with that in terms of hospitality opportunities for our customers Whether it be at games or away games or all sorts of different experiences that we can then take back here to our high-value Customers and afford them those opportunities for being loyal to us here in MGM Springfield There's also as a part of the partnership There's various activities that I can't get into too much detail yet more to come that we'll be bringing To property and that was another important part of the partnership It's not just about what can we do in the city of Boston? But what can we do to activate the property here and bring those people west? great Thank you I think Sarah properly warned me not to get into something I was about to get into so well But but one of the other great opportunities because I was at the event yesterday with our customers You know really delivering special experiences that no other competitor can provide So being able to play on the field It was one of them But what's really unique about it is it's not just Boston fans that appreciate those opportunities We had a die-hard Yankee fan and he said his heart's been broken so many times on that field. He had to step on it So it's there's a great opportunity to import business Detroit Tigers games. We have the MGM Grand Detroit. We are bringing business from outside the state into Into the Commonwealth we're hosting those folks as part of a series So they're even rooting for the for the opponents and we did that in a bunch of our other markets as well So we try to find us the home team for a sister property and create a little bit of a promotional Opportunity to bring them into the property and have them experience the game with us You know being in Vegas I was a bit of a free agent so you guys you guys got me Okay Obviously for us here in Springfield the most exciting part of this partnership which was announced is winter weekend So bringing the huge fan fest which will bring about 68,000 people from all over the region to Springfield next January For a three-day long fan fest that will just be incredible for this city from an economic development standpoint from a really You know supporting putting it on the map or in the sports base, right? I'll turn it over to Talia So just a slight Q1 recap, I think you've seen most of this We will be continuing with roar throughout the summer and into the winter series We did renew that agreement with our partner promoter on that and so we've announced nine different artists with 30 different shows as of this morning that will go on sale tomorrow And we'll continue to add more events to that series, which has been very successful for us and then we had just hilarious we had Lela's and HL all-star weekend which Sarah touched upon Red Sox winter weekend We like to think of this as sort of our trial to get ready for We'll only continue to be more city-wide sporting events that are across multiple days. So we're excited for that And then I just wanted to give you sort of a 60-day outlook We won't go, you know through all of these charts But a couple highlights, you know over the next 60 days We have over 50 events scheduled and that's across all of our venues So armory the plaza the ballroom Symphony Hall and the mass mutual center We've already Demonstrated our ability to bring the first pro boxing event to the property, which was earlier this month partnership with Murphy's boxing out of Boston Which was a broadcasted event on UFC fight card and we'll later broadcast on CBS Sports Network as well Very good success and we'll be bringing another event in August with that same promoter. So we're excited about that We also Just ramped up our MGM live concert series and so we will have 35 concerts over the summer some are ticketed Some are free and so some highlights of artists are bands like collective soul and gin blossoms Which will be here not this coming weekend, but the following Hanson we've got Billy Currington low-cash So some great name acts as well as some of our local favorites. We'll highlight the plaza stage in that series We're also doing some more Community-oriented programming as well myself and Anthony or VP of hospitality have partnered on food truck Fridays Which will be throughout the summer and this was really you know Showcasing our commitment to some of the smaller and local businesses that are owners of food trucks And we invite them on to the plaza for some lunchtime programming throughout the week So we're excited about that. We started about three weeks ago, and it's been successful. So do local People who work at businesses here come for the food trucks as well as some of your employees. How does it work? Yeah, that's the goal We're sort of in a trial period We want to offer it for our employees obviously but but the real goal of that for Anthony and I is to just gain awareness of that main street corridor get your feet on the ground and start walking down that corridor Coming to us and really just trying to educate the city that how walkable we are and how many different programs We have if you'll just walk that a couple of blocks to us. So That was the goal. I'll just say, you know, we're all credit to the team on this fruit truck Friday endeavor this we've done it three Fridays It's rained every Friday Literally literally every Friday is exactly the window that we were holding the event. It's but I think we finally have a dry Friday Tomorrow and it's been successful to 300 people have been coming out even in the rain I can't wait when you get a great day like we're about to get what it's gonna look like So I think that awareness was important is showcasing local food trucks We're gonna give you an update on wall burgers But we had a wall burgers truck out for our inaugural and the line was a little bit over an hour So really really great activation and it's showcases what's really best about our property Which is the unique architecture and great outdoor space? I Think also a really important part of the story is since we launched the first one Hundreds of local and regional food trucks that have reached out to us We see it on social media every single day more and more who want to be a part of it So we're giving a forum to those that might not have a lot of exposure And we're incorporating and Talia's team is doing a great job of incorporating all those local ones and showcasing new ones every week No, I appreciate the I like the The schedule there's some good local talent one who I think might have played it a junior high dance. I attended years He's a good voice. How'd you get village people to play your dance? And then the last thing I wanted to touch on is the Symphony Hall partnership that we've started We did start programming on the venue as you know, we've got a commitment for for booking shows which we've met Already with air supply Terry fader and Steve Martin Martin short coming to the the theater And then in the next two to three weeks, we will actually exceed that commitment with four additional shows that will be announcing as well So we're happy about that Okay Which is residential development, I know we're often here saying, you know, it's moving You don't have a whole lot to report it unfortunately, it's a similar report, but I was Invited to a meeting in the mayor's office Mike was Mike wasn't available this past Monday where the mayor brought all the stakeholders into his office again He's keeping his foot on the pedal One of the purposes of that meeting and I'm intentionally me a bit circumspect that was to there's there's one or two main issues outstanding which really trying to Finalize and the report is that the report was that one of them is being finalized and updating us on it So there are meetings continue to happen We're we anticipate based on that meeting Another purpose of that meeting was also Advising other city stakeholders of the status and the progress that was being made We are hopeful based on what we heard in that meeting that An announcement by the city will be forthcoming in the very near future So we're we're still actively participating in the discussions and eagerly anticipating Finalization of the 31 ohm development and I'll pass the rest to Mike Yeah, so on the wall burgers front we had a we had a mean this week I just saw emails this morning exchanging Signature pages on on the lease so the lease has dragged out a bit which is unfortunate because we lost a little bit of schedule But we are we're finalizing the agreement now, and we will be announcing Design and construction kickoff dates So I think our goal now is to get this open in q1 more to come on it But it'll be tremendously impactful the the wallberg family is very supportive of this project They're very engaged generally But I think they're gonna be particularly engaged because this is their footprint in in Western mass So this is exciting one to sort of complete the campus and more to come on that Sarah why don't you cover the next one? We are actively working to install the solar panel canopy on top of our garage This will basically 1.3 million megawatt solar canopy which will provide 1600 Megawatt hours to put that in comparison that would power about 150 homes for a year One year So we will start that the week of the 27th, which was this upcoming week. We anticipate being done for Halloween Will you lose some capacity for parking in that period? This will cover about 78,000 square feet of our top floor of our garage, but we don't anticipate losing any parking During construction we will we will have to basically mitigate parking on the a floor reaches for employees We'll move them down to the 7th floor during the week. We will Tie up construction ending on Thursday allowing them to go back to the a floor So over our peak period we will not lose parking, but in some more slower week days We will lose parking don't anticipate that affecting gas door I'm also happy to announce that The casino has been awarded the first leave platinum certificate for a gaming resort Obviously some of the things included in that are the solar panel array. We just spoke about As you were aware during the construction portion. We did some rainwater harvesting where we Basically take all the rainwater off of the garage take it into a cistern And we actually use that water to do all the landscape watering around our site So all of the green greenery here on site is watered from from what we call brown water or re-used water I'm in addition to that. We also diverted about 95 percent of our construction and demolition weights during the construction period from landfills So great accomplishment the first ever we believe First ever casino to reach platinum in the United States in the world Congratulations It's really tremendous and and I'm really wondering how you accomplished it Do you have just a high Sure Project management Construction or overall From the start was not a goal and it was At least that I think the requirement was 90 percent. We exceeded that by about 5 percent getting 90 percent during construction Obviously our design included LED lights getting away from incandescent things like that We had low-flow faucets installed in the property shower heads things of that nature to reduce water waste We also did a state-of-the-art Central utility plant so most of the equipment and the central utility plant uses less energy than you know Most of the other things out there. So it was a it was a concerted effort from from the beginning to make sure that we met this goal Resorts as a company has committed to all new development being at a minimum gold certified So we partner with the leadership and energy and environmental design from the very beginning as we're in the design phase of Our properties and we work with them to design according to that goal We were just fortunate enough here that we exceeded that goal. We're able to achieve platinum This is how they started with the gold It looks like you were awarded lead the the highest level Before the solar program or is that part of it? It's part of it. Okay, so they awarded it even though That's why we delay the announcement because we want to make sure that that portion of our program was Was was solid and that we had a plan for the installation. Okay. Thank you Yeah, and Jason or Mike remind us was any kind of the reuse of the urban renewal piece of the project was that does that count and in some of the points for this Just remind me. Yes, it does. Yeah, so that was another big factor Jerry in achieving this Thank you for catching me up Jason. I appreciate it Thank you commissioners. So I think that concludes our Yeah, so we thought we would wrap up today's presentation with something fun and light We are as of today. We have launched our new brand campaign for our property So after the successful launch campaign of this is a first which was very exciting and emotive We wanted to repossession ourselves in the market as you know, you're Every day approachable fun property because that's really what we are when you look at us amongst our competitive set We are a downtown local neighborhood facility and there's always a reason to come see us. So without further ado Oh Yeah, great work Sarah It's really amazing being in the create in the room when our marketing firm and Sarah's team gets together and starts to pitch ideas So this idea of make us part of part of a lifestyle where you can eat drink and go to entertainment I think it's an important part of our next sort of step with our customer So this will be a fun campaign. We'll do it in print right Sarah all the different aspects of it all different marketing channels You you guys mentioned back on your future development update armory plans and the F&B coming soon Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that in fact I was I didn't realize we hadn't put in some of the other pieces But I'll give you a quick update We've got I think we presented in a prior Quarterly update some of the plans we had internally on new projects. So we've got our plaza bar as we're opening up Talia's MGM live Campaign and program. We've got a bar out there to service it. So I think it opens over the week and your staff's been great We're hunting your boat Yeah Yeah, I didn't want to call that a little early But your staff's been great working through the approvals and what surveillance all the things we need to do to make sure that that bar Meets your requirements that you'll be apparently voting on and then we've got a we've got another bar called the Basically called the island bar that's under construction. Some of you saw it as you walk the floor And that's really it's activating the mass mutual corner of the building Which is a little bit of the backside of the building and we thought it needed some love So we've got a bar under construction. It's got more video poker tops Which is something the customers have asked for so that will be part of a new campaign You said it we did it when we finally opened that bar to the customers But what's great about that corner is it gives us an opportunity to create a lot of energy back there We're experimenting with electronic electronic table games potentially some stadium gaming which is that sort of emcee diversion of gaming and You know it could be a future home of a sportsbook potentially because it's got great wall space and the ability to put up TV screen So big investment we're spending millions of dollars even post opening to improve the property and Interest anything we see as a gap in terms of what the customer is looking for I Just want to mention an anecdote, but I think it's illustrative I Spoke with the parents of good friends of my wife and I Last week who live in Houston, Texas and they go to Vegas often And they came to visit the casino here because they have grandchildren in the Boston area and they gave you great reviews on specifically on chandlers the steakhouse and coming from People who really like their steak. They they said that they went there twice after They went there a certain time because they liked it so much. That's great. I think is Anthony still in the room Anthony our vice president food and beverage. I will appreciate that because there's review and that they had to do was That's great. Thank you. Thanks for sharing that we we often hear when there's an issue not always when there's So appreciate you passing that on We appreciate the thorough presentation and the update I know the last time you learned Boston giving the update. I did ask about the question Concerning the young people on the gaming floor. Let's hope that the trend really Shifts in the right direction. We've seen in March I Know speaking with you that you are have deployed a lot of resources With respect to that effort and you also shared that yours your folks who have been deployed are taking that very very seriously Enough that it concerns them with respect to their Fulfilling all the expectations that you have we share that concern and we appreciate their so thank you Thank you. Thank you for saying that People take a break Does that work for you folks commissioner's evening? I just want to say after Mike said that you wouldn't be guarded and Mary Keith called you sir. He's looking very youthful My white hair betrays me We'll take a break And come back I can't see my watch ten minutes ten minutes. So that puts us right around Thank you So we are reconvening our meeting our meeting and We are moving on to item number four Investigations and enforcement bureau director Wells you want to give compliance update, please? Yes. Good afternoon madam chair and members of the commission Just as an update to the commission Pursuant to its authority under Massachusetts general law is 23 K section six The IEB has assessed MGM Springfield with an administrative penalty of $100,000 for violations related to non-compliance with provisions regarding minors and underage persons I recognize you've already had somewhat of a discussion about that issue with the licensee MGM has agreed to the penalty and is not appealing the fine to the full commission Pursuant to their rights and their due process rights under 23 K section 36 D So this is merely informative for the commission that this has in fact taken place The commission has always emphasized the importance of protecting the most vulnerable and wanted our licensees to do what is necessary To protect minors from underage gambling and alcohol consumption During the first two months after opening on August 24th 2019 the IEB has emphasized to MGM Springfield the requirements of preventing persons under the age of 21 from Excessing the gaming area and procuring alcohol on October 24th The IEB gave MGM Springfield formal notice of 22 incidents involving underage persons in the gaming area since that opening on August 24th of 2019 From November 22nd to December 2 of 2019 The IEB documented an additional eight incidents involving eight underage persons with activity on the gaming floor Seven incidents involved actual gambling activity and what incident involved a 20 year old consuming alcoholic beverages on December 6th the commission sent a letter to MGM Springfield directing the closure of the crosswalk on the gaming floor to underage Persons that change went into effect on December 14th 2019 as has already been discussed by you mean 18 in all this. Oh pardon 19 you two said 18. Oh, I did Oh, my disregard. I mean oh December of 2018. Pardon me. Yes, the December dates are and November dates are in 2018 to clarify and then between December 14th and April 23rd of 2018 the IEB documented an additional 14 incidents involving 19 underage persons on the gaming floor 13 incidents of all gambling activity and one incident involved an 18 year old consuming alcohol In addition to the civil administrative penalty the IEB required that MGM Springfield Identify and writing all modifications to its security plan previously approved in August of 2018 and sent the IEB to the IEB a plan for improved compliance Addressing at a minimum additional training of security personnel and table games personnel with respect to underage persons and minors I know that you've been briefed on those matters by the Licency as part of their quarterly report. We did receive documents In in response to the requirement as part of the administrative penalty yesterday and we're reviewing those documents as well MGM Springfield didn't form the IEB acknowledges the accuracy of the interest of the incidents itemized in the complaints And they did agree to the amount of the assessment As as I stated earlier by its agreement MGM Springfield is waived its right to an adjudicatory hearing for this commission And so the matter is at this point Resolves and we will continue to monitor the important issue of minors on the floor and minors consuming alcohol And we will proceed as our duties as regulators So that is my update for the Commission I'm available to answer questions and I think the licensee is as well as their remedial measures have already been part of the discussion before the Commission Yeah, well I was just gonna confirm some of that so The incidents that you described here in the in the memo Took place. Is it fair to say? Prior to some of the measures that we already Heard about this morning I think and I'll defer to the to the licensee as as to their specific timing my understanding We've had constant communication with the licensee that this is an issue that the Commission has indicated They feel strongly about the IEB feels strongly about so they had been in implementing measures as they Identified the problem with that it was occurring on the property But formalizing all of these measures has certainly been done as a result of the This complaint in the assessment that was issued by the IEB, but if they have any further comments, I'll defer to their Yeah, that's council. That's right. That's right Karen several of them have been an iterative process so the items that you heard about with respect to the curfew the hand stamping the elimination of the crosswalks those have been throughout late 2018 It's early 2019 have been implemented to address the issue the increased signage around the floor is another example some of the additional measures that we put into place basically as part of the discussions and reaction to the recent Notice of violation to include our weekly committee meetings to review incidents and and address them We also have the enhanced training that we rolled out And we are working on finalizing a Enhanced disciplinary process a heightened disciplinary process for minor related violations those items are in I'll say in direct response to the recent discussions around the the Penalty and the violations So it was there a portion of these that were fake IDs or is this all a question of whether and when IDs were checked I have to look at each individual my understanding is it's mostly the That's not checking IDs you write failure to failure to ID or Misreading IDs human human error with respect to the ID checking process I notice so we're talking about about 30 incidents the 22 and then the 8 correct for this report Not another thought we had and then another 14 Yeah, I think there was a formal notice on October 24th about 22 incidents Yes, that so that was the formal notice now for this complaint There was additional eight incidents right plus another 14 incidents, which is 22 so you could add the 20 so Right, so I would Count the 8 plus the 14 so the node the the Complaint is for the 22 incidents which are described in the memo now There have been other incidents and there are other issues, but these are 22 that the IEB specifically identified as having components where there's failure on the part of the casino to Appropriately act and therefore it was subject to this penalty And they receive a notice of prior incidents correct So they were on notice pursuant to the statute of the concern of underage patrons And then after that with more incidents the IEB has the statutory authority to impose a Monetary penalty so in the report this morning we heard of some Of the of the miners that were identified and I and as a percent of total visitation that there's a Trend that's important to understand More necessarily does not mean lacking Controls it might actually mean that they're more actively finding them Finding those minors but also What what is the result of the procedures that they have implemented right? Is it fair to say that some of the? Incidents that you describe may not necessarily be a Subset of those that we heard about this morning Not just because of timing, but because they were identified Properly as we expect them to be identified. Yeah, I mean it's a tricky situation with With the setup at MGM Springfield So if you compare that to a casino where they have a choke point where everyone has to come through say one entrance They should be checking ideas at the entrance and nobody should get through so actually, you know Nobody should be on no children should be on you know and under the age of 21 should be on the gaming floor Now I get it that with this setup. It's much harder to control that so a situation where? Someone's at the perimeter of the gaming floor and steps on to the gaming floor and then immediately a Security guard asks for ID and gets them off the gaming floor That's identified as someone on the gaming floor, but I get that the security guard has done his or her job I mean that situation Those are in the numbers that that MGM has identified so in fairness to the company They're also see it. You're also seeing some numbers of people that are coming on to the floor and then properly Identified and escorted from the floor. It's just a systemic issue with with all these entrances That you can't you don't have this one choke point where you can automatically keep everyone off the floor So it's a challenging situation for both the regulator and the licensing right that that as I which we all understand that that of The porousness of the floor When in the scenario that you describe when somebody As soon as or almost immediately or very shortly after stepping foot on the gaming area He's identified and either told to lead or escorted out right that circumstance We would not view as a violation Well, would you would have it we haven't find for that I would say okay, that's that's my right so we're differentiating between where we see some As is Seth indicate like some human errors and some accountability by the licensee where for example, you know Someone's not only just on the floor, but they're on the floor for 45 minutes and they're playing on a gaming machine That's not okay So it's up to the licensee to identify protocols and procedures to keep that from happening But I get it someone could just step on the floor and then they catch them and then they move them off that Those are not incidents, which we have identified as part of the administrative penalty Director Wells I I note that the majority of these incidents Other than three that I count up are all with 18 To 20 year olds right now is that do we do we think that that's an issue where? because in other states neighboring states allow gaming at 18 That they are they were coming early here thinking maybe that was okay, or whatever or is it just is this constant? Is this continuing even after education signage? I'm just trying to understand the the substance of the problem I may be able to address that a bit better than director Wells Because we've heard it's more anecdotal, but yes We do hear as the excuse now whether it's genuine or not when we've encountered these folks that oh, I thought it was 18 And and we do have signage everywhere big 21 plus, but there is we heard enough that I think it is It is an issue We in fact at one point An early violation we dealt with it. We had a we had an employee who checked an ID and they were under 21 and The employee thought that it was 18 plus that surprised us. We dealt with it, but there is yes, there is a Getting the word out that gaming in Massachusetts is not 18 plus as it is another some other jurisdictions is 21 plus is a constant Communication endeavor and through signage and word of mouth and otherwise. We're trying to get that out and We see it. I think it's much different today than it was and September for instance More people are very aware of the 21 plus age to two two features that we Maybe a couple of the features that we heard about this morning the podium at the three Areas the three main entrances from the garage the hotel lobby and the Main Street entrance We also heard about the the machine What was the what's the name the vera fox? And and and the curfew in terms of you know operations and Limited entrance after certain time Were those all put into place? as a result of these ongoing discussions and an early identification of some of the Issues that you identified at least prior to October Is that is that a fair I think it's a combination I think the the curfew was as we've had a lot of internal discussions on how we address it the curfew was a Strategy that we came up with internally and decided to roll out The very docks piece was at the strong suggestion of director band that he thought that that would Make sense and and we agreed so I think a lot of the measures have some have been it's been a constant dialogue with the Game Commission and the IV and some measures. We have adopted have been at that recommendation Some have been our own and some have just been through brainstorming. I knew early on we had discussion about Ways to maybe ropes or some kind of a Barrier, but I think do I remember correctly that you didn't deem that feasible for this property? We continue to discuss it. There's there's two challenges There's a business challenge that they go to feasibility the business challenge and then the egress challenge So once you put up physical barriers around the floor And we have to really we have to take a look at evacuation and egress from a fire code Emergency standpoint and it does create some some challenges with our current design. So Both of those items Have led us at this stage to try to focus on Strategies other than physical barriers But we it continues to be part of the dialogue. I thought it was interesting is just kind of going back and looking at the incidents which we're basing the Civil penalty on you know the block that happened, you know eight and ten days All kind of fall around the Thanksgiving Day holiday All the ones were a couple exceptions your point to The 14 and the four months are all around the Christmas and New Year's holiday. So I mean, you know Again, I don't know what kind of trend that that points to but that seemed to be where we were catching most of the folks Obviously and it was echoed here this morning I think the most egregious cases is when somebody is physically at a table game facing one of your employees You know, it was important to hear some of the steps you guys are taking to address that I guess I have a question for you director Wells is kind of You've assessed the penalty. What are your expectations or IEB's expectations kind of going forward with respect to how the licensee conducts itself The expectation is that the licensee will Put forth additional resources to keep minors off the floor and keep minors from consuming alcohol the priority from a regulatory perspective is the safety and well-being as I said of the most vulnerable that includes minors and If that means more security officers roaming the floor if it means more personnel checking then The IEB's position is that's what needs to be done. That's the priority Director Wells we heard conversation earlier today about Parents bringing Maybe 18 19 20 year olds and maybe assisting in their ability to to gamble or at least being complicit or And some some summons is that may have been recently issued. Do you have any more information? I don't have any specifics on that. I can check with the state police on what's going on with that, but I Don't have anything for the you know public consumption for the details of information on that I know that the Cut-through walkway is now been that the minor access has been suspended or terminated Originally that was a vote to ask to be exempted from the gaming floor, correct Right, so that's that has changed versus the temporary suspension. What is the status of that wall? So it is now part of the gaming floor. Okay, so that Minors are not permitted to be on that X that cross way. Okay, so it's not a suspension Correct, it's dire thing being part of the floor correct Any further questions for director Wells? Thank you for your work. I want to add that Mr. Mathis did indicate how much he appreciated the good work that you and your team did and we know That it is a coordinated effort we Appreciate the fact that Our licensee here has Agreed to this and takes it seriously and has taken many steps that we've heard about today and we knew about To address this issue that we know is Somewhat of a unique challenge because of exactly what makes your property particularly special so Thank you for your efforts in coordinating with the licensee. Thank you Thank you chairwoman and I want to read reiterate our commitment I also without jinxing ourselves want to report that are we held our inaugural Meeting of our new weekly Leading to address minors and we reviewed reports and I'm optimistic based on what I've heard that you're you're going to see that When we're back in front of you at least for May There's a significant that these measures are having impact and the numbers continue to go down. It was a Good discussion we had and the numbers look very good for May so far. So I think What we're doing is working and when we're here on our q2 report again, I'm optimistic that we're going to see an impact from those We look forward to that. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so now I will turn it over to Mr. Curtis for the Springfield service employee exemption request In your packet you'll see a request for three registration exemptions from GM Springfield And they're being presented to you for consideration and vote The Commission staff worked with MGM Springfield Specifically Jason Randall who's the director of human resources to develop this recommendation is in agreement with the three positions Container this packet the three positions are an usher warehouse runner in the food and beverage hospitality Internship program so I'd ask Jason if he wouldn't mind explaining the positions a little bit more to the Commission Great. Good afternoon The three rolls and the first roll the usher works in our entertainment division This role will be greeting guests checking tickets guiding two seats At the symphony hall facility or events on the plaza and inside the armory Will not be engaged in any food service or alcohol service so purely a escorting guests to to their seats the warehouse runner role is a is a Position on our property that assists in unloading trucks on the property and taking material from the Loading dock to storage facilities and back a house Or as needed taking product to the outlets directly The roll does not cross the gaming floor. The only time it's front of house is when it's bringing product to our star Starbucks and Hotel front desk any of the other facilities that uses back-of-house service elevators With respect to transportation of alcohol. It's not Opening any any product. It's not dispensing any product. It's just moving them around on hand carts from from through the back of house area And then the final roll is the food and beverage hospitality intern This is the internship program that we have is a 10 week program For college juniors this position will be supporting the food and beverage team and administrative capacity Not performing any front of house or or guest-facing work, but really working on projects for our food and beverage Jason that the food and beverage interns It sounds like from the descriptions that they are constantly supervised or wherever they go Property essentially during their work time. That's correct. Yeah, if anything, they're shadowing a leader in their environment But not performing the the actual work with a guest And what colleges do you hope to pull from for the food and beverage intern? We have a student from UMass Amherst who's going to be fulfilling that that role with us Any We'll just give you a little break down of the positions will be 34 ushers five warehouse runners and then one FNB hospitality Madam chair, I move that the Commission approve the request for the Three registration exemptions for MGM Springfield is included in the packet Further questions Opposed Catherine 5-0, please Next item on the agenda is the spring and Jim Springfield alcohol permit amendment request and I'll turn it over again to mr. Curtis Again good afternoon It is still afternoon. I started with this morning when it was this afternoon. So thank you In your packet you'll find The amendment form for the gaming beverage license that was originally approved on June 21st 2018 since that time The licensee has approached us and it's it has submitted this application for amendment to include four new Outlets it'd be the salon the plaza bar food trucks on the plaza Casino Island bar I'd ask Seth Stratton to just give a little bit more of a presentation on these four additional license Outlets I'll pass that actually over to anything cured as old who's our vice president hospitality on three of them I'll do the trickier one, which I think is the Salon spa, which I think is a Modification of What was previously included in our application as being just? The salon we would like to include the salon and spa essentially. This is a this isn't a frequent alcohol service, but it is In either spot we like to have the ability When a customer requests it to serve a glass of champagne while they're having their salon or spa experience Anecdotally in our experience. It doesn't happen very frequently, but it isn't a remedy that we'd like to be able to offer and in our Prior application. I believe we only included The salon and so we want to just clarify and clean up the areas the nature of the service And so that we're fully compliant with respect to the salon and spa and and again that that would be Is there any other circumstance other than a special event where we would have anything No, it'd be strictly champagne maybe a glass of wine really we're going after the wedding market and this is appealing to the brides So this is something we just want to have the options And then the other three areas Anthony, I'll let you cover So the plaza bars is are going to be our newest venue it's going to be supporting MGM live last year when we started the plaza activations We would do portable bars notify the Commission when we're going to do these bars make sure we have the surveillance This is more of a permanent structure that we felt we needed just to have more control over ID checkpoints In the actual responsible alcohol service the second one is with the two food trucks on our plaza We currently run them Friday Saturday and Sunday This will be beer only no liquor just to have the availability to sell beer if somebody orders food Off of the truck all the our normal procedure for tips training everything will take place It's nothing out of the ordinary from what we currently do But you you envision to at least the artist the names of two of the trucks that would sell them That is correct. There are two food trucks that we wholly own and we service This would not take place. We would not allow alcohol service from trucks from the outside We would only confine it to our trucks just from a control standpoint Okay, so those are the names of the two food trucks that is great walk this way and man buns Can I ask you what man buns serves? Asian style buns The trucks are there Yeah, if you want to take a look that they're in there permanently in the plaza during this season Then the third would be our casino Island bar Which you see here. It's 22 tabletop gaming devices We're actually going to be moving Kino to this bar just to try to create activation We've had great luck with Kino. So we think this was really just activate that whole back corner Is this not include you're not looking for two to four service it's a very I'm glad you I'm glad you raised that we would we wouldn't or I'm sorry Would you have the bark in there? No, we would do it currently like just exactly how we do the walk-up bar So it'll be serviced by the cocktail waitress rather than a bartender. So it doesn't appear to be It doesn't appear to be an open bar. So walk-up bar Which is our also our casino service our casino, but our video poker bar From 2 a.m. We shut it down. So there's no guest-facing bartender. So there's no chance of a cash cell being Transpired from that so same setup where cocktail waitress if they see somebody gaming will go and during that service That's right, and I just split back to our original application And that because it's the exact same as a casino walk-up bar, which also has the 2 a.m. Window, but the gaming the gaming floor Service is until 4 a.m. So that service would be under that license area It's not it's not it's within the company It is currently under construction is that That's right. It's created a false wall. It's been the construction is It's the quadrant of the slot floor that's closest to where we are now the corner state main So we've built the wall and cut off the majority of that quadrant So the area was technically already license it was you now you have you just have a new bar Yeah, it's it's most it's it's I'd say almost identical to the walk-up bar Yep, which is within the heart of the gaming floor is a separate licensed area that has Different hours of operation once it shuts down people can sit at the gaming devices at that bar to be serviced by cocktail service I also have Angela Smith who's the senior Supervising gaming agent at Springfield. So if you have any questions for her about the service right like that she's available to answer any questions I have a question The the new We just learned about a lot of new Policies that have been implemented with regard to to try to curtail the underage Are you seeing some some changes in Do you see the policies working Regarding the underage on the gaming yes, I see a progression from opening through today With with all the implementations that they've made along the way improvements with each implementation And and with the with the bear docks at the security podiums that will be at the three standing posts I think that'll be a tremendous help and with the added training to table games Employees, I think that'll be a big help as well in your many years of Working in other facilities Have you seen this from openings before where additional steps were needed to try to really get this issue under control? Or is it more about the porous I Think it's a combination. I've worked at three different properties. Yes one of the properties was a private casino Very strict on anybody entering not just age limits So there wasn't an issue there, but at the other properties that I've worked with I've seen It's been an ongoing issue with underage on the gaming floor at all properties that I Will add that the two Areas additional areas new bars Our advocacy bars served by bartenders. I think When we talk about minor access we have as compared to gaming which we talked about we've had Relatively few instances of minors consuming alcohol, and I think we have a very strong track record with respect to Trained bartenders. I don't know of a single instance in which a bartender has served a minor at one of our bars. I think Bartenders are used to Encountering this issue. They're very well trained. They're familiar to the tips. And so I think these additional bars I anticipate that we won't have any issues with Minors being certified Thank you Madam chair I move the commission approved the amendment request to the gaming beverage license for blue tar free development Dba MGM sprinkle for the salon Plaza bar MGM food trucks on the plaza Second Thank you everybody Me telling me to roll ahead. I was I was simply checking in with my fellow commissioners to make sure they were okay Continue on thank you Good afternoon Director Vandalinden I'm joined this afternoon with Christopher Bruce Christopher is the commission's crime analyst examining public safety impacts of casinos in Massachusetts Today, he will be presenting findings from a report That it analyzes changes in police data following four months of activity at MGM Springfield This report builds upon a baseline that he released last October That baseline included several years of data that were gathered and analyzed by Christopher And overall this this report in this element of the research agenda Builds the body of evidence that tells the story of what are the true fiscal and economic impacts of expanded gaming in the Commonwealth The research that's conducted or led by the Commission is is Is certainly The type of information that we need to inform our policies This is specifically regarding this report is the information that's needed to inform public safety strategies data-driven policing And so to that end it it requires a very unique relationship with With the local police agencies in Springfield and the surrounding communities Christopher has a unique style a unique approach to this I Mean that in a very good way Christopher He works Very closely with each of the the communities He ties into their record management system and downloads the data from each each agency He has an extensive process in which he analyzes this data sorts and analyzes the data He uses not only that Quantitative approach to analyzing the data. He uses a qualitative approach Which includes once we have a draft of this report sitting down with each of the local police agencies as a group and Asking whether or not this is are we are we on track? Is there additional information that you feel should be added to? the report Are we missing anything? And that that is an important a final but very important step in this specific study He's following we are following a The same methods that we've used in Plainville And we've we've launched the baseline study in Everett So what you'll see hopefully over the course of time is this consistent reporting of public safety data to the Commission and to the local police agencies across the Commonwealth Before I turn it over to Christopher just I would really like to thank Commissioner Cameron for your leadership and in this specific study your expertise and background certainly lend to Lend to the credibility and depth and expertise of this this study And I also really want to thank the cooperation and engagement of all of the local agencies Springfield and the surrounding communities I think that as I've described the methods and I think as Christopher will describe them That cooperation is absolutely essential in order to get this study right and to get the data that we really need So with that I will turn it over to you mr. Bruce Thank you. It's good to be here again This initial study just encompasses the first four months of MGM's Existence so it's really too early to establish any type of long-term trend or anything is Basically the purpose was to get a snapshot of any major increases In any public safety issue immediately after the opening of the casino so that law enforcement could be better prepared to Intercede with the right tactics and strategies only after a few more reports Well, we have a sense of what which of the increases that we've seen so far are going to become permanent They're going to become part of the long-term fabric of the the associated communities What we have seen so far and again this cover covers September through December of 2018 first of all the the casino itself Became sort of the top hot spot of the the 11 community region it reported more more crime more arrest more calls for service than any other single location during that period now I'm That may very well be warranted given the number of people visiting the casino So if you take that total and divide it by the you know the number of visitors the rate might end up being not all that Spectacular unfortunately, we don't have that that level of data from all of the other locations in the region But I want to caution that just because it's number one numerically doesn't mean it's it's Unsafe in any particular way any place that you know gathers thousands of people is going to have a certain volume of crime And calls for service within the surrounding communities we've seen an increase in some property crimes in Springfield and in some of the communities to the south that I'll talk about We've seen an increase in Traffic collisions and other traffic related incidents in mostly to again to the south and the west of the casino We have seen some increases in disorder On the other side of the bridges in in West Springfield and That's really about it. I'll cover each of those things in detail, but overall the the numbers contributed by MGM Springfield and the numbers contributed by the surrounding communities in any way that might have been a response to MGM Springfield weren't enough to create any general Generally large increases in the overall statistics for the region if that makes sense So if you were looking at the numbers by themselves and we'll see a graph to that effect in just a second You wouldn't really even notice that anything had changed For for the 11 community region, which of course is a good thing in the immediate area around the casino as we're going to see the numbers have remained Fairly steady, which you know sounds like it's not much of a victory But we you've added tens of thousands of new people a day to the area So that's actually quite good given the influx of Visitors I'm so I don't know if you guys can even see anything Okay, oh excellent. Okay, that's a that's a relief Okay, so we've got 11 communities participating in this study plus the state police so the 12 agencies total and I have a meeting Next week with the Amtrak police to try to get their data and statistics to contributed as well the population that Is represented by the region is about four hundred and ten thousand Three hundred and thirty-three square miles and a little over a thousand municipal police officers are contributing Data to this this study just to set a little bit of context. You can see with the graphs in front of you here Over the last decade or so in the spring field has historically Had a higher than average crime rate going back into the eighties and nineties over the last ten years or so They've had a lot of success in reducing that that crime rate So MGM is opening here in 2018 against a backdrop of of crime That's been going down for about a decade you can see that starkly true in terms of property crime And that includes things like burglary theft vandalism, you know and so forth Violent crime which would include assaults and homicides and sexual assaults had had a decreasing trend It was starting to level off around 2016 2017 But still a lot lower than we saw in previous decades traffic collisions the other on the other hand We're seeing a steady not sharp but steady increase over the same period But that's what happens when you get more economic development to an area and more people start visiting an area There's more traffic and therefore more traffic collisions overall Here you can see the the average of each year for the past five years compared to 2018 when MGM open and you can see the moment that MGM opens there There's just there isn't a bump there isn't a tick there isn't a blip on the on the overall Crime total for for the region so the changes that we're going to be talking about our sort of micro patterns Within a volume that really just wasn't affected in large degree by the casino so far now The report is absolutely chock full of numbers and I didn't waste your time here in this presentation By talking about those numbers that we analyzed and it turned out nothing Was important or there was nothing related to the casino there That's all in the full report if you want to read about that, but it is important that you understand what's happening with the numbers I'm sorry. I had a methodology slide first and I suppose I should cover that first As Mark talked about we went to each of the communities each of the police agencies They agreed to let me tap directly into their records management and computer-aided dispatch systems download the data for since 2010 to both establish a baseline and then compare what happened after after MGM opened This is a unique project in that regard as the Commissioner Cameron has stressed numerous times Most studies in the past have only used Aggregate crime statistics as reported to the FBI and not looked at calls for service that are not Crimes and not looked at traffic collisions and not to mention the detail that we get for each individual crime and not just Summary numbers so it allows us to do a lot more than Then studies in the past Yeah, jump in since you've mentioned You know, I think two things are unique one is a baseline first and we're not aware of any other casino related Attempt to analyze crime that included a baseline And secondly is the ability and I again when I talk about this project to this day How did you get the police departments to turn over their data? That is sacred They're not going to do that and I think we did have a unique approach first of all we on the on the Advice of some one of the chiefs down in the Plainville area Recommending Christopher, but so they trusted him he they had worked with him personally So that helped us tremendously in and getting police chiefs to buy into this project You know getting someone they trust they have worked with to to say okay The word gets around right so you know all the chiefs from the Springfield area They told me we called we called already down to Plainville and I know this chief I know that chief and they said he's good. You can trust him. So we're we're good We're gonna buy into this because of Because of Christopher's your your reputation. You're giving me credit I actually need to give you credit because you really have brought that to this project And I think they understand we're working together. We want to we all have an it we all share this Common goal of what can we do to keep it safe? What? How do we work together? Some of these small communities do not have a crime analyst So Christopher has offered with them look even if it's not related to the casino if you need my help You have a hot spot. You have a problem. I'm happy to analyze your data That was particularly true in the Plainville area up here many many some of the agencies what what are the numbers here? Of agencies that have a crime analyst and those that don't only Springfield does. Oh, well, so it's It's it's it's more important here, right because they don't have their own crime analysts to assist with crime and again, I I Continue to be impressed with the The level of support for this project the brainstorming that goes on Hey, what if this happens? What do we do about this? So it's it's really encouraging for me to see this level of cooperation that always doesn't it doesn't always happen in public safety, right? It just doesn't you know that as well as I do so I just wanted to thank you and and really point out how important it is that these these agencies Trust you trust your work And they know you're not out to you know in any way Manipulate the data just just a pure. This is it. We're gonna report it out the way it is That's good to hear. Thank you. There is an understandable limit though to how much they're willing to share and so occasionally Actually, not very often when I see an increase in something I have to go back to the agency and ask them for help and analyzing it So they don't share personal information about any offenders or victims They don't share the narrative of the police report So there's a you know a limited amount you can get from the quantitative data. So whenever I see an increase What I do is is look at what I you know look at the geography look at the types of locations the property Being stolen if that's what it is time of day day of week anything I can do from what the date data that I have but occasionally I have to go back to them and say can you Look at these ten cases and tell me what's going on because it's not clear from the the data that I have and So a lot of the information the report comes from feedback I get from the agencies after we've identified a trend now the in terms of the numbers themselves I want to make it clear what's happening in the data tables in the reports Because this is different from what I did in Plainville and Plainville things have been quite static over the previous five years And so there wasn't really much need to build any kind of a trend factor into Our consideration of what constitutes an unusually high volume after the casino has been opened But here since the trend as we saw was significant decreases in certain crimes you can't you can't base your assumption of what was likely to happen without MGM Springfield opening on The same types of calculations That you would use if the trend had been static over the years So basically I had to use different statistics if there was a sharply decreasing or increasing Trend and then I did if there was just sort of a flat Trend over the previous years. This is an example here on the screen of a These are just sort of random numbers over the past seven years. And there's no trend and so predicting what should have happened in 2018 and creating a window for what's a sort of a normal tolerance for For crime is a matter of looking at the central tendency and the normal deviation And and creating a window on either side and I explained the statistics in a little bit more detail in the report itself But here in this case where the numbers have been going down Over the those seven years if I were to use the same statistics I would be creating a window for basically where crime had been but not where it was clearly going Over time and so what I have to use is a different set of of stats in order to create the appropriate window for a trend Like this so the data tables that you you see in the report tell you in the window type column whether I used a statistics based on central tendency no trend at all or based on a Trend they tell you first of all what the previous average was per year just for again This is just September to December. Okay, not not the whole year So what was the previous average what what is the slope meaning if you ran a trend line through the data? What would be the average change? Over the course of the seven years if that slope is significant enough it triggers the t instead of the c in the window type And then the predictive window is basically Based on that historical data What will we have expected for a range for that crime or that call for service type in the Four months at the end of 2018 with no outside intervention nothing unusually Nothing unusual happening to the region and then for the result is what happened to that Sorry, we have the 2018 figures and then the result is where where were those 2018 figures compared to what? We would have predicted based on that window now if that if that result says hi Then that that's an indication there may be something external By the way that window is sort of an 85% confidence window right so only about 15% of the time Would we expect a number to be outside that window unless some external influence had come along? To cause that that crime or that calls for service to exceed its window that might be MGM could be any number of other things But that's my way of triaging what I need to analyze further if that if that result is high Then we got to do some further analysis to find out exactly what's going on and can we tie it to? To MGM Springfield and as to whether we can tie it. You've seen this this sort of Yes, can I go back? I'm sorry you're changing. Please If you could please explain the again, maybe you said this The window type the C is the first one the one that looks yeah horizontal Yeah, and the T is the one that goes down. Yeah, so in order to create the predictive window from From a nonch based on central tendency I simply took the mean of the previous seven years and calculated Roughly a one and a half standard deviations on either side of that mean it might be around 1.7 Whatever creates the 85% an 85% window basically so but so it varies The central or the decreasing yes, so varies according to the crime type very yes very very frequently Yes, some crimes were showing a trend over the years others didn't show any trend at all Okay, yeah, so and what there's a trend it's it's it's decreasing or It could be either way. Yeah, it could be either way The slope tells you right so if the slope is positive it means it's been increasing if it's negative It means it's been decreasing and in those cases. I used I used a standard error rather than standard deviation to create An 85% confidence window around the the predictive value for for 2018 And if anybody's ever interested I can provide the you know spreadsheets and the formulas so you can actually See the calculations Can I just an issue so This this is this is an approach where you could take a look at what is the percentage increase or what is a percentage decrease? But it would be it This is a I think a better more realistic way to try to take a look at where there are increases and decreases because using a straight percentage could be deceiving it and And not very helpful No, I've been there they're really useless I mean the percentage change doesn't say anything about the normal amount of fluctuation you see in that type of crime from year to year So for some types of crimes 5% is a huge change and others it has to be 50% before it's big The confidence windows are a much better way to look at But the trend you established over the past seven years that I hear you correctly For every agency except for Springfield based on Springfield fields Feedback to me they had done so much it was data cleaning starting in 2013 That they felt that it would be misleading to go back Before prior that so I only used five years for Springfield and thus for the any statistics that have the entire 11 community region Uses just five years It's quite good But yeah, it would have it it would have been a different picture because they were overreporting a lot of their crimes back in in the early 2010s and and therefore it would have it would have suggested greater decreases Then then we wouldn't really expect it if that makes sense so what I try to do then is Establish a can see any kind of casino relationship with anything that we see increase and these are some of the factors I look at it. Is it geographically related to the you know close to the casino? Is it logically tied to the casinos or the reason that this crime would increase with the casino? Do we have any evidence of people in the area specifically to use the casino and and sometimes it's Not direct evidence, but maybe you know Circumstantial events there there are more people coming from out of town For instance that are involved in this particular crime would be a sign that maybe the casinos to involved What else? Oh, do we see the same type of increase across multiple crimes of a similar type or are multiple communities reporting the same increase? You know that would be stronger than if only a single community reported an increase in one odd crime So again, I'll let you read all of that or ask me any questions you have about that But I've been using the basically the same matrix since a plane Ridge Park and it's not a it's not a A quantitative Matrix it's not like I add up the factors and then make a decision based on that because sometimes the one factor is more important than the other Depending on the type of crime It's more of a and a value of judgment and I'm very cautious to say to make a determination Especially in a four-month report that an increase was likely or not likely related to plane Ridge Park I'm sorry Tim. Jim Springfield. I left I left some of it Purposely vague just because we haven't established any kind of trend in just a four-month period yet So my major findings are here violent crime property crime total crime They were all below average Which means that that doesn't mean they were they were lower than their expected window But they were all below the average anyway And and within the expected ranges during the period across the communities as a whole the If MGM Springfield wasn't here And therefore the crimes that were reported literally at this address Were not not reported Springfield would have had 2% fewer violent crimes 1% fewer property crimes and 2% fewer total crime Then then they actually did It was again the top crime call for service location in the region and in the surrounding area What I thought was likely related were thefts from vehicles and were other residential thefts It at nighttime South and and East of MGM, which we'll show it see a map of that in just a second an increase on collisions on some of the feeder roads Increase in minor disorder incidents and suspicious activity on the West Springfield side of the two bridges And then some incidents at Union Station in the immediate area including thefts Fights and disorderly conduct reports and here's a map of the residential thefts of vehicles and miscellaneous thefts That we've seen in the region. These are only thefts at residences. So what we're seeing here are at nighttime Offenders going into vehicles parked in in driveways or garages or parking Apartment parking lots anything. It's on residential property and stealing things from the cars What it could lose change cell phone chargers, you know could be just about anything and also thefts from the common areas of those residences, so maybe an open garage or Bicycle stolen from a yard or Parcel stolen from the front porch none of the thefts would have involved entry to the residents because that would have been a burglary, so these are just these are just a thefts and so we saw an increase in both happening All around you could the map shows dots all around Springfield But the part that serve the largest increase was sort of that trail that you can see leading from MGM to the south and east and Then going into East Long Meadow the very northern parts of East Long Meadow And then the very northern parts of Long Meadow also saw an increase in the same types of crimes now These are not unusual crimes for that region So what we're seeing here is not a brand new pattern it what it is It's an intensification of something that's been going on for quite a while In those communities and the chiefs of East Long Meadow and Long Meadow have both said to me that they'd gotten used to some of their The those crimes sort of coming over the border from Springfield and just affecting the northern parts of their communities I think there's a logical relationship between that type of crime. It's a it's a type of crime you commit for immediate cash So there's a logical relationship. There's obviously a somewhat geographic relationship, and it's definitely worth watching in the future You know, we'll see if it continues in the next next couple of reports about a 2% increase correct. Yeah, I Don't remember I calculated the percentage change specifically on this one, but It's it's seen within the the statistics for those three communities if you look at thefts from vehicles and then other miscellaneous thefts and then you know, I had to break it down by the type of location and so forth Here is the map of Changes in vehicle in vehicle crashes by road segments So it's a little bit ugly because it's done by by street segment But basically what it's looking at is just for the positive So I didn't bother to do the negatives if if a road segment had more crashes than the average How many more and then it's intensified by color and thickness and you can see quite a few right around They can see it makes sense obviously more more cars in the area that they're gonna get into more crashes I have made no attempt to do a rate calculation here just because I don't think the data exists Or if it does I would have to get it You know on a repeating basis from the the city of Springfield and all the other communities on on how many Would the traffic counts are on those roads? But but it makes sense that more volume is going to lead to occasionally more crashes in the area you can also see some in the In the surrounding communities chickpeas not included on this particular Map that it's not that they didn't have any changes. I just hadn't gotten crashes from them at the time Only in West Springfield and in I think Aguam Did the numbers get high enough to trigger you know to go above that that window? But certainly we can see iners individual intersections In the in multiple communities that might be worth some extra attention from the agencies because of the extra traffic And by the way, I don't mean to Suggest by this map or this analysis that any of the drivers are Necessarily engaging in you know improper behavior or anything. It's literally just a volume issue. I think Are you saying that they don't involve alcohol that was That's one of the more difficult questions to answer with Massachusetts data because we don't have a good Historically we did not collect Data on on alcohol involved crashes very well The only way I can really tell over the long-term period as to whether a crash is alcohol related is whether the agency at the Time of the crash charge the driver with drunk driving and that they usually do so it's it's that that's usually a decent Data set So far we haven't seen that but anecdotally I have heard a couple of cases in which somebody arrested for drunk driving has said that they came from From MGM Springfield. So while that doesn't seem to have caused an increase in a Numeric increase in crashes there or there isn't a trend yet That we can see with numbers so far. It is happening a little bit. And so one of the things that was suggested from the Meeting we had with the chiefs is that I can't remember the agency It's not the ABCC somebody somebody in the state that I wrote down and I have a bag in my office Collects data on the last drink location and they produce regular reports on that. So we need to do When the last drink location so when somebody's arrested for drunk driving they asked them where did you have your last drink? And of course, you know, you're expecting people to volunteer, you know accurately that information but Regardless that is recorded and it's There is a state agency that issues reports on that and hopefully we can get into those reports There's a bit of a delay on them obviously, so I don't know if it syncs up with our release schedule perfectly But I'll try to incorporate that in future future reports Yeah, absolutely, but so far the total number of collisions with alcohol as a cause based on on data collected based on what I said with Charge where we're charging the offender at the time of the collision doesn't seem to have increased And then here we see a map of calls for service for Disturbances and suspicious activity in West Springfield that you can see that There are a number of hot spots just over the the bridges and what we're hearing is that there's more There's some panhandling going on along those those stretches of road There's more people at night time going into a couple of restaurants and Dunkin Donuts a couple of convenience stores Gas stations along both stretches of road And so that that's creating more of these calls for service either from the businesses themselves or other patrons that are using Those businesses unfortunately being calls for service and not crimes There's a limited amount of data that exists to identify exactly what's going on So we're relying heavily on feedback from the West Springfield Police Department on this particular issue But in the future reports, I hope to get into the dispatcher's notes I at least for this particular area and and to be able to tell more specifically what trends we're seeing in this area But it's definitely a numeric increase West Springfield also had this little pattern of purse snatchings alongside Riverdale Street Over the four-month period. It was it's a very unusual crime for what it's very unusual crime for anybody in the region but particularly West Springfield and When I was able to go to the agency and look at the individual reports They didn't seem to be related to the same offender I thought it might be a series at first we had one offender who is committing multiple purse snatchings But after I read the reports they all seem to be Different offenders, but it's still a pattern and something that's not not usual along that road So that's again definitely something we're going to keep monitoring. It's only five incidents So it's not enough to trigger any, you know, huge changes in the data But we look for these micro patterns as well as as the broad trends as well And yet the other things I'll note is that Union stations are 62% increase in crime From from its average In those include, you know, you know fights Disorderly conduct and some thefts. I know Union station, you know had been going some undergoing some renovations It was closed for a while. So the historical dating includes some periods in which it wasn't open, which is obviously going to affect that But we really need the Amtrak data to get a bigger picture of what's happening at the station and on the On the train to and from the station Chris Amtrak was receptive to participating in the project Surprisingly so yeah, they immediately got back to me when I wrote and we've scheduled a meeting for next week And yeah, I think it's actually not going to be a problem at all We had hypothesized. Oh, yeah, just keep in mind Union station is actually now the consolidation of the former bus station right Amtrak services. So You know the pockets of what might have been happening at those previous operation sites might be very sure set a good benchmark Yeah, and I'll you know, I might be a little bit ignorant of some of the geography. So I'll talk to them Crime analysis unit here from future reports to see if there are other addresses that I should have been including in my assessment of what Union station was before the Before the change We had hypothesized that maybe there would be some increases in crime at local hotels Not to upset crime calls for service, you know, everything at local hotels restaurants gas stations places It would be likely used by by patrons of the casino And not again just because not because they're bad people just because when you increase volume of people you increase crime typically But so far that hasn't happened. So we other than a couple of isolated places that had other explanations We really haven't seen a general increase in in hotel or restaurant or or other Service type of location crime and we'll keep watching that. I spent a lot of time Putting creating maps of exit radiuses in each community So you get off the highway here and there's you know radius around which people we might see an increase in activity Just because of people coming and going so far that hasn't produced anything Did were you able to determine that in fact all of the entities that you were thinking of are looking at actually experienced That's a good point. Yeah, I mean that's based on a sequence of assumptions, right? The first of all these hotels are are gonna see an increase in patronage and therefore they'd have an increase in crime I'd have to call them individually to to see if they if they had an increase in patronage I think I would do that if the reverse happened. So if I saw the crime Yeah, exactly that's to try to get their input on that like we did with them The premium outlets and rent them. We saw their crime go up Although it would be interesting to know the absence where there's an absence of crime to if there is Additional yeah, that's not a really good point. I And you know, I wouldn't want to do that every few months But certainly after maybe a year or something it would be interesting to see if we can get maybe those figures from I don't know if The convention Bureau or something like that you might might collect Those types of figures and make it easier so without having to call every Know that we're thinking of economic developments. Yeah Right or if it could be leveraged or triangulated with some other aspects of our research agenda through the economic studies that are being carried out by the Donahue Institute, but I think that there are certainly ways that we could we could try to Leverage other parts of our research And the final thing I'll just mention is that I did some analysis in the report of the area directly around MGM to see What had happened again four months isn't a lot and it was you know for cold, you know short months So I don't want to draw any broad Conclusions about that until we've had a year's worth of activity at least but so far right around MGM The immediate block has his own they saw a slight increase in thefts from vehicles and vehicle theft But the numbers were small so they were outside the range, but we're talking like single digit numbers there The metro center in general the numbers were pretty flat Across the board which is you know, it's really saying something we're talking about an influx of tens of thousands of visitors But of course an influx of people means a couple of things first of all you have more potential targets So that could increase crime, but you also have more potential guardians so that that tends to decrease crime So it is so far it the best Guess my best guess is they're canceling each other out basically and and we're just seeing no changes Inactivity at all and we talked about this briefly earlier today Christopher one of the When we got together and really started talking about the baseline and the project moving forward all the chiefs You know really interested in what would what would happen? And we did talk about that the fact that there would be so many more police officers the metro unit The gaming enforcement unit And we talked about the possibility of disbursement and the chiefs were really interested. I wonder if they'll come over the bridge I'll get her all and once at West Springfield or other parts of Springfield and I know you were conscious of looking at that and that that hasn't happened The disbursement piece hasn't happened and we had interesting conversations. You know are these criminals basically lazy They're not going to walk a half mile to commit the crime and you had statistics from other projects You had worked which basically say it doesn't happen as much as Right that we think it or or someone thinks it might right yet The summary of criminology or literature is basically the displacement is feared a lot more than it actually Just because the original environment was conducive to crime in for particular reasons and you make that unavailable and it's there is no instantaneous adaptation to new environments a lot of people simply fall off Criminal activity altogether or they do adapt but at lower volumes than in the original location So the fact is there's just there's no other Area around here that's quite like Metro Center Springfield that if you were interested in committing the same crimes You used to commit around here that you would immediately go to you'd have to research and go to places that are much less Amenable to whatever you were doing. So it makes sense that we're not we're not seeing that but I Again, I don't want to I don't want to say for sure that we're not seeing it until we've had too soon. Yeah, exactly And that is my report any other questions for me Well, I mean I think all of us didn't know what to expect, right? We were hopeful that all the efforts everybody working together would be successful So I actually look at this as you know a good report so far We don't see of course. We see certain things we have to pay attention to but we don't see an overall Really escalation of criminal activity. So I think that's that's the good news so far and It will it will take everyone's vigilance to keep to keep at it, right? And obviously as the year the months progress and we have more reports You know eight months twelve months, etc I'll be able to incorporate more data sets including some imperative data from other agencies on create control areas the same way I did for For Plain Ridge Park and then so forth in the summer months will be interesting Yeah, then it'll be interesting too. So you expect them to get longer and you know a little more detailed obviously as we go forward Well, one of one of the things that I know Happens as a matter of just the process that that we're undertaking or at least has the potential to happen He's for some of these feedback quickly look back to the public safety committee that you are part of Commissioner and get the feedback from an input critically from the chiefs to develop Brainstorm about strategies or tactics Yeah, that's already happening right the chiefs have already talked about all I didn't realize you were having that too I you know I had this year. Let's talk about if it could be the same group or whatever. So that is happening Yes, now that we have more data more information the public safety committee is very interested in Christopher's work and How they can help assist with this project, so that's a good point Thank you If I could say so this is the four-month report and I think it's largely because we're very curious And want to to keep track of any increases that we may see immediately after the opening of MGM Springfield We'll continue on this this interval Eventually, I think that the reports would be less frequent once we begin to have a better sense of what we need to pay close attention to but we're Adaptable and and we can do these at the At a frequency that makes sense and and would be useful to the Commission and to the local agencies Director Vanderland and I credit you with you know, you're you're a public health person and very much Interested in the responsible gaming pieces but you have embraced this project and given it all of the all of your time and effort and Really taking the ball and been a great leader frankly. I may have some expertise, but you've been the lead and you've done it really well Thank you very much Thank You Christopher So item six we met yesterday Have there been any updates that you want to provide since then or any others that you'd like to Try we are here pretty much alone In open meeting forum anything We had a meeting of the public health trust fund at yesterday and Some of what What came out of that meeting I think I should come back and report to this Commission I think one of the things that occurs to me Right away Is as we think of the next year's budget that will be coming very soon Because it's the end of the fiscal year that some of the Some of the highlights from yesterday's meeting we could we could frame around the discussion of the budget So I will be coming back and update you all on some of those developments Thank you And I do know that you'll be working with commissioner of Brian to help transition her in For public safety, so this is a good kind of a junk a junction to make sure that that transition helps because of course You you to bring a different perspective, so I'll be really good good transition. So thank you Do we have a motion to adjourn? I move to adjourn? second Any nays