 We're all set, I call to order public meeting 297 of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. We will be conducting this through collaboration technology in accordance with an order that Governor Baker issued that gave relief from certain provisions of the open meeting lot in order to accommodate, protect the health and safety of individuals interested in attending our public meeting. I just wanted to make a few remarks, again, just as a reminder, for those who may be joining the first time in a couple of weeks, the MGC's three casino licensees operations were temporarily suspended on Saturday, March 14th at 10am. We extended that order recently to align with the Governor's orders, which right now will bring the suspension through May 4th. We plan to revisit that between now and that date. That decision, again, I stated at our last meeting, was made after extensive meetings and consideration of up-to-date consultation with public health officials, other governmental officials, other large venues, and, of course, with our licensees who like the commission prioritize the health and safety of their employees, their patrons, and, of course, our employees who work on site on a regular basis, our GEU, our gaming agents, and of course, the Game Sense advisors. As I stated, of course, last week, it was fairly difficult, sad, and complex time in our global history. In our work here at the MGC, I think it would be fair to say that the assessment of the public health and economic crisis will remain a minute-by-minute exercise. They will be addressing what seems to be more like our normal, ordinary course of business, but of course, I think we all take very seriously that it is a fluid assessment and evaluation of all our work here at the MGC. For those of you who are observing your religious beliefs this Holy Week, we at the MGC hope you are able to draw new and revived strength through your faith at this time, given particularly difficult uncertainty. Again, I want to thank all the people on the front line, and I know I speak for all of the commissioners and all of the MGC. We thank all the medical professionals. I'm looking across the street and I have two neighbors who are on the front line at MGH. We thank our first responders. We ourselves have members of our GEU who are now back being deployed by the state police. We thank all the personnel at the grocery stores, at the pharmacies, at the convenience stores, all of the delivery people who are working to keep us safe and sound, and our families safe and sound. We thank our mailmen and our mail women. They are keeping us connected. And we thank the truck drivers and all of those who are getting our supplies, our lifeline across the country and to our homes. And again, I have to thank all the MGC. Many of you on today, let me just see, we have 100 participants today on this phone. Many are members of the MGC staff. Thank you for joining us. We appreciate all the work that you've done to allow us to conduct these meetings. And we thank the public who are attending, including the members of the media for your interest in our work, in the work of our licensees. Moving on, I want to note that the first week of April marks very appropriately National Public Health Week. It is a time to recognize in the ordinary course of our business the contributions of public health and highlight issues that are important to improving our nation's health. Since the commission's inception, we built our problem-gambling prevention and mitigation strategies on a public health model of credit, of course, Mark van der Linden for his good work, strengthened, of course, by Teresa Fiore. Our partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health is essential to the success of this work and we work with them on a regular basis. We have them in our thoughts right now as they work right now, very directly to address the impact of the coronavirus. As businesses, including casinos, resume operations will again rely on the guidance and expertise of DPH to address our core mission. There has never been a more critical time to acknowledge the vital role public health plays in our day-to-day lives and the extraordinary contribution to our society's greater good. With that, I turn to the business of the day and go to the approval of minutes. Commissioner Stebbins, please. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning. The first set of minutes we have for approval are the minutes from the March 12, 2020 meeting. I was in an abbreviated meeting, if we all remember, but those notes were included in your packet and I would move their approval subject as always to any typographical errors or any other non-material matters. Second the motion. Any edits or comments? Barring none. Those in favor? Hi. I guess I should do it for the roll call. We'll do it very quickly. Commissioner Cameron? Hi. Commissioner O'Brien? Hi. Commissioner Zunica? Hi. Commissioner Stebbins? Hi. Yes, that's 5-0. Thank you so much and thank you to Sharra. Madam Chair, the next group of meeting minutes are from the March 14, 2020 meeting that was again our first meeting that was held utilizing remote collaboration technology. I would like to, and Madam Chair, I appreciate the additional language you gave me, but add into the little gray box, which is always on the front page, just to add on to the end of that language to the effect of in accordance with the governor's order, providing limited relief from certain provisions of the open meeting law to protect the health and safety of the public during the global coronavirus pandemic. So we'll be adding, I'd like to suggest we add that to the little gray box on the first page and that will be a regular part of the meeting minutes and the format going forward. Other than that amendment, I would move approval of the minutes from the 3-14 meeting. Again always subject to any type of graphical errors or any other non-material matters. Any questions or comments? Do I hear a second? Second. Second. Okay. From Commissioner Zunica, firing no comments or edits. Commissioner Cameron? Hi. Commissioner O'Brien? Hi. Commissioner Zunica? Hi. Commissioner Stevens? Hi. Chairfield? She asked 5-0. Thank you. Moving on. Sure. The next set of minutes is from the March 16th, 2020 meeting. Again with the edited grayed note box on the front page, I would move the approval of minutes as always subject to any type of graphical errors or any other non-material matters. Second. Any comments, edits? Barring none. Commissioner Zunica? Hi. Commissioner Stevens? Hi. Commissioner Cameron? Hi. Commissioner O'Brien? Hi. Chairfield? She asked 5-0. Thank you. And Commissioner Stevens, thank you to you and the work that you've done to keep us very organized with respect to the use of our recording technology and of course, to share us ongoing efforts. Appreciate it very, very much. Thank you. Moving on now to our administrative update, item number three on our agenda. Interim Executive Director Karen Wells will give us department reports. Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the commission. Despite the temporary closing of the three Massachusetts casinos, a significant portion of our normal operations continue and we have taken the opportunity to focus on some other much needed areas. The MGC is very fortunate to have had a forward-thinking IT department and we were able to transition to a remote workforce extremely efficiently. Staff has done a remarkable job adjusting to that format. I'm extremely impressed with the work output that has continued during this period. I asked staff to provide me with some detail of their current progress. So I'll detail some of those highlights for you now so you get a sense of how operations are still continuing. I'll start with the gaming agents division in the IEB. During the recent shuttering of the casinos in Massachusetts, the gaming agents have been performing some much needed tasks. Some of those include sports betting regulations are being reviewed from other jurisdictions to obtain the best foundation for regulations for sports betting for Massachusetts. They've looked at rules and regulations from New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Delaware and they're going to be looking at others and they've been working with MGC legal to touch base with the process just so we are prepared should sports betting legislation go through. The IEB is the gaming agents. They're preparing a reopening checklist for the eventual reopening of casino operations and that checklist is being shared with each individual property and customized for their casino. Each casino's submission of internal controls are also being reviewed against MGC regulations to ensure we have the most robust set of protocols and controls pursuant to 205 CMR 138. The gaming agents supervisors are paired with gaming agents to review these submissions and then the review is twofold versus for training and it's also for review of completeness of process at the casino. Several submissions sections are quite large and these reviews are being coordinated by the senior supervisor for discussion with Bruce and Burke. Our compliance manager, Sterl Carpenter submitted a vast review with updates for legal review on the gaming equipment regulation of 205 CMR 146. This review helps send some language to the online rules of the game section which is available to the public. Gaming agents are also holding table games training. These trains are being recorded, saved in our share drive and can be used for future training of gaming agents. We're also, we've implemented the LinkedIn learning so all of the trainings that we're doing now will be able to transition to that platform which will be our platform for training across the agency going forward. The senior supervisors are in routine communication with each casino licensee. There are several point person and department heads the seniors reach out to for updates so they're in constant communication and they're also in constant communication with their staff including routine HD meetings, et cetera. Agents, standard operating procedures are being offered to staff for review and new SOPs are going to be offered and discussed so that ongoing process of reviewing what we're doing and making things better and our daily, weekly and monthly reports are still being completed and submitted. So that team which is our largest civilian team is doing a lot of work right now and they're also preparing for the inevitable reopening of the casinos. As for our licensing division, with respect to Claimers Part Casino, the staff has completed the qualifier application review and transmitted applications to the IEB for investigation. They continue to work with the Penn National Licensing Manager and Supplemental Application Documents so that renewal process for the Penn National local license is ongoing and the Licensing Department has done a terrific job with that. As to vendors, the licensing staff is working by email with primary vendors on their initial and renewal applications for example the United States playing cards, GLPI, EVET technologies so that process still goes on and they're also working in the same capacity with the secondary vendors. They're also continuing to work on designation and de-designation of casino and vendor qualifiers. That's always an ongoing process with new people coming on board at these companies and other people leaving. We have to maintain a current list so the Licensing Department has been continuing with that process. We do continue to receive non-gaming vendor initial and renewal applications and the licensing staff will use that for completeness and the incomplete they work with the company to get what they need to continue with the process. They're working by email to process vendor gaming employees, the slot technicians and the system engineers that work at the casino, their initial and renewal applications. That's important because when we reopen the casinos they may have some additional slot techs they may need to help with that process so our licensing team is making sure that they're working with them. They're also preparing for the next wave of email notifications to vendors whose non-gaming vendor registrations are expiring in July and August of 2020. As for casino employees they continue to process those casino employee applications through LMS. They're working with the applicant for application completeness and they queue them up for fingerprinting. As you know right now we are not fingerprinting just a little bit but that will resume once the public health officials and governmental officials give the approval. They're also working on a project with Jill through non-gaming vendor contact information. They compile the list of registered vendors, approximately 3,000 of those with names, location address and email. So that can be used by the workforce supplier and diversity development department to help some of those vendors get their license. They're also working on reviewing and editing their standard operating procedures, cleaning up the S drive, cleaning up the licensing share drive and other matters that can be done especially while the casinos are closed. Those are just some of the highlights from the licensing department. As to the IEB, the investigations side of the house, the investigators who continued performing both individual and entity applications, since the closing on March 15, they have completed dozens of investigations both at the temporary and the full level. The investigations actually can continue despite the shutdown. They are using some remote capabilities instead of potentially having an in-person communication using these HD meetings or phone call meetings to get the information they need but they have been able to access the applications and continue with the investigations. As an example, something we're also doing, one of the financial investigators participated in a virtual tax training session and then she conducted the training for the entire team and they began using new and updated work papers. The PBC renewal license investigation is active. We continue to go along with that. The state police XO and the enforcement council are working with the police to review applications and place on hold various issues that need attention or action. We're monitoring self-reporting messages for potential licensing action. We're doing the reimbursement memo so the financial process on the investigative side of the house continues and even our chief enforcement council is working on a racing appeal. We're coming together given the type of investigation. We're working with the legal department on that and we're also working on the exclusion list. I do expect going forward all of these investigations will continue. These vendor investigations are heavy lifted and they take a long time to complete so this opportunity to really just focus on some of the work that has been in the queue is a great opportunity for the investigators and they're making the most of that. We'll talk about the investigation. I don't know how much of a slow down. The only issue of the investigation really is the fingerprinting. At some point when we have to reopen, we'll need to deal with the fingerprinting issue. Otherwise the work continues despite being remote. As the state police as I said they're still working on their investigations. They're not only continuing to work on the individual earlier. We also have some members of the G.E.U. have been reassigned to other duties in the department on a T.D.Y. basis to aid during the pandemic. So we'll have to do an evaluation of what the needs are going forward. We have to work with the state police on what they need right now because they're doing a lot of critical work for the state. Next up is the Ombudsman Office. For, you know, just like a little side note, I really would like to thank Mary Thurlow and Joe Delaney for their particular dedication and ability to step up during this time. They've both been asked to take on more right now and they're just doing an incredible job. So I'm so grateful to both of them and I'm so impressed with the work they've been doing. They continue to work on the 2020 Community Mitigation Fund application reviews, which as you know is a lot of work, and they continue with the ongoing Community Mitigation Fund administration. They're working on the Plain Ridge Park relicensing. We're doing a lot of work on legislative tracking. They're also working on evaluating host and surrounding community payments, and then upcoming items that they have in the queue include the quarterly reports and also some meetings like the LCMAC meetings, the GPAC meetings, and they're also working on general compliance. So RFA2, host communities, surrounding community, Section 61, etc. So they're quite the power duo and I'm very pleased with how that's working out right now. As for the legal department, also got a lot of work on their plate. They are also reviewing sports wagering legislation. They've developed updated race horse development fund procedures and they're in discussion with committee members. They continue to give guidance on HR matters. They're responding to public record requests. They're coordinating with outside council on litigation. They're also participating in the PPC renewal process, and they also have been working as you know with preparation of regs describing emergency authority of the commission. They're working on unclaimed winnings, reg amendments, and promulgation. As Sharra is well aware, they're preparing of the meeting minutes. They're coordinating and they're coordinating hearing exclusion list appeals which are upcoming. They are participating in the community mitigation fund application review. They're also reviewing our existing contracts. They're advising relative to VSE issues. They're preparing gaming equipment reg updates. They're preparing updates to GLI related regs including stadium gaming which is some upcoming. And the reviewing of ongoing reporting and compliance requirements. And then there's that racing appeal which I discussed which they're coordinating with the Chief Enforcement Council. So Carrie and Todd are quite busy. They've got a lot going on, so I'd like to compliment them on that as well. I just want to compliment the whole team. HR continues to move along. Obviously HR is a tricky issue. They've got people working in different capacities right now. They're working remotely, but their core functions still continue. The time sheet approvals, the payroll changes, the payroll expenditure approval. They're also doing some policy work. They're rolling out the employee dining policy that you voted on before. They're working on the employee handbook. Also the telework policy which is going to be very relevant going forward. They're also coordinating with both IT and other departments for the training and development, training manual for supervisors, that that LinkedIn learning rollout which I discussed. And they're also working on additional supervisor training sections. We've also got the open enrollment coming up that's now in process. So I think it's open right now. So they're working with people on that. They're dealing with social distraction suggestion. So helping people through the time when we're all in a bit of a crisis. They're putting some proactive things out so the staff has some resources and they're also conducting those HR office hours. As for racing, it's an interesting race. I've talked to Alex and then got an email from her about what they're doing. Now given the suspension of simulcasting and postponement of racing, for the skeleton staff we have right now which is similar to what we have during the winter. So they're, but they continue to go along answering patron calls regarding cash in the paramutual tickets, cashing out account wagering accounts, etc. They're working with the Department of Agricultural Resources on various items related to breeding programs and health programs. They're participating in virtual meetings with these other associations of racing members on various regulation updates. They're comparing RCMRs to the model rules of ARCI to see what needs to be updated. They're communicating with the drug testing laboratory with the federal embedding of 24 people, none from Massachusetts yet associated with racing. There's been a lot to discuss there. They're looking at the licensing system. They're looking at the, always looking at the horse development, the race horse development fund and regarding that split. They're answering questions from fortunate associations and they're doing a whole host of other things. I'll provide a written document for the commission so you can see some of these, but the general workload of the racing department continues in the way that it does in the off season. They're also going to be calculating disbursement and dispersing the quarterly local aid and reviewing and submitting invoices for third-party contractors. It's obviously not business as usual for the approximately 18 seasonal staff that we usually hire on. Those back to work dates have been postponed. So there's a lot going on there. I have a very large list from the IT department of things that they're working on. I won't go through that entire list with you just for efficiency purposes, but as you know we've got infrastructure, network, telecom and security issues that they're working on. They're working very hard on client services so all of us are working remotely. So dealing with folks that are working remotely and what they need has been a priority for the IT department. So they've been doing a terrific job with that, gaming technical compliance. They're working with the other parts of the agency on preparations for potential sports betting legislation and they are working on several projects including that LinkedIn learning. So they have been instrumental to our success while the shutdown is going on and I would like to thank each and every one of them for their time and effort. We've also got the workforce supplier and diversity team, Jill, and they've been working very hard. They have done the CARES COVID-19 resources for casino, horse, racy employees and vendors. So both the casinos and the horse racing employees have benefited from that. They're collecting and keeping updated information regarding federal, state, local and private resources for posting on a website and they're planning webinars with MGC grantees who provide virtual small business technical assistance to casino horse racing vendors. They've been working on the community mitigation fund and that grant review and also grant management and amendments to the 2019 CMF grants. They've also been helping out with Plain Ridge Park casino re-licensing. So responsible gaming and research, they're continuing to move with some of their projects. They have a plan with external stakeholders to collect player card data. They're in regular contact with contractors, especially Sigma and MCCG to discuss and plan for changes in scope and budget. They've made changes to the VSE process to allow for remote enrollment. They're planning a responsible gaming and probable gaming training series, including a VSE refresher training for all gaming agents. So they're involved with the internal workings of the agency as well. And then going ahead, they're mitigating the voluntary self-exclusion database, other migrating, pardon me, migrating the voluntary self-exclusion database to a new platform. They have major updates to the NGC research page and their drafting guidelines for online gaming. Our finance team continues to do a lot of work, especially right now. I can begin to tell you how many hours Derek Lennon has put in over the last few weeks and how busy his schedule is. And he's really got a great team supporting him on those efforts. They continue to work on the budget. Their budget updates monthly meetings with directors on their budget and cost estimates, processing of invoices through a remote system, reviewing vendor spend and matching these path flow timing and estimates, working on that FY21 budget development, coding expenditures and donations for the COVID-19 requirements, and also reviewing and updating policies and procedures. They also continue to work along on the revenue side of the house. I won't get into all those details, but I have several bullet points I'll provide with it for the commission. And then last and not least, the communications department. And the communications department is really supporting the other divisions with identifying impactful ways to share important information with our constituents and stakeholders. For example, the office has been working with workforce development. As I said, they have worked on related identification of various resources for local casino vendors, casino and racing workers and those who are struggling with problem gambling. The communications office is also keeping media informed about all commission related developments, maintaining our dedicated COVID alert webpage on massgaming.com and keeping our social channels updated. So I realize that's a lot. I have a lot more detail which I'll provide to all the commissioners, but I think it's important that you understand that there's a lot within each division. And if the commissioners want specific updates on a particular division similar to what we've been doing in public meetings in the past, please let me know and I can highlight any further work that that division is doing. And I can have that particular director report to the commission. So again, I want to thank the staff for their work during this time. We expect to be gearing up to reopen the casinos once the public health and governmental officials give the word. That's expected to be a heavy lift in a compressed time frame, but with all the work that is going on right now, the staff is going to be ready. So I'd like to compliment them for that. So that's the long-winded narrative on a lot of things that are going on at the commission right now. Just so you are aware, because I realize it's a little different when you are remote and you don't see us in the office every day and can see what's going on. I wanted to give you a fulsome explanation of all the things that are going on remotely. So that's my very long narrative. Commissioner Cameron, go right ahead. Yeah, no, I just, that was very impressive. And I certainly learned a lot from about what each group, I'm not surprised, but I am grateful. And just, I know what kind of team we have. So interim director Wells, please thank the team. And it's much, much appreciated. Well, thank you. Okay. Other commissioners? Commissioner Ryan? No, thank you, Karen. I had some contact with the legal department in particular working on some of what you're talking about. It's good to hear about in detail what some of the other groups are doing that I haven't had a chance to connect with. So I would hope to reach out individually, but also to say to all of them, thank you very much for the work that you're continuing to do. Commissioner Stevens or Sunika? Go ahead, Enrique. Yeah, thank you. No, this is a very good summary that there's a clear theme here. And that is that a lot of the work that continues for many reasons, mitigation, public records, community mitigation, finance, the bills don't wait, even having to wait to pay a bill requires work. So a lot of people do a lot of necessary work and that's a very good summary, Karen. I'm also very encouraged by our ability to go back into what was perhaps a backlog of or pending projects, cleaning out hard drives and maybe some proactive work about sports betting research and regulations. It's also really good to hear about. I don't want to go through this necessarily, but I just want to make a general point here that I know is operating, but it should go without saying. To the extent that we deal with external stakeholders that have gone themselves to a diminished workforce for reasons, even their circumstances, I know we have to be flexible in terms of what we require in response times for, as they themselves look at an ongoing priorities. So there's that theme of flexibility that I know will reasonable and will be continuously thinking about, as well as streamlining where possible and taking processes out of this period that might put us in a good position as we all emerge from these closure period. I think there's a realization that like the prior great recession, the licensees will probably take some time to ramp up to what was a normal period prior to this closure. It's something that we also need to be thinking about, as I know some of you already are. So overall really good update and I just want to leave the message of having to be very proactive and flexibility as we continue with these very challenging times. Evans? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would echo the comments of my colleagues. I've had a chance to continue to work with a number of departments, including Joe and Mary on the community mitigation fund and of course Jill and Crystal and the great work they're continuing to do, reaching out to many of the small businesses that are being impacted. But kudos to Karen and the rest of the team. I like the fact that they're taking advantage of this suspension period as it's been pointed out to relook at regulations, relook at rules of the game, internal controls, as well as preparing ourselves with a review of how other jurisdictions have handled sports betting. Commissioner Zuniga and Director Lennon and I were on a conference call the other day that included some of our UMass research partners talking about obviously the gaming market overall in the Northeast, as well as what might be expected as the industry comes out of the current closure that it's facing. And some words of wisdom to not rush into things that might be a short-term solution, but might not be best for the long term. So I appreciate everybody's work that they're doing to kind of do some homework at this time on some of the critical issues. Thank you. In fact, Commissioner Stebbins, I know that our Communications Director Elaine Driscoll was on that webinar as was I. So other folks may have been joining, I think that was a very helpful presentation and great to have one of our research colleagues be really take the lead on the discussion. With respect to sports betting, I think Karen made it very clear there's no presumptions here. The legislature is still very much contemplating the potential for legalizing sports betting here in Massachusetts. With that said, the draft legislation, the early drafts in the most current draft, did designate us to be the regulator and we have promised the legislature that in the event we are asked to regulate, we will be prepared and poised. And given that there is so much uncertainty, we want to make sure every tool is available to the legislature that they might want to look at. And so going forward, not only has, as Karen points out, there's been some considerable thought in the last few weeks while we've had suspended operations to sports betting, we will be organizing that effort in a structured way. Commissioner Cameron and I will work with the very long list of critical director level individuals knowing, of course, that with each of them comes their entire group. This will be something, if it is legalized, that will take an enterprise-wide effort and could equally be something that's urgently looked at. Again, while we are mentioning sports betting, that's all I remember. The legislature has a lot on its hands right now and it may be very much removed from their thinking. But again, as promised, we stand ready and we will use the resources of our team in a judicious fashion. Taking into consideration Commissioner Zuniga's important point that we don't want to impose on external individuals or enterprises in a way that taxes them unnecessarily at this time too. So I'll go ahead. But Karen, I know that I had very much wanted that update and whether it's going to come in today's format at our meeting or through an email. And I wanted it because I have been quite aware of all the efforts that have been going on and but I wasn't aware truly in detail today really, really made me only more appreciative. So thank you. So now I'm moving on to our one of the two. I don't know if Mary will be contributing or not to 3B of our agenda, but we did ask Joe Delaney to bring us up to date on a legislative activities report. And then of course, Jill Griffin, because of her good work as the director of workforce supply and diversity development, she'll be joining on this update. So thank you, Joe and Jill. Thank you, commissioners. So I'm here today with Jill Griffin to provide a legislative update regarding the current pandemic. We are closely monitoring the various federal and state bills that have been filed with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Massachusetts alone, 80 bills have been filed related to COVID-19, most of which are currently working their way through the legislative process. At the federal level, the coronavirus aid relief and economic security act, which is known as the CARES Act, which I'm sure you've all heard about, was recently enacted. And that's the main topic of our discussion today. So the CARES Act provides needed resources for the COVID-19 public health response. It's a $2.2 trillion package, which is the largest economic relief package in U.S. history. Now, while the CARES Act provides relief for many people and industries, this discussion for the commission just focuses at a very high level on the portions of the act that are most relevant to the commission, to employees at the casinos, to our licensees, and to our vendors. I will focus on the impacts of the CARES Act on individuals and on the bid size and large businesses. While Jill will discuss relief provisions to small businesses, particularly the Paycheck Protection Act program. So with respect to individuals, probably one of the biggest pieces of this is the enhanced unemployment benefits. The CARES Act expands existing unemployment insurance in two ways. First, by providing an extra $600 weekly payment for all weeks of unemployment between April 5th and July 31st. And second, by extending unemployment benefits for an additional 13 weeks. So in Massachusetts, currently, the maximum unemployment benefit is $742 per week for a maximum of 30 weeks. So these provisions would increase the maximum to $1342 per week while extending the benefits out to a maximum of 43 weeks. The act also expands eligibility for unemployment insurance to individuals who are self-employed, who are independent contractors, or who have a limited work history, among a few other expansions. Governor Baker has signed a bill waving the one week waiting period for unemployment benefits, which was requested as part of the CARES Act. The second major benefit to individuals, of course, is the payments to individuals. So individuals who earn less than $75,000 per year or couples that earn less than $150,000 per year will each get $1,200 plus $500 for each child under 17. These amounts are reduced for people with higher incomes and are eliminated for individuals with $99,000 in earnings or more, or couples with $198,000. And the last major piece for with respect to individuals is the extension of tax filing. The filing date for federal income taxes under the CARES Act has been extended to July 15, and Massachusetts has also extended the filing date for state returns to July 15 as well to be consistent with the federal act. With respect to mid-size and large businesses, the gaming industry is eligible to participate in this program under the various federal programs that are established in the act. Many of these provisions are very complicated, and it's not really my intention here to get too deep into the details, but I just wanted to present a high-level overview of some of the programs that may potentially be available to our licensees and or vendors. The first item is financial assistance. The CARES Act sets aside $454 billion in financial assistance to those firms that are not eligible for the small business loans under the Paycheck Protection Program that Joe will discuss in a couple of minutes. For medium-sized firms, which are those that are between 500 employees and 10,000 employees, loans will be made available at an interest rate of not more than 2%, and will not be due and payable for at least six months after the loan is made. For larger businesses, loan guarantees, loans, guarantees, and other investments will be at a rate determined by the Treasury Secretary. Now, for both of these programs, for the larger businesses, there's no loan forgiveness, and there are significant conditions that must be met to obtain these loans. And my understanding is at this point in time, not a whole lot of guidance has come out on these particulars of these programs, but that should be coming from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury shortly. The other big provision is tax relief. There are a whole host of tax provisions that will provide these medium and large businesses with some financial relief. Some of these include deferral of social security tax payments, advancement of depreciation costs, employee tax credits, and other, shall we say, more esoteric provisions that I'm not going to even pretend that I understand. So those are the main provisions for medium and large-sized firms. And with that, I'll either open up to questions from the commissioners on these provisions, or I can just turn it straight over to Jill to discuss the programs for small business. Good morning, commissioners. Oh, good morning. Can I just check in on commissioners? Did you have questions for Joe? Or do you want to wait till you hear from Jill, perhaps? Okay, I don't hear any. So we'll continue with Jill, and then perhaps the combined presentation may prompt some questions. But, Joe, thank you very much. Very clear for me. Thank you. So there are actually two programs that I think might be of interest to our casino and horse racing mentors. The first is the Paycheck Protection Program that Joe mentioned, administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration. And $349 billion has been provided for small businesses through this program. Companies with up to 500 employees are eligible, and companies can borrow up to $10 million. And the unique thing about this program is that it provides forgiveness of up to eight weeks of employee payroll. The loans are acquired directly through banks and are 100% federally guaranteed. As Joe mentioned, demand for these loans has been extraordinary, as you can imagine. Some issues have been identified in terms of difficulty applying for the loans and lack of guidance and that sort of thing. The SBA advises businesses to apply for this loan through their existing bank, and they can also get guidance through the small business development centers that are in existence across the state. The second is the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advanced Program. And small business owners, again, that have up to 500 employees are eligible for a disaster loan advance of up to $10,000. And this provides immediate relief, and apparently there's a very fast turnaround time. The loan advance will not have to be repaid. And in talking with Director Leip, many horse racing vendors are independent contractors, so this program may be of particular interest to them. It's open to independent contractors, non-profits, small businesses, and so I think that would be of particular interest to some of the smaller firms. Information on both these programs can be found directly on the SBA website at sba.gov. We, as has been mentioned, have been also posting helpful information regarding the CARES Act and other state and private resources on MGC's website as well, massgaming.com backslash COVID-19. So, and I just wanted to mention as well, in order to help casino vendors and other small businesses that we work with to access these funds, we actually have two small business technical assistance firms that we engage actually well before this crisis, but they have pivoted and are providing valuable information about some of these funds and how to access this. In addition, one of our vendors, Leif, a community development corporation, is working with us regarding a webinar that will take place on Tuesday, April 14th. We'll be providing more details about that webinar as well. Thank you. I do have a question. I'll get it started in case, in case no one else has any questions. For a small business, just to clarify unemployment versus the Paycheck Protection Program, if I furlough employees, which means they stay kind of in my system, haven't terminated them, they're eligible for unemployment, correct? Correct, yeah. But that would not cover benefits, correct? And so my next question, if this is helpful, the program, the Paycheck Protection Payroll, can you use that loan for not only salary, but for benefits too, can that be part of the calculation? Because Paycheck is a little misleading to me, but I would assume that means benefits so that if I employ five employees, I can go to my lender and ask for the amount and then apply it to not only a salary, but also the fringe benefits. Yeah, I think if my reading of that is correct, there are provisions. You can use it to pay rent. You can use the loan to pay a whole post of different costs. I think that in order for the loan to be forgivable, a certain percentage of it, and I can't remember the exact amount, it might be 75%, has to go towards payroll. So I imagine the other parts could be used for benefits and things of that nature. Certainly, I said rent and utilities and other things are eligible. And you have to make a commitment to retain those employees after the crisis. Yeah, well, when you get to the end of the eight-week period, as long as you have maintained your employment at a certain level, I think 80%, then the loan is forgivable. If you don't do that, then it's just a loan and you have to pay it back. You have to pay it back. Okay, that's really helpful. So there is a distinction, because some people might think, well, what is the difference between unemployment and the very generous unemployment? Why would you do that? And maybe furl versus the small business loan, because you can use the small business loan for a variety of not just salary. Well, and I think that the notion of the small business loan is to encourage employers to keep employees on the job. Continue to pay them as employees so that they don't have to go on unemployment insurance, which helps that program stay more solvent. And the unemployment insurance gives you a couple of options. If a company is not able to keep their employees or keep paying full time, they can access the Workshare program through our Commonwealth's Department of Labor and Workforce Development. And so they might pay partial wages and partial unemployment. That's really helpful too. And you've been giving guidance on that too. I know the various vendors. Thank you. Thank you. That's a great program. And for the questions, I'll help clarify the line. Very helpful. And we'll stay tuned. I know that as the state continues to look at its agenda, we'll receive more and more updates that are localized. So thank you. And thank you, Joe and Jill. And I know Mary will be supporting your efforts as well. So thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Nicely done. So we're moving on now to item number four, the Accounting and Finance Report that will be led by the Chief Financial and Accounting Officer, Derek Lennon. And I want to just point out that today's discussion is keeping really with our standard quarterly review process combined with, as we understand, the found awareness that our agency and the state's gaming industry, along with so many around the world are now facing an unprecedented and as I commented earlier, dynamic situation. And given the rapidly evolving circumstances resulting from the wide ranging impacts of COVID-19, Derek Lennon has urged the commission to proceed as scheduled with a budget review as a prudent staff in an appropriate action, particularly in light of emerging fiscal considerations. It is not, in other words, business as usual. In fact, I anticipate like many organizations that we will be revisiting budget discussions on a regular routine basis as the landscape continues to evolve, facts develop and as financial impacts become clearer to view. So thank you. And as Karen noted, Derek and his team have been extraordinarily generous with us as commissioners and informing us and briefing us and helping us to understand the details. I want to applaud Commissioner Zuniga for his patience with me as I asked, I think, only 100,000 questions. So all very helpful to me and I'm sure that I speak for the other commissioners who have done the same. So thank you, Derek. Do you want to get started? Yes. Can you hear me? We can. Excellent. Good morning. Good morning, Madam Chair. Yes. And you'll introduce your team too. And Commissioner Zuniga will be joining your presentation. Absolutely. Good morning, Madam Chair and commissioners. Good morning. Good morning. I am remotely joined by Agnes Bolier, the Chairman and Account Payable Manager as well as Doug O'Donnell, our Revenue Manager and Commissioner Zuniga. We're here to present to you the second and third quarterly budget updates for the Mass Gaming Commission. Before we do the presentation, I just want to point out that I found an error in one of my formulas on page four of the memorandum. And let me see if I can share the memorandum that's shared right now. There it is. Yes, there it is. Yes, thank you. Okay. Let me move this over and just make sure I'm still sharing. I'm still sharing the memorandum, correct? Yes, you are. Okay. So if we go down to page four of the memorandum and if you look at the chart titled January 1, 2020 Gaming Positions, the numbers under the slots and table gaming positions are correct, but the total didn't pull through. This is the actual old numbers. So these numbers went down by about 700 gaming positions, which would change these percentages. Now, I want to emphasize that doesn't change the remaining assessment. It does not change the projected surplus that I cover in the memo. All it does is change the distribution of that remaining assessment, which I'll have to work out with the licensees Doug and I will have to do. So I wanted to point that out because if anyone actually pulled out a calculator and didn't rely on Excel to do the totals like I was relying on, you would see that these numbers didn't get out. So I apologize for that. I will get a revised one in the final package for what we post onto the website for historical purpose. And if I can interject for one second, that was a formula that I had sent over to Derek that didn't calculate correctly, but the percentages did change on a minimal basis. For MGM, it goes down to 30.19, where currently it's 32.57. Encore goes to 54.02 and PEN goes to 15.77. So those are the actual percentages that they'll be. And you know, I know Doug's taking the bullet for that, but I should have checked those formulas. I had a time and you know, at the end of the day, there's a lot of stuff that went into this and I guess that could have been a lot worse places. We had some calculation errors. We've checked all the other numbers. Those are correct. Just wanted to point that out before we progress. So moving on. All right. So moving on, the commission improved a FY20 budget for the gaming control fund of 34.2 million, which is composed of 28.4 million in regulatory costs, 5.78 million in statutorily required costs, as well as for the first time, the entire research and responsible gaming budget was funded from the public health press fund. The first quarterly update for the gaming control fund required an assessment of 28.39 million on licensees. And they were also assessed an additional 5 million for the public health trust fund resulting in a total assessment of $33.9 million on our licensees. Just wanted to remind the commission, the approved FY20 budget did not include funding for the additional ongoing litigation. We put that at the bare minimum required for our insurance. It also had a built-in deficiency for public safety over time costs. We discussed that at the first quarterly update. For this review, and mainly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff has worked to review the previously identified deficiencies as well as any additional areas where the MGC could reduce spending without impacting core services. We've also reviewed revenue and made assumptions in the worst case scenario where the revenue received as of the end of March would be final revenues for fiscal year 2020. With that backdrop, I'll now get into the updates for the second and third quarters. Through the first six months of FY20, the gaming enforcement unit spent approximately 90% of the $1.25 million overtime budget. Once again, a reminder, they had requested more. We went with a truly optimistic number that just didn't come out to be what we were hoping for. However, their straight time had under spent during that same time period by about $225,000, which is one of the reasons you saw the overtime go up. An additional $600,000 overtime would have been a realistic target to complete the fiscal year. Once again, that would have been under normal circumstances after reviewing the first six months. Additionally, the litigation budget was entirely spent in the first six months of the year. We were recommending an increase for that budget by $560,000 to complete litigation matters for the year prior to the shutdown. To cover the exposures at the mid-year period, the MGC experienced some attrition, which turned into $600,000 in payroll savings, as well as another $228,000 in fringe and payroll taxes. We had targeted approximately $250,000 reduction in the general's office spending because at that point, they were well below the 50% spending mark, and they continued to be even at the 75% of the mark below the 50% spending mark. We think that that was a very small target and easily achievable. At that point, we were in balance as of the mid-year with those assumptions, but that brought us to the third quarter. On March 14th, the commission with the cooperation of our licensees unanimously voted to suspend gaming operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a series of emergency orders from Governor Baker, which were issued on March 15th, March 17th, and the 23rd, the emergency closures for casinos has been extended until May 4th. In response to this changing environment, we prepared a series of recommendations, but targeted reductions based on sound, fiscal policy, and focused on stopping projects, rather than natural stop pointing, not beginning projects that do not have the necessary available resources to start, and reducing budgets with spending most likely cannot happen. The easiest place for that is travel, conferences, and parking. Those are easier examples of where it just can't happen. We're not there. The total amount of spending reductions identified are summarized on page two of the memorandum. Let me get down to that. In total, approximately 1.5 million. The details of these can be found in Attachment C under the third quarter of spending reductions. The second part of our review was to look at a worst case. Derek, could we pause for just one second? I want to just give the opportunity to the commissioners. Do you, would you like to ask questions along the way, or do you want to until, if you want to ask questions now, I can't see everybody. So you'll have to actually, you know, say something to me. Otherwise, we'll wait to the conclusion. I'm not hearing. Everybody's all set to wait then. All right. I see Commissioner Cameron and Commissioner Zuniga on the screen, and I assume then Commissioner Stebbins and O'Brien you're also set. Yes. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Derek. I just seemed a natural place because you've gotten to the 1.5. Thank you. My pleasure. The second part of our review was to look at a worst case revenue scenario for the rest of fiscal year 20, licensing revenues through March. So a worst case scenario has actually turned out to be a pretty decent revenue discussion. Licensing revenues through March have already exceeded initial projections by 220,000. As we have discussed in previous meetings, additional security costs that have been requested by Encore Boston Harbor for the Gaming Enforcement Unit have been billed back directly to them, resulting in 118,500 that was not part of our initial projections. And in addition, the MGC received final payments related to the wind suitability from last year, as well as we've received 220,000 in vendor primary billings in excess of the initial fees. Reminder, we work on a modified cash basis of accounting. So while those events may have happened in previous fiscal years, we realize the revenue when it's received. The combined impact of the decrease in spending and increase of revenues results in a projected surplus of $2.15 million in the Gaming Control Fund. Rule 5, CMR 121 describes how the commission assesses its operational costs on casino license fees, including any increases or decreases over or under spending. As of today, the commission has billed for the entire assessment to licensees, not reflecting any of the proposed changes to the assessment included in page 4 of the packet. That being said, on March 26, 2020, MGC staff conducted a call with the three casino licensees. This call covered many topics regarding the budget, but one of the main points I'd like to bring back here for consideration was the request for timing the payments. The licensees requested that the last quarterly allotment be spread out over monthly installments to assist with their cash flow while they're generating no revenue at their facilities. 205 CMR 121 provides sole discretion to the commission to approve or deny any budget recommendations from staff, as well as set the schedule for the timing of payment of any assessments. Given the information provided today, the commission has multiple options on how to proceed, and I'll get down to that section there. I laid out many of them on page 5 regarding spending and revenue options, whether we take all of the recommendations, whether we take a piece of them, and then use some of that surplus for other initiatives, whether we accept it all, and then the commission asks us to go back and cut deeper, or accept them and then say, keep looking for some cuts where you see it, or with spending isn't actually coming through. Under the assessment, we have options of whether we can credit the full amount to the licensees and then bill it all at once, revise our quarterly billing, or spread it out over the three months as requested, continue billing for the full amount, or any revised amount in between there. Once again, bill that all at once, and ask it for a full assessment, we'll bill it out over three months. There was a request regarding the public health trust fund, whether we could defer payment to that, whether we could spring that out over three months as well, like the other piece, and we have some pretty basic options there, because the statute requires us to bill that five million on a floor on an annual basis once we begin, and since this is the first year we actually shifted it over the public health trust fund, I probably would never recommend that you guys defer that payment until after the fiscal year. So that gets me to my recommendation, once again this is just mine, doesn't represent anyone else, but I'm recommending that we accept all spending recommendations and revenue adjustments, which would result in a $2.15 million surplus. We continue as staff looking for budget adjustments throughout the next few months, so if we find areas that we either go up or down, we bring that back to the commission in a timely fashion. I'm recommending we credit the surplus to the 2020 Game and Control Fund Licensee Assessment and adjust the final quarterly billing for the Game and Control Fund to be billed over three equal installments on a monthly basis, and then we continue to assess for the public health trust fund on a monthly basis, rather than all up front. My opinion that this balances the difficulty licensees are experienced in regarding cash flow, but also ensures they are compliant with their obligations under 205 CMR 121, which is to pay both the annual operating cost of the Game and Control Fund, as well as a statutorily required minimum assessment of $5 million for the public health trust fund. At this point I just want to say thank you to Doug Agnes, the whole team, and Finance Jacqueline for putting up with me. I want to thank Enrique for all the work he has done, all the commissioners for the time that you have spent looking at this with me and bringing different points of view to me. I want to thank every single director and their staff at the MGC who have taken this exercise head-on and really identified deeper than I could ever imagine. If you look at a $7 million assessment remaining for the last quarter of the year and coming up with $1.5 million in cuts, that's pretty significant, and that's really identifying and that's not cutting our core service areas. That's just saying, hey, I can stop this project here. I have a natural breaking off point, or hey, we had conferences scheduled, we're not going to go to them. So I'm really impressed with the work that went into this, and at that point I'll unmute myself and turn over to any questions. Commissioner Zuniga, before we have questions, do you want to add? Yeah, no, I, oops, I lost, I lost you, hold on. Here we go. No, very, very good memo. I agree with all the recommendations with one small caveat that I'll talk to in a minute. I think we should discuss them individually, but overall I think it's very important that the work that is being, that is taking place here, which is to really think critically about what has changed, given all these circumstances and what we can do to be responsive to the reality of a shutdown of revenues for licensees, and how we need to react to the extent that we can. I think there are, and let me mention just one thing here. I know you mentioned it. I'm not taking you literally, chair, asking as many questions as necessary here is really critical. It is five, the five of us commissioners who need to both understand and agree and make decisions ultimately in this period of changing environments. And one thing that I think operates in this assessment, it's a principle of assessing necessary costs. They will pay them and they are looking, these licensees are looking at cash, at their cash positions, and they have different circumstances and different approaches and understanding that is going to be also very important, especially if these closures continue. So I think as we, as the memo currently stands, is very prudent. It's the work of the Derek mentioned of every director and areas of thinking critically about what's in the pipeline, but the recommendation also critically includes the need to continue to look at other areas, because the big unknown in all of these is how long, how much longer will these closures remain and especially also what is the reality going to look like once they're able to open. I think if we draw parallels to the Great Recession, which I would argue is a good parallel, the revenues for every casino around the country went down significantly and it took a while for those markets to come back up. So I know licensees are already looking at a diminished, in some way, diminished activity, whatever the normalcy looks like when they're able to open. Thank you. If we could get then, before we move on to any more general questions, or as you mentioned, you had one more point, if we could address Derek's proposal, are there particular questions right now? I'll allow you to jump in so I don't put anyone on the spot. Commissioners, I do have some questions, but I'll defer first to you folks. Okay, Commissioner Cameron, are you? Yes, that's a tell, correct? That's a tell. I appreciate how much went into this. I did speak to CFO at length about this, which was very, very helpful without having a financial background and I thought his and his team's rationale was really sound. They had thought through every issue around these cuts and they all made sense to me. I don't have any specific questions now because I did have that very thorough briefing. The questions I asked were process, what about this? What would happen if this and his rationale was really sound? I agree with his recommendation. I'll just start with that unless I hear something else from my fellow commissioners, but as of right now, I thought his rationale was sound and proved for us to be looking at these issues at this time. Thank you. Okay, Commissioner Stevens, I see you. I don't see Commissioner O'Brien right now on my laptop, so I'll go to Commissioner Stevens. Sure. Thank you, Madam Chair. I've also had the opportunity to spend some time with Director Lennon on his numbers and his recommendations. Somewhat understanding that when cuts we make impact others, but I think it's still a prudent and reasonable approach for us to take at this time and understand that this might be some of the easier items for us to consider and that there might be more to come, but certainly appreciate the recommendations that he's put on the table at this point. Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner O'Brien. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to also thank CFL Lennon and Commissioner Zuniga for all the work and everyone in that group that they did. I benefited greatly from the meetings that we had about this. I asked a couple questions along the way and I think circling in the same area, Derek, the one point of clarification I still have that I'm looking for is the caveat of recommending that we do the payments monthly while they're closed, but then revert back to getting payment in full for the assessment if they're open. Is there a timeframe between them? Is it when they would potentially be able to open and or when they actually open their doors? I mean is there some sort of a thought on what the timeframe would be that they would then have to shift to do payment in full on the balance? Yes, so I was recommending monthly throughout the entire period. It's just if we had to move forward and then we had to resume things like tee passes or parking, you wouldn't get the full 700,000 reduction for that month of June because we'd have to reinstate some of those things and be people to be traveling. So we would come back and say based on this and we may need some overtime so we may grab some of that money back and say now that your doors are going to be open, revenue will start flowing in, you're not under that cash crunch when no revenue is coming in. We would look to maybe not give back that full assessment but still on a monthly basis and I think that I think that we're going to be taking that up on FY 21 too looking at cash flow and maybe helping on a monthly basis if it's if it's prudent and if there are situations and you'd be strapped for cash to come to a recommendation for that for the first few months of FY 21 too. Okay, all right, thank you. Yep, thank you. Derek, I do have one specific request for clarification on page two of your six page memo. The subtotal for 1.27 million makes a great deal sense to me. I think I've gotten clarification on those individual items. I understand too that with respect to the five million dollar assessment that's required by statute the only relief we'll give to the licensees is to make it the balance of 1.25 or whatever a monthly payment rather than requesting it all up front now. I see you nodding your head so that that right sounds like what I don't what I really want not only to appreciate from my perspective but also so that the public is it understands clearly what the 200 and about 50 thousand dollar cost mitigation is for the public health trust fund. I appreciate that right now that it looks like those funds are to be used for purposes that are unique to our mission. Those are not that $250,000 is not part of the full assessment, correct? That's correct. That's funded under the public health trust fund. The operations of our research and responsible gaming budget while we are billing licensees five million to put towards the public health trust fund their actual expenditures for the year anticipated to be 6.5 million so we would still have to build the full five million just to meet their needs plus get some from the public health trust fund. So 250,000 and Enrique jump in that does not mean that does that mean that the licensees are going to be realizing that gain or is it just mean that we won't be spending that amount for those purposes and so for secretary Sutter's under the public health trust fund the section of the 23k that applies to the public health trust fund the discretion lies with her with respect to those expenditures so that those funds remain available or Enrique help me out in other words we're not taking from the public health trust fund. It goes to the second that the second you started with and either or it's it's the latter. I've seen this is not a cash benefit necessarily for the licensees. It's a programmatic reduction which we think is important even all the circumstances around us. In general there was a conference that we were going to fund for the mass council there's great question as to whether that conference slated for early June I believe or late May is going to take place anyway and if so what shape was that going to be in terms of attendance so we're deciding we're deciding to of course you know eliminate those costs given the circumstances what as Derek mentioned because we are spending six and a half million at least initially of the year and and assessing five million you know we are we're just really a net positive taking from the public health trust fund to fund the operations but it's important to note what you mentioned about at the end let me correct you if I may on on the last piece of your comment which is the remaining because it's a trust fund it remains within the trust fund and it operates as we continue to operate under the MOU between the VPH and and ourselves on those expenditures. I have had a discussion with Lindsay Tucker our partner at DPH who's a designee we were going to have a budget setting meeting that was postponed because of all the recent circumstances and there is at least a an understanding that will have to rethink our budget priorities as everybody is doing given the circumstances around us there are many things that will continue to operate but but it is possible that within the state within the secretary within DPH public health priorities will change for the for the future year or fiscal year and we're just going to have to have those discussions. Right thank you I wanted to make sure that that folks understood that those dollars remain in the fund and that we just are basically saying we even though under the MOU had agreed that they would be spent a certain way we're taking those spending that those operational expenditures off table the dollars remain in there and they'll get the full benefit of the five million dollars that's right. By the way I should mention though that fund is funded through you know the assessment but also the gaming taxes which will be you know greatly diminished from the initial revenue projection so it's only incumbent upon us to continue to think about programmatically again with DPH as those changing changing conditions. I think the bottom line messages I didn't want that to be misinterpreted that somehow we were making cuts or spending cuts somehow that would impact the dollars available to public health because that would that would be an incorrect assumption so it's um and Enrique again thank you for uh chairing uh that executive committee that is per an MOU that was in place when I came on and Lindsay's Burke has been so important too and it's a great partnership so thank you uh that was one point I really um I really wanted to just get clarification for the record Enrique and Derek and I also understand that we are going to spread this amount over three terms if for some reason we decided that this cost mitigation operated against our core mission in a way that we had not foreseen would we be able to make an adjustment for the next assessment as I understand that these expenditures are earmarked our dollars are are fluid and could maybe be transferred to cover perhaps a a CASA is core to our mission would we be able to look at that come next month? Yes, yes I do anticipate these conversations to be at least monthly and continue updating but you know as licensees pay the assessments how we're doing whether there are issues that we need to come back and revise you know the one person I forgot to talk about and how involved she's been has been Karen as well as you I mean these conversations are are very much a daily occurrence so as our situation changes and as a new need comes up or as we someone calls and says hey we can't move forward on this I see these as regular updates we've committed to talking to our licensees every seven to ten days to figure out how they're doing because their situation can change almost daily so you know I do I yes the answer to your question yes and I I think you'll be seeing more of me than you'd like to over the next couple months never never more than we'd like so that's really helpful that gives me some level of comfort that by doing this not all up front over the course of the three months as your proposal suggests that that gives again flexibility that we might need to tap. Enrique before I go on do you have do you want to address your point? Yeah no just just a couple of a couple of points let me start with something that is not in the memo but I may have alluded to or it may be in our in our minds which is we are currently not making you know Derek is not making recommendations on neither am I on modifying existing contracts ultimately this is something we would have to first determine as a commission that the revenues would not be matching what our commitments are in order to take that action which we can do as per the contract the Commonwealth contract terms and conditions we could do with our existing vendors in in in lieu of that because we don't want to get to that point part of the recommendation that I want to highlight is to have those conversations and continue exploring you know what we may be able to accomplish given the changed circumstances around us that's not necessarily anything that's within the memo it's just something that as long as this so long as this closure continues is something that eventually we will have to contemplate it's just something that I wanted to mention as as the reality around us I don't know by mentioning it by the way it doesn't make it any sooner or any easier or any later it's just something that that I think we'll need to understand and appreciate. Thank you. Enrique also I know that it was important to you and to me that and I'm sure the other commissioners too they I just haven't been privy to their conversations of course under the open meeting law restrictions that we revisit the licensees after they had made their requests about what cost mitigation steps for measures we could take you know we are putting on the table a pretty big number I'm sensitive to the fact that employees in the casino industry have been furloughed and I think you had a very helpful discussion with them the licensees in terms of you know with our good faith measures that Derek has so in team including Karen of course have really outlined for us they also are receptive to to receiving those in good faith I don't know if you want to elaborate at all you know without of course I know it was a very high level conversation. Yeah I mean the only thing that I would I would add is that there are as anybody can imagine the three licenses are looking at all of their spending priorities and their cash availability and so far so good but you know things can change you know in different ways and we're just going to have to continue monitoring that situation having those conversations a one-on-one for licensee and we'll report back as as necessary I think for now for today the recommendation is very solid there are two elements that I will maybe highlight here which is one of cash flow and that's very prudent that assumes that you know it's a bit more work at times for the finance team to build and reconcile monthly as opposed to quarterly but that's a easy enough thing for us to do and or straightforward rather and I think it's a reasonable very reasonable request I think other things in terms of programmatic decreases not acting on some of the open positions and vacancies that we have is also very prudent even the circumstances and that has a net cash benefit and we'll just you know revisit those when when as time progresses we like I get a I have a feeling that a lot of that will happen organically as we continue to operate even within these circumstances further questions for commissioner Zuniga or for Derek and team Doug Agnes thank you so much I can't see you right now the way that our screen is working hi commissioner O'Brien do you have any questions or comments I don't know thank you I think you're when you shifted in your seat you unmuted myself then you popped up my screen thank you so I'm not hearing uh commissioner Stevens just to check in with you and commissioner Cameron are you all set right now no questions thank you excellent I want to commend CFAO Lennon and his team for their seasoned financial expertise I am um I asked Derek to give me his bio recently because we were having a conversation with a legislator who was interested in getting updated from us and and and I knew of Derek's extensive background in state finance um and and was happy to have see it on paper we are very fortunate because he has um had such an extensive and lengthy tenure in state government that um he is able to enter this very uncertain time the fiscal time never mind the public health crisis um with confidence and um with insights that um you know really are invaluable and he has an equally invaluable and thoughtful team um you have been nimble and you've provided the commissioner with a preliminary assessment here despite this environment of uncertainty and unknowns and I appreciate that you will continue to make yourself available in a nimble fashion monthly and of course probably daily basis to help us continue to assess these matters as they change so rapidly so thank you with that said we do need a vote today do I have a motion um I'll be happy I'll be happy to do that even though I don't have it in front of me and people and our staff um was very kind to draft the draft and but um I will just move that the commission adopt the recommendations outlined in the memorandum from CFAO Lennon and as included in the packet and take the steps necessary to effectuate those recommendations I think that's a perfect second then thank you barring any other further questions or edits to the motion uh I'll do a real call vote to Commissioner Cameron I Commissioner O'Brien I Commissioner Stepans I and Commissioner Zuniga I here both yes five zero and again thank you from all of us on your team stay well thank you uh it is 1137 does anybody need to have a break before we move on to item number five all right I'm looking particularly at Commissioner Zuniga so we're good um moving on to item number five um research and responsible gaming we do have an external guest joining us but I'll have Mark VanderLinden uh set this um the stage for this presentation director of research and responsible gaming thank you great uh good morning uh madam chair and commissioners good morning morning this is the first time that I've joined remotely to the public meeting so excuse my uh this organization um I am uh pleased to bring to you today the lottery and revenue MGM Springfield it's an analysis statewide it's a local and statewide analysis of the impact of MGM Springfield on lottery revenue um our presenter today is Dr. Mark Nichols um he is a professor of economics in the College of Business at the University of Nevada Reno um and he's been a member of the Sigma research team uh since the beginning his research is focused on a variety of topics including a comparative analysis of gambling regulation across various jurisdictions the competitive consequences of expanded casino gambling and lottery casino gambling and crime casino gambling and public finance and the analysis of casino gambling as a tool of economic development obviously bringing uh to this specific project a wealth of knowledge experience and um and talent um why is this this particular study important um lottery revenue provides a significant benefit to Massachusetts communities in the form of local aid which is why the when why the legislature issued a clear mandate to uh to the Massachusetts gaming commission when um it adopted the expanded gaming act to require measures to protect the lottery taking this directive seriously the Massachusetts gaming commission included in our research agenda a study examining what are the possible impacts of Massachusetts uh casinos on state lottery um the study presented today is a first of an ongoing look at lottery sales since the MGM Springfield opened um it provides a different sort of look and um has different results than the study that we've presented before looking at what is the impact of lottery sales um uh when we open Plain Ridge Park Casino um what Dr. Nichols will will present to you and provide in greater detail as well as an analysis is that lottery sales were were down um in Springfield the year the first year of operation of of MGM Springfield and remained relatively unchanged in the um surrounding communities but at the same time lottery sales were up overall statewide by around six percent um it's an interesting finding and I think that um Dr. Nichols will be able to provide some some context and insight into why that may be um and uh so I won't go into any further detail as to to what his findings were with that I'll go ahead and turn turn the presentation over to uh Mark Nichols so thanks for joining us from uh Reno Mark and Mark can I just interject just one thing just to remind her again this research was completed prior to the suspension of the um operations and and while we're reflecting on this the findings are going to be relevant to um any landscape ahead I think we should remember that the research will be critical to our ability to assess and inform policy um reflecting the rapidly uh changing environment so we have to have a little bit of a different lens when we hear from Dr. Nichols because of the changing landscape but it certainly will be critical to the your mission ahead Mark yeah if I may just to expand on that um chair I think this is incredibly important Massachusetts is the only state um that has taken the research component of of understanding casino impacts as seriously as as this and I think that the use of data using data to inform our policy moving forward so that that um it can be um it can be a real tool to inform how we do business is is incredibly important thank you for allowing me to jump in and now Dr. Nichols correct uh was he hearing the document do you or will you be sharing the document yes I will be sharing the document can everybody can everybody hear me good morning or in very early morning for you it is it is it is but that's quite all right uh so thank you mark for that very nice introduction and good morning madam chair and commissioners it's a real pleasure to present to you today and I will try to present my screen here to you and share it with you okay everybody can see it then yes yeah all right well thank you and it is uh again it's a real pleasure to to present to you today and the objective and purpose that I'd like to accomplish today is to describe sales trends and changes in lottery both statewide and local and local being in particular spring field as well as spring fields designated surrounding communities and mark alluded to this a little bit already but why do these lottery changes changes in lottery sales matter first of all the statewide context is important because lottery sales statewide are the largest source of local aid for communities so the statewide impact is important and MGM is important to look at as well because it was the first resort style casino to open in massachusetts so we might expect different economic impacts from that compared to say the slot parlor that exists at plain rich park that said the impacts on lottery revenue are more likely to be enhanced or more pronounced in the local area surrounding the community so that's why we want to look at the local communities more closely and if you look at sales trends in lottery statewide they've generally grown relatively slowly these are the um this is fiscal year data so these are the approximate times when the casinos have opened and the general pattern here with the exception of fiscal year 2017 is that sales have grown and they've grown relatively rapidly you can see that in a little bit more detail here and in particular in fiscal year 2018 and fiscal year 2019 lottery sales grew at nearly four percent and as we'll see in a little bit that's more than double the historical average which is about one and a half percent over this year and as well lottery sales are very very volatile from year to year so the percentage change in any one year can be pretty pronounced these large this large decrease is of course the great recession obviously now we're in a very new environment and as Commissioner Zaniga mentioned it's in many ways very comparable to the great recession so we'll see what happens in fiscal years 2020 and 2021 but lottery sales are relatively volatile which is important to keep in mind but when you look at these numbers it's pretty safe to say that there does not seem to be any sort of impact required from casinos on lottery revenue lottery revenues have been growing and reaching record highs lottery profit has been reaching record highs as well turning out to a more local analysis in particular and I'm sure this map is redundant for most of you but we'll be looking at Springfield and the surrounding communities and to provide you some historical context first if we look historically at sales trends in Springfield and in the surrounding communities relative to the state they've tracked each other very very very closely so these communities in the past have grown at very similar rates one thing to point out is there's some rapid growth in the state which is the blue line here more recent whereas sales in Springfield in the surrounding communities seem to be flattening a little bit you can really see the similarity historically here so again historically the state has grown state lottery revenues have grown at about one and a half percent over the years 2004 to 2018 which again I think provides some good context for that four percent growth that we've seen in the last two fiscal years 2018 and 2019 Springfield which is here in green is practically identical historically to the state as a whole as are most of the other surrounding communities though one exception is Wilburham and pardon me if I didn't pronounce that correctly well it's a very small community and the percentage increase there is notably large because it is a small community a lot of resales are relatively volatile and this percentage actually hinges upon a few years where they have very very very rapid growth of double digit rates we're not quite sure why they had that rapid growth but they did so just from a historical perspective lottery revenue in Springfield in the state have grown very very very similarly as have the surrounding communities as probably everybody knows MGM Springfield opened August 24th 2018 and so the purpose of this study really is to take an early look to look at the first year of operation and ask the question what happened to lottery revenues and so we'll compare kind of before and after the year before was the year after comparing Springfield and the surrounding communities with the state as a whole and as Mark Beno and excuse me already referenced their paths really diverged so during the first year of operation of MGM Springfield the state did very very well lottery revenues increased at a rate of six and a half percent in contrast Springfield decreased by three percent and the surrounding communities also decreased although at a much less of a rate roughly about four tenths of a percent so while historically lottery revenues tracked each other fairly closely during the first year of operation they seem to have diverged from that historical pattern and you can see that here as well again here is the state average when we break it down by individual community this state average this is again the first calendar year after the casino opened the state revenue grew at six and a half percent again here Springfield at three percent not every surrounding community experienced declines in lottery revenues some actually saw increases in lottery revenues but all of them again with the exception of Wilburham performed worse than the state as a whole and again I would not put too much into this or read too much into Wilburham's numbers it's again their revenue is very very volatile year from year in part because it has a very small community so the natural question when you see something like that is are these changes related to the casino and I hate to give the typical economist answer but we really can't kind of say right now first of all we only have one year of data so it's a little premature to conclude anything based on one year of data remember lottery revenues vary a lot from year to year so obviously it's difficult to say that there's a trend based on one year of data and as I'll show you here in a minute there is some evidence that part of that decline may actually be more of a return to normal lottery sales or the historical trend in Springfield lottery sales in the year prior to MGM opening were unusually high for Springfield so a decline may reflect some just return to a longer term trend and you can kind of see that here so these are bi-weekly lottery sales in Springfield from the period of June 2014 to August of 2019 and a couple of things I think that that stand out to me in this one lottery sales have been relatively flat and if you recall from that earlier picture I showed that they've been to lottery sales in Springfield and the surrounding communities seem to be kind of flattening out in recent times and this reflects that so there's really very little upward trend here secondly if we look at lottery sales prior to MGM Springfield opening which is at this time period right here you can see over this time period lottery sales actually reached a peak and they were declining lottery sales were declining even prior to the opening of the MGM casino and again this is a little bit like reading the tea leaves perhaps but there there does not seem to be at least visually any clear break in lottery revenues after the MGM casino opened these sales at least to my eye look very very very similar to the historical level and you can kind of get a context another context as well if we look at MGM or excuse me if we look at Springfield the surrounding communities and the state as a whole the year before the year after these these are just indexed to make these numbers comparable and it's all relative to the month prior to opening Springfield is the green line and you can see that this is that peak that we saw earlier so this is that peak right there which has occurred in March and April 2018 I believe there was a large power ball jackpot so you saw lottery revenues in all communities in in the state as a whole increasing during that time but they increased more rapidly in Springfield and if you just look at sort of the the pattern here you can see that the growth rate in lottery sales in Springfield and in the surrounding communities prior to the casino opening exceeded the state and then after the casino opened which is right here you can see the growth rate in the state as a whole is now above those lines or is faster than in Springfield and the surrounding communities so Springfield and the surrounding communities were doing relatively well with lottery sales prior to the casino opening so that 3 drop maybe just a little bit of a reduction coming down from from that peak what do we conclude from all of this the good news is is that there really is no evidence that casinos have harmed lottery sales statewide but when we look at Springfield in particular we see a bit of a divergence from their historical pattern where they followed each other relatively closely and lottery sales growth lottery sales growth followed each other relatively closely Springfield decreased three percent the rest of the state increased six and a half percent to give you an idea Mark Vanderlinden mentioned that this was different than the experience that Plainville had in Plainville the lottery revenue has has not decreased it but it grew more slowly and so if we exclude sales from Plain Ridge Park casino after the opening of that lottery sales in Plainville increased about two percent whereas in the rest of the state they increased it about five percent and just for some context if we exclude the lottery agent that exists in the MGM casino lottery sales in Springfield would have decreased a little bit more they would have decreased at four and a quarter percent and so but again primarily with one year of data it's a little premature to say anything and there also is some evidence at least preliminarily that the decrease in lottery sales may be a return to normalcy for Springfield and then another point that I think is really important to make is even though lottery revenue in Springfield decreased by three percent that does not mean that local aid in Springfield decreases those two are not directly connected local aid to communities is a function of statewide lottery revenue it is not tied to the performance of lottery sales or casino revenue for that matter in the particular community itself so just because lottery sales decreased in Springfield does not mean that local aid dollars are going to decrease in Springfield all that said we really do think that this actually warrants future monitoring in many ways the results from Springfield are are interesting because there does seem to be something something here that that stands out but we don't want to make any kind of false conclusions yet or assign any kind of causality to the casino as a for this decrease in sales but we do think it deserves future attention as more data comes in we'll be able to distinguish whether this is a beginning of a decline in sales obviously it's going to be noisy now that lottery sales are probably down anyways obviously casino revenues are down down are zero now but as additional data comes in we can hopefully distinguish between sort of a longer term casino induced impact versus just normal year-to-year variation or return to normal sales levels in Springfield and as well we're doing patron surveys at the casino which I'll say I've been studying casinos for nearly 25 years now and to have the kind of data that Sigma has is very very very unusual and the patron surveys allow us to ask people questions such as you know how much did they spend at the casino but more importantly what they would have spent that money on and the lottery is one of those choices so we find out that people would have spent money on the lottery as opposed to the casino so that was fast and brief hopefully but I'll thank you and just take any questions thank you dr. nickels questions from my fellow commissioner so you're leaning in yeah that's my sign yeah thank you thank you mark mark and mark let's say one one piece of feedback that I remember from the lottery director prior lottery directors is this notion that there is some variability in terms of the number of lottery agents at any given time um I don't know if he explains things like Wilburham but I wonder to what degree um might we might you be observing that yet or would need to be considered for future so we did observe that in in the uh in the actual lottery report and I don't have these numbers right off the top of my head we also did look at changes in the number of lottery agents so we looked at how many lottery agents opened the year after the open versus how many closed and there was turnover um but it was not quite it might have been like 60 closed but 40 percent open so I mean there was and again I don't have the I apologize I don't have the exact numbers right off the top of my head and retake but there was definitely turnover in the number of agents there always is um that was one reason we were a little reluctant to perhaps make a link direct link with the casino for this decrease because if if there were some sort of substantial decrease in demand for lottery in springfield we would have expected to see you know more agents closing and very few agents um opening and and moreover we would have expected to see widespread decrease in revenue amongst agents and by no means was uh I think a majority of agents did experience a decrease in revenue but but it wasn't a large majority many agents actually saw increases in their revenue as well and just to clarify when you speak about agents that's a term of art that's used for the lottery it's really the convenience stores that you go in and you buy your your tickets or the gas stations and the outlets for so that small businesses that gain gain a commission on each that is correct yeah and maybe lottery vendors would be a better name yeah they do use agents so Enrique's used in the right nomenclature but uh we use gaming agents in a different way so right verification yeah yeah okay table one on page 18 of the report Enrique is some of the stats you were looking for in terms of the agent turnover I just happened to pull it up when I was scanning thank you no thank you yeah the one thing about the lottery that is so fabulous that makes it so successful is the number of agents in the saturation across the Commonwealth and I think you've raised an interesting point Enrique I'm not sure if if maybe around the area of Springfield there is less stability that that might actually contribute when I worked with the lawyer I didn't remember hearing that there were affected communities communities that were more affected by normal turnover than that's a very interesting question commissioners Cameron are you yes Dr. Nichols you somewhat answered my question which was do you look at those large national jackpots that do greatly influence tickets the spikes and and you mentioned that it just before the casino opened there was a couple of or maybe multiple large jackpot spots which do influence the sale so it you are looking at that was my question yes that's correct great thanks yeah those spikes that go up usually if you look at the month it was some jackpot that was not getting hit so the sales the sales finally it gets it's always an interesting psychology it's finally so many millions of dollars that now they'll actually play hundreds of millions right yeah I don't know why it hits a certain amount but I think that explains at least the really big bikes because it's on a monthly increment right Dr. Nichols yes it is yeah we actually have weekly data so you can see those and we actually have the breakdown by game so I can I can see what what particular game was responsible for that increase yeah yeah so it is that alone is an interesting trend to see think about how the lottery um must you know project its work so other questions for Dr. Nichols but I think it'll be fascinating oh so sorry go ahead Commissioner Stevens no sorry Madam Chair um I uh first of all Dr. Nichols thanks for your report and and and Mark Vanderlin and as well and I think one of the questions you answered was the commission uh question Commissioner Zuniga had but I also found it interesting in your report if if folks have a chance to go back and look at it that you actually broke down lottery sales by zip code within the city of Springfield and that there were some parts of the city that actually did well while others saw a downturn in sales and it seemed to me that some of the neighborhoods immediately surrounding the casino might have seen a bigger slip slip in sales than some of the neighborhoods and the in the outskirts of the casino area if I'm not mistaken yeah I mean there is definitely neighborhoods around there that decrease but I believe the one that is directly adjacent to the casino as well experienced an increase that is something we definitely want to keep an eye on that said we looked at the change in sales for agents by distance and and the correlation between a lottery agents or a lottery vendors distance from the casino and its change in sales was practically zero so it is maybe natural to expect the biggest declines to occur nearly surrounding a casino but when we look at the the correlation between lottery and sales and their distance from the casino there was very little correlation there at all it was practically zero but that's something that we plan to watch in the future and to see which neighborhoods might be experiencing declines versus any cases okay my my second question was despite the significant growth that the lottery had that 6.5 increase do you have a sense of how many other communities across massachusetts saw a downturn in sales or did everybody experience kind of a an uptick to reflect that six and a half percent increase that's a good question that I don't have the answer to I'll actually make a note of that that would be something to consider but I don't know what percentage of the community's experience to increases versus decreases I'm sorry no no worries um yeah and just a comment you know these are these are obviously as the chair just pointed out small business operators and when people aren't stopping in for lottery sales they're not stopping in to pick up that gallon of milk or some of the other things they purchase at some of these smaller markets so it's certainly something and I know we want to keep a focus but thank you for your good work no thank you yeah and to segue on that that was going to be my comment or observation you know I I think it's very interesting and and encouraging that you're saying that we have data available that will allow you to do some really nuanced questioning around the use of disposable income and whether they opt to do use their those dollars for gambling at the casino versus lottery play I think that that you have a capacity to interview customers going forward in light of our changing landscape that might be very very helpful research I'm not the expert on that so I'll leave it to director van der Linden on on that but where where we are facing in likely recession coupled with changes in social behavioral norms it will be an interesting it'll be interesting to see how one if there is that kind of disposable income available and then the extent of it and then choices that are being made so I'm glad that it sounds as though you're that we've positioned researchers well to access important data go ahead Mark sorry I was going to say it's almost as if we are establishing a new baseline with the presence of COVID and being able to take a look at what does what does recovery look like after after COVID and and how does it change people's behaviors there are two other studies that are that have already been fielded are in our in the pipeline one as Dr mentioned is the patron survey interviewing patrons as they as they leave the the casino and getting a better understanding of how they spend the dollars another is about a year after MGM Springfield opened there was a follow-up general population survey for spring surrounding community to really take a closer look at in the general population of adults in that area what does their gambling behavior look like compared to before the casino opened up another way in which we can triangulate this data in order to get a much better clearer picture excellent excellent well before we let Dr. Nichols go I just want to acknowledge Charter Goldberg and her team and of course executive director Mike Sweeney of the lottery I understand that this report was has been shared with executive director Sweeney in advance and that the communication channels have been open we want to acknowledge their successful work you know it's a world-class lottery and I know right now they are assessing very much the impact on sales that are so critical to local aid so we have them in our thoughts we hope they're all safe and we wish their work well so thank you and Dr. Nichols very nice to meet you virtually likewise thank you thank you mark thank you now we're moving on of course I flipped my agenda folks sorry let me just get back we are on item number is it six now Bruce yes it is the qualifiers thank you yes we're going into the reports from um Loretta on the two qualifiers um Loretta please of course yes good afternoon chair and commissioners afternoon good afternoon the two qualifiers for your consideration today are Mr. Atif Rafiq who was a qualifier for MGM Springfield and Mr. Rajiv Rai a qualifier for Encore Boston Harbor each of them submitted all the forms required and complied with all of the IEB's requests for supplemental and updated information the IEB completed its protocol for suitability of casino qualifiers and we confirmed financial stability and integrity reviewed litigation history searched criminal history verified that no prohibited political contributions were made in massachusetts and conducted checks of open source and law enforcement databases I do want to acknowledge the investigative team involved here which was comprised of troopers Tom Rogers and John Morris and financial investigators Monica Chang and Susan La Rosa the two qualifiers were able to be interviewed in person Mr. Rafiq in January and Mr. Rai in February and as we would expect they were cooperative and forthcoming in all aspects of the investigation turning first to Mr. Rafiq he joined MGM resorts international in May of last year as the president of commercial growth for the company he was hired to lead growth strategy for the company and he's responsible for overseeing a number of critical functions including marketing revenue distribution it analytics and internet gaming and sports betting Mr. Rafiq reports directly to MGM CEO Mr. William Hornbuckle and he is based out of Las Vegas previously he worked for Yahoo Inc from 2008 to 2010 as general manager overseeing engineering marketing and finance he then went to amazon.com from 2011 to 2013 as a general manager who focused on the development of Kindle direct publishing from 2013 to 2016 he was at McDonald's corporation as its chief digital officer and then before joining MGM he was at Volvo cars from 2017 to 2019 as its chief digital officer and global chief information officer leading strategic initiatives around business model changes for that company. Mr. Rafiq is currently undergoing a full background review by gaming regulators in New Jersey and New Jersey has qualified him under their temporary process our background review confirms that he completed his undergraduate studies at Wesleyan University and went on to receive an MBA at the University of Chicago's school of business. Mr. Rafiq has demonstrated to the IEP by clear and convincing evidence that he's suitable and the IEP recommends that the commission vote to find him suitable after reviewing the report that you have to find him suitable as a qualifier for MGM Springfield and I'm not sure if you want to take a vote now on you do do it by individual or if you'd like me to proceed with Mr. Rice. Let's do them individual basis so we can ask any questions for for a Chief Enforcement Council Deputy Director Lilios questions. I'll just go through Commissioner Stebbins any questions for Loretta? Stebbins? Commissioner Stebbins? No Madam Chair. Okay Commissioner Zuniga? No thank you. Commissioner Cameron? No questions very clean investigation Commissioner O'Brien? No questions thank you. Loretta I'm going to just note one one item because it caught my eye because I'm I'm always interested in in national real estate markets. I'm not sure my notes say that maybe on page 10 there's it looks like perhaps that Mr. Rafiq indicated a substantially reported a substantially less amount for his home and then and I think it's just a typo it says 400,000 and I'm wondering if you want to just look at that after the fact if it was supposed to be because the ultimate I don't want to say out loud the ultimate number was substantially different. Yes it actually is not a typo ultimately there was a material difference in amount reported and the verified amount but that is not unusual based on information that was at his disposal and a conclusion was reached that there was no intentionality with any kind of representation so there was a difference the verified amount was reviewed and acknowledged by him. Excellent thank you well that's interesting I understand that every market is very different and in the market and I think that was in Nevada perhaps it was maybe it wasn't Nevada but in any case I was just curious so thanks for the clarification. Sure sorry. Okay go ahead. Nope Madam Chair I move that the commission fine Mr. Atif Rafiq president of commercial growth for MGM resorts international suitable as a qualifier for blue scarf redevelopment LLC. Excellent second that motion. Thank you I'll take a real call vote commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Zuniga. Aye. Commissioner Stevens. Aye. And the chair votes yes I'll set five zero moving on next qualifier thank you so turning turning to Mr. Rajeev right he is the chief information officer North America for wind resorts limited the parent company of Angkor Boston Harbor he attended the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India where he just received what he described as the equivalent of an undergraduate degree in management with a focus on information systems at wind resorts Mr. I has three main responsibilities as chief information officer first to ensure that all infrastructure and systems function efficiently to serve and support the businesses second to ensure that all information data and systems are secure and third to continuously identify new systems and capabilities he also is based in Las Vegas and he reports directly to Mr. Billings Craig Billings president CFO and treasurer of wind resorts limited prior to joining win in 2018 Mr. Rye was a senior manager at Ernst & Young from 1998 to 2004 he was an enterprise architect at Best Buy for a period in 2004 he was the business capability lead at Accenture from 2004 to 2010 with Accenture being a fortune global 500 professional services company he then returned to Best Buy from 2010 to 2012 as senior director of IT and before joining the wind company he was chief technology officer at the Neiman Marcus Group from 2012 to 2018 he is licensed in good standing with the Nevada Gaming Control Board and is in the process of applying in New Jersey and Indiana for sports betting purposes similarly Mr. Rye has demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence to the IEB his suitability under our criteria and we recommend that the commission vote to find him suitable as a qualifier for the honor of Austin Harper license commissioner is any question for Lorena I see you all right now okay everyone is shaking their head no so barring no questions or comments except excellent work by your team I know I'm speaking for all of us um do I have a motion? Madam chair I move the commission find Rajeev Rye chief information officer in North America suitable as a qualifier for Windmass LLC second thank you um roll call commissioner Cameron aye Brian aye aye commissioner Stebbins aye I'll start with chairs yes 5-0 thank you and thank you Lorena for and your team for excellence that was taken care of that business yes thank you thank you I'm moving on to item AA which we did amend the agenda yesterday because this came to our attention unexpectedly we wanted to be amended our agenda and now we'll be hearing from director Griffin please good morning madam chair and commissioners I believe I am joined by Crystal Howard I don't see her up but if she could just let me know there she is there she is okay great she'll just make sure to unmute herself by toggling down or on her phone if it's on the phone there she is she's unmuted okay great all right so I'm going to present a brief background and turn it over to Crystal so we are presenting an amendment request for a 2019 workforce community mitigation fund grant that was approved by the commission last year um Springfield technical community college runs an adult education program called Hamden prep is a sub grantee of Holyoke community college they offer reading math computer literacy and access to um certificates like the culinary serve safe certificate um and I'm going to um now just turn it over to Crystal to describe this specific request and in my apologies I did um I recognize I I accidentally went around our legal division presentation so I caught you off guard I'm sure that the legal division is all right for a few more minutes and and I appreciate uh that I skipped down so anxious enough anxious to hear this report thank you thank you legal division good afternoon commissioners um so this specific request uh is to kind of be able to allow the Hamden prep program at Schenectady art sorry Springfield technically technical community college I'm from Schenectady so that's funny that's lived in um it's uh to enable them to switch from their in-person courses to be able to move to a digital model as well as the need to be able to purchase technology in order to do so so they're specifically requesting that they spend approximately 62 to 6500 on two zoom pro accounts 15 chromebooks for the students and 15 hot spots as well so that they can switch to this new learning model originally this program was supposed to uh their this cohort was supposed to run on March 30th but they've extended it to begin on April 13th so that they could get their instructors and advisors ready to move to this model of the program um and get the students on board so uh they can have a orientation with uh some of this technology and the new syllabus and and just to get them situated for the new uh new way that this will work um I think that oh so I I also just wanted to add that the they do not intend to ask for additional funding and they won't be needing to really revise their budget all that much they're intending on using rollover funding that was originally allocated to be able to do additional in-person classes which cannot happen at this time because uh the situation with COVID Crystal excellent you're going to number random thank you questions from my fellow commissioners commissioner Cameron no questions I think it's commendable that Springfield community college is being so nimble and there will be with our approval be able to accommodate students in a new fashion commissioner brian any questions no it's very straightforward I think a really smart move to be able to keep moving forward excellent thank you and commissioner Zunica no just to agree with the recommendation and I'm glad that they're able to um to be nimble as commissioner camber on mentions and and react to the circumstances excellent and commissioner Stevens now I I agree I appreciate the fact they're being nimble they're using uh reallocated funds and the fact that the workforce training can continue despite the fact that the campus itself is is closed down um madam chair I'd move that the commission approved springfield technical technical community colleges request move to a new digital learning model and to allow for the purchase of necessary technology including chrome books and hot spots to support it second thank you commissioner Cameron uh commissioner Cameron I commissioner o'brien hi commissioner Zunica hi commissioner hi and chair vote yes excellent work Jill and crystal um they reached out to you and you'll be able to pivot so quickly this was done really very quickly and I appreciate the commissioners being able to catch up and um of course even maryann was amending the the agenda with the good help of our communications team so it takes a village appreciate it we thank you as well for getting on the agenda so quickly thank you thank you it needed to be timely so um you know we appreciate that uh you're available and receptive to our external stakeholders thank you all right now my apologies to uh to uh interim general counsel um grossman I do have the agenda in front of me just my eye went right right over number seven so we do have an emergency reg to consider Todd are you available I am thank you madam chair and commissioners were certainly accustomed to doing regulations at the end of the agenda so this was uh perfectly anticipated uh I was excited uh not to be last but sorry today actually was on my mind and I'm really sorry no I'm joking of course but anyway this uh is an issue of the moment and I'd like to offer just a quick background if I may if that would be helpful as to the proposal before you you'll recall that by statute a casino patron has one year in which to claim gaming related winnings or prizes um and this seems to be of the greatest relevance and come up most commonly in the context of slot machine winnings by a possession of the so-called tito tickets with the temporary closure of the casino's patrons and possession of winnings that are coming up on the one year date and set to expire are left without any ability to cash those winnings so the proposed regulation amendment before you today is designed to remedy this issue this issue is governed by statute in the first instance though it's covered by chapter 23 k section 53 which provides that unclaimed cash and prizes shall be retained by the gaming licensee for the person entitled to the cash or prize for one year after the game in which the cash or prize was won if no claim is made for the cash or prize within one year the cash or equivalent cash value of the price shall be deposited into the gaming revenue fund and so while we can't change or grant a variance from the one year statutory provision the commission can interpret or add clarity to the statute so for example the commission can't just say that everyone has 18 months instead of one year to claim a prize but the commission has clarified and added some direction to the statutory language of section 53 via its regulations and that's contained in 205 cmr 138.68 there the commission has addressed the application and administration of section 53 by doing such things as requiring a monthly report and remittance of funds to the commission and allowing for things like comps by the licensees so the proposed language that you have before you here today would be an amendment to 138.68 it's paragraphs 1a and 1b and as you can see from the draft in the packet we would add the language in red which provides that in calculating the one year period referenced herein and in mgl chapter 23 k section 53 any period of time for which the gaming establishment was not in operation shall be excluded so basically all we're doing with this proposal should it be adopted would be to amend the manner in which the one year period is calculated not changing the period of time that is set by statute i also i would just add one quick point because this has come up before too this applies solely to the gaming winnings and not racing racing winnings or unclaimed winnings are which we know are referred to as outs are actually covered by a different section of statute that's in chapter 128a and the calculation there is not actually impacted by these temporary closures and is handled separately given the immediacy of the issue we are proposing emergency adoption of this regulation so we can get it into effect immediately but we'll then immediately take action to move this proposal through the formal promulgation process including the customary hearing and opportunity to comment in what have you and of course you also have before you the associated small business impact statement for your consideration so with that if there are any questions i'd be happy to address those otherwise that was the overview i wanted to present commissioners questions for Todd um i can't see commissioners Zunica right now but i can see the others do you have any questions yeah no questions from me um there you are thank you okay i don't have any question just comment that it's a pretty standard process to toll or freeze sort of calculation of days in the legal system if you can't actually execute which it seems with the closure this seems like an absolutely logical approach to take but that's right and we did go over um at least in my presentation with Todd whether procedurally this will be difficult for the licensees to calculate i think um it was Bruce Bans who said he doesn't expect it to be any impact and going forward let's you know imagine perhaps there's a water break or something in one casino this would give if they were out for a week some kind of a pre for the patrons it really certainly turns interest and it's our understanding Todd that the licensees all welcome this this regulation that that's my understanding as well a couple have actually offered some comment and support so obviously this will also go out for wider public comment should there be any technical reason why it's not going to work properly that we can modify excellent okay um i think we would want to have a motion with respect to the small business impact statement first for a vote if there is unless there are other questions for Todd madam madam chair i move the commission approved the small business impact statement for the amendments to 205 cmr 136.68 exploration of gaming related obligations owed to patrons payment to the gaming revenue fund as included in fact second commissioner brian thank you barring any further comments commissioner Cameron aye commissioner brian aye commissioner zuniga aye commissioner stephens aye their votes yes five zero moving on to the regulation and emergency adoption procedure madam chair i further move that the commission approved the version of the amendments to 205 cmr 136.68 exploration of gaming related obligations owed to patrons payment to the gaming revenue fund as included in the packet and authorized the staff to take all steps necessary to begin the regulation promulgation process by emergency um i would second just for the clarification it's 138.68 correct thank you barring any moments all those in favor commissioner Cameron aye commissioner brian aye commissioner zuniga aye commissioner stephens aye and chair votes yes excellent work Todd thank you so much and we understand that that will go you'll go forward and we'll revisit this on the more traditional fashion thank you before we close the agenda did not include a place keeper for commissioners reports and i know a commissioner stephens you wanted to give an update and i'd like to allow you to do so sure thank you madam chair this is just uh really just two quick uh acknowledgments um first of all the the commission uh wanted to reflect on the retirement or stepping down of jill mcarthy pain who has been a member of our local community mitigation action committee uh for region b uh jill was a representative for the city of springfield she had been a member since 2014 and had been chair uh regional chair since 2016 so we thank her for her service i'm sure at some point when we're all back together we can send her an appropriate certificate of appreciation uh but uh i enjoyed the chance to work with jill as i know uh mary and joe delaney did as well uh and will miss her leadership secondly i want to acknowledge somebody that was also uh a critical component of the uh the region b uh lick mac and that was uh tim brennan tim was the executive director of the pioneer valley planning commission uh he was uh executive director for 38 years um and retired at the end of 2019 um from the from the pioneer valley planning commission uh he was a champion for the valley and its quality of life um prior to his retirement we know that tim played a very active role with the hosts and surrounding communities to offer them services uh in evaluation of proposals during the application period uh and we greatly appreciated his leadership sadly tim passed away on march 13th just as this crisis uh that we're experiencing was beginning to take hold uh so on behalf of the commission i we want to extend our prayers and condolences to tim's family and thank him for his service thank you madam chair thank you commissioner stevens and i'm very sorry for that report we thank jill for her service and we'll have thoughts and prayers other uh from other commissioners this is an opportunity for you to report on on anything that you'd like to report on at this time no opportunity going forward it's course two commissioners yeah yes um madam chair i um i should have mentioned this as part of the budget uh discussion but i'll mention it now it was implicit in the memo but i wanted to call it out uh you remember that um you designated me you and my fellow commissioners as um the point person for the search for the procurement of the search firm for the executive director and we um we received responses um but we given the really during this period of closure and my recommendation is that we hold off on evaluating those responses and at least temporarily suspend the procurement you know notify that the respondents in in con buys as as is always our ability to do until further notice as i mentioned it's implicit in the memo because one the recommendations that we approve relative to the budget modifications were those pool positions summarized in in Derek's memo and that of course is also the includes the the salary of the executive director so um i don't know if that required to be notified um i um i'm just mentioning that by way of update i just figured it was uh couldn't even the circumstances around us to at least temporarily uh pause that procurement any questions for commissioners in on that thank you for that update commissioner cameron do you have any update just a short update madam chair thank you for the opportunity um i continue to work during this pandemic with a group of very thoughtful regulators and advisors from around the world on the international joint conference with iam gl and i agar scheduled at this point to be held here in boston we are the host agency the third week in september but this group is very thoughtful and is monitoring what is happening around the world um peaks at different times so there may be you know some changes we don't quite know at this time but i i do want you to know that we're they're asking for our input and it's very important to the group about what is happening here in boston so i am impressed with the thoughtfulness of the two different groups as well as the um what's happening with gaming around the world those reports uh so i'll have more for you um at a later meeting i'm sure but we are continuing to meet and and monitor at the same time thank you thank you commissioner brian i don't have any updates at this time thank you thank you um i'm all set so um again just uh to our entire team um mgc you know this um virus is getting closer and more personal for for certain members of our team so we will keep all of you in our thoughts um we all appreciate everyone doing their civic duty building which is to stay home and stay safe and we are all very very appreciative of the fact that we are a strong strong um collaborative and and kind and appreciative team so thank you um stay safe and uh i'll take a motion motion to adjourn thank you commissioner second okay commissioner cameron hi commissioner brian hi commissioner zunica hi mr stevens hi boat chairs the chair folks thank you have a good day everyone thank you everybody