 We're convening public meeting number 361. We'll start with roll call. Commissioner Cameron. Good morning, I am here. Commissioner O'Brien. I am here, good morning. Good morning and Commissioner Hill. Good morning, I am here. Great, thank you. We'll get started. Sorry, I'm just getting some notifications here. We'll get started right away. Good morning, Karen. Sorry, with your administrative report, I don't believe we have any minutes today. Thank you. That's right. So to start off, before we get into the specific substantive items, I didn't want to give Nikisha a chance to introduce our new licensing specialist, Nathaniel Ector, who I think started yesterday was the first official day of the event. So I'm going to turn it over to Nikisha just to introduce him and welcome into the commission. Thank you, Karen. Good morning, everyone. Commissioner O'Brien. So yes, Nathaniel Ector started with us in licensing yesterday. We are very excited to have him. He is our new licensing specialist. And just prior to joining us, he held a position at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He was an administrative and customer service support role. And he's just a delight to work with. I mean, he has the most fantastic attitude. He hasn't stopped smiling, as you can see right now. He hasn't stopped smiling since he joined us. So help me welcome Nate as he goes by. But Nathaniel Ector, welcome to MGC. Thank you. Hello, everyone. I hope everybody gets a chance to stop by when they're in their office. I know we're on this hybrid cycle rotation, but hopefully people get a chance to say hello. Okay. Good morning, Nate. Good morning. Brigham and Women's Loss, our game, we'll take it. Yeah. Okay, so for the substantive work here this morning, I'm going to turn it over first to Bruce Vann for the on-site casino update. Bruce. Good morning, Nate. I already stopped by and said hello to him and invited him over to my office anytime. To start out, I kind of want to give a table and slot update. I wanted to let you know that PPC now has 1,019 active slot machines. MGM has 1,597 active slots, 52 table games, 15 stadium games, 13 poker tables. Encore has 2,674 active slot machines, 189 table games and 54 stadium games. Some of the new things that are going on, MGM opened up a skating rink outside there near the armory. That seems to be going very well. The poker seems to be still being received very well. And Encore is now working on the VIP bar upstairs where the piano bar used to be up in that area. And that's pretty much what I have to report. Everything else seems to be going smooth. Questions? Thank you. I just had one. What's the status of the poker at EVH again? What was the anticipated table number? It was 12, was what they reported and would be opening in February. February, okay, thanks. You're welcome. All right, so the next item is just an update on the hybrid work model and our office reopening. So as you know, the Boston offices have been reopened. It's nice to see people. We're sort of getting into the groove a little bit more, being in the office. One of the things we're working on is developing more of the technology for hybrid meetings. That's been a little challenging just using the laptops. The other day, Tim was great and helped me set up one of the owls in my office because I have the conference table and the screen. That was much, much better. So I'm gonna do some more testing of that. That may be something we set up the same thing in the Q conference room and in the IEB conference room and then any other potential team room. So the technology seems to be much better if when you're having the hybrid meeting, you don't have a laptop open. Because when you have the laptop open, I'm finding, maybe you're all finding the same thing. If the laptop's on the table, you're all tend to be looking at the laptop and then you miss out on the communication with the people around the table. So having sort of the screen sort of on the wall as opposed to the laptop seems to be better. So hopefully, you know, commissioners, you can get a chance to test that out when you get the opportunity and see how that works. That seems to be a plus, so exploring that more. The other piece I wanted to just get some feedback on from the commission itself, you know, we are also looking at the public meetings. And as you know, we tested out using two owls with the set up, with the commissioners still at those benches at the front. So there's a couple of things I just want to mention about what we're doing here. One is that we are also looking to, we're in process to purchase the live stream equipment so we can go back to how we used to do it with the live stream and the cameras seeing all the commissioners at once. And it's just sort of more of a meeting format. What would be helpful for our team as we work on this procurement, because we're getting bids and we're had vendors in and putting that forward. There is a range on the sophistication of that equipment. The prior equipment, we had really high level equipment, almost studio level equipment, you could zoom in at a high degree of functionality. We didn't necessarily use a functionality. So we don't have to decide anything now, but if you have any thoughts on the level of sophistication you think is necessary for those public meetings, then when we look at the equipment, we can sort of put it in different buckets because if there's not the need for the super high level studio level equipment and you're just looking for functionality, A, we might be able to get it up and running sooner and B, it would be less expensive. But if you really want that, if that's really important as far as the communication piece and the presentation, it would be helpful to know that. So we don't have to decide right now the IT department will give you some options, but if we had a little feedback on what you're thinking would be a priority for the commission, that would be at least point us in the right direction as we gather information and give you some options for the meetings in the longterm. Karen, does it make sense for us to give that a little bit of feedback right now? It's up to you. I'll put that out there right now. If you have any thoughts on it, but we can also revisit this at the next meeting. This is not something I need urgently, but I do think, or if you have any questions. Well, our next meeting is in December, right? And so, I don't know, I'll give my input and I don't know if my fellow commissioners want to just chat about this briefly, but I know we have how much left on our lease, three years? We are done. I think it's the end of 2024. Right, so that's a practical implication. I think if there's always a simpler solution for less money, I'm pretty practical. I know the earlier version was super duper. It's not available to us now. And so, we're at a good juncture to reassess. If there's some range in terms of the low, if there's some different options in terms of the lower, less complicated versions, I'd love to hear those. I don't personally, and this is me and I want to hear from everyone else, but I just thought I'd get it going. Unless we're legally bound to do something much more complicated, I would always start with simpler. Anybody else want to chime in? I just am thinking as if it helps Katrina's workload, she doesn't have to necessarily navigate all the whole range. Unless somebody else feels otherwise gale, but your kind of little reaction. Yeah, what you just said made sense to me. I tend to think simpler works well also. So, I mean, I don't feel like I have all the information I would need to make a really educated decision on this topic, but I do agree with simpler if rather than the Cadillac or the Mercedes, if we don't really use all those bells and whistles, I'm just, I'd love to hear. At some point it would be nice to hear a presentation from IT that helps us make an educated decision. Right, okay. And that had been Katrina's plan to give the commission some options. But if we can sort of narrow that a little bit or just get a little bit of feedback and we can keep communicating with the commissioners on this, just to, and we can give you more information and then get more feedback as we go. But I at least wanted to flag this, that this is something to be thinking about. Commissioners O'Brien and Hill, do you have any guidance for workload purposes? No, it makes sense to me, to simpler is better. So I agree with what you're saying. Yeah, I do agree. Okay, that's actually really helpful. Yeah, she doesn't necessarily have to explore that really high range as much and just give us some other insights. That would be great. Okay, all right. Thanks. Thank you. The other thing, and I'll follow up as we go through the process, even last night I had a, because I had a very successful test on the owl in that conference room set up. I'll just put this on your radar screen. There are options that, part of the complication in doing the, these meetings in the interim is that set up with the commissioners at those high tables that are in the arc. So I can speak with more individually and answer some individual questions, but another option would be to reconfigure the room and just have you at a table that faces one of the cameras and that way you wouldn't just use an owl. So I just want to flag for you there. There may be another option. We did the test of the two owls with the set up as it is. There may be another option for you. So I'd like to try to set something up in the next week or so just to give you just a different view and see which you're more comfortable with because as you've said, simpler is better. That my concern about the owls and talk to Kevin about this is too many laptops, too many cameras, too many screens that you lose that feeling of the meeting. So there may be another way to do that where you're just sitting around the table as opposed to up in the front and then have the staff in the seats in the gallery. But if you like the table, if that helps with the format, we can keep it. It's just gonna be decisions for the commission on how they'd like to do the meeting. So I just want to at least flag that we're thinking all these options through and we might do a couple more tests with a couple of ways to do it to limit the screens. So any questions on that or any feedback from me on that? If you have any thoughts, because I know we're all kind of thinking about this right now and everyone is thinking about hybrid meetings and the difficulty in hybrid meetings across the country right now. So we're in a similar position to a lot of agencies, but at least wanted to let you know what we were working on questions. So the next item is I'm gonna have Derek jump on with me for this. As you're aware, earlier in the year, we implemented a protocol for salary evaluation across the board with the entire agency and bifurcated the process. We initially did an analysis on whether we were in compliance with the Massachusetts Equal Payout. That whole analysis has been done, documented. So that has been a success on that end. We also are looking at, we were looking at, are we paying our people fairly? We want to be a competitive employer, retain employee and are we paying fairly for their positions? We had initially a model where we used an outside resource within state government to help students do comps for that and get us the data in order to do that analysis. But that has not ended up being an option. So the other option we have identified is to get an outside vendor to do those comps. I think it's very important to have an objective analysis. So there's no indication of any bias on any particular positions as we go through this analysis. So everybody at the agency tells us that they've been treated fairly and objectively. And Derek had suggested that this might be an opportunity for us to do an intentional spend on a diverse vendor if we could do that. So he drafted up the memo from the two of us to the commission, which is in your packet sort of outlining the process for an exception to the procurement process. And Derek, if you could briefly just run through what the process is and what the request is for an exemption, I think that would be helpful. Yes, thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair and commissioners. Good morning. In your packet, so as Karen pointed out, it has been five years since we did a salary analysis. And this is an area where we have been trying to do it with another state partner, but it's just taking longer than we would like to see that happen. And I don't think that's any bad reflection on that other state partner. I think they're trying to figure out what they're doing with the executive branch right now. So, we realize that our employees are waiting on this. So what we'd like to do is make a spend. I think we've set aside around 25,000 for this to have a new analysis done. Now, there is a statewide contract that covers these services. It's a PRF 61 management consultants and professional consultants. And I'm pretty sure that we could get this done because the vendor that did our first salary analysis is on there. Plus, they've got huge firms on there like Accenture, KPMG that have these types of resources. That being said, we've also joined the pay centers program in which we've reported to you in the past and we've given out some workforce diversity grants to a not-for-profit called LEAF who's working with diverse vendors to try and get their book of business up, get them in a competitive standpoint and working in some of our host communities and vendors in those host communities. So what we would like to do is go out to those two groups, find vendors that can meet this goal, meet this procurement and have them bid on it. Now, the reason I'm asking you for an exception, you're saying, well, are you handing it to someone? No. But in 2013, we did adopt 801-CMR-21 as well as the best practices that the executive branch uses for conducting procurements. If you look at OSD's policy handbook, it says, we're available, you have to use statewide contracts. If you don't want to use a statewide contract, you have to go and make a case to the assistant secretary of the operational services division. Well, since we're not an executive branch agency, our requests have always come to the commission. So what I'm asking for is a request to the commission to not use PRF 61, but instead to go to our partner vendors who work with our partners at LEAF and PACE, others to find diverse vendors who could quote on this opportunity to work with us. It'll make it a very intentional spend. It'll further the money that we've spent either with LEAF or the membership that we've put into PACE setters. It really shows that we're taking this seriously. And it's putting ourselves at the level we require our licensees to be at. That being said, if it doesn't work, we can always go back to PRF 61. Like I said, I am sure we can get this done off of PRF 61 in a competitive process. Like I said, the vendor that did it the first time for us North Point Passage is on that contract. So I know that those services exist out there. I'm just trying to find ways. As you know, we do not meet our goals every year. We've worked hard at it and we've been pushing very hard to meet these goals. And I think this is a narrative. We probably do that. Karen, should we, should you entertain questions now? You and Derek? Yes. Is there an answer? Applasha, there you are. Questions for Derek and Karen on this proposal? Gail? I don't have a question. I just was a clarification maybe. It is a question. You mentioned going back if it doesn't work out, but then I think you said you're pretty sure that there would be available diverse companies and or that could do this for us, right? You're pretty sure of that, but you don't know for sure. You backed it up by saying if it doesn't work out, we could go back to the using the statewide contract. Is that, did I hear you correctly there? Yes, that's correct. You know, I know that our partners at LEAF as well as at pay setters welcome these opportunities and they're willing to scour their databases to find vendors that can do this for us. But, you know, where this is a very important spend and you know, the staff is waiting on this, I did not want it to fall too far behind. So that's why I said we could use the PRF 61 as a backstop. Right. Well, I know we have been, it's something we ask about at every quarterly report for our licensees. So it is important. I mean, it was important enough that it was written into the legislation, right? So I think it's a good practice when we can to find opportunities to be intentional. So I like this idea. I think it's a good reason to have an exception, but I will, I just needed to figure out if in fact you think the possibility is strong that we could do this through the process you outlined. So thank you. Commissioner Hill or Commissioner Bryan? I have no questions. No, I've been talking with Karen and Derek about this and Tripti and was, you know, privy to sort of the rationale earlier. And I absolutely agree with Derek's request in terms of how we approach it and I get in being intentional in terms of no potential diversity spend. I guess I just have, and thank you too. Derek and Karen have kept us surprised along the way. I guess I understand that this exercise of really addressing our salary framework is critical to Karen's work. And so there, this is a two-fold opportunity. One, to address our diversity spend, which we are committed to through various avenues. One, our own equity and inclusion statement and purpose that we adopted. And then two, the pay setters program. We've committed resources, human and financial to that program. And I think we should absolutely take advantage of it and tap that for this purpose. The other is that this framework needs to be done so that Karen can take all the actions she needs around positions and salary and make sure we have a bare equitable system. And it's both requires some degree of urgency. So my question is, I would like all the commissioners to hear from you some timeframe here. It's, because we're coming now to the end of this calendar year. And I know Karen, this is a tool you absolutely need. So I don't know, one, how long we're going to take to get the consultant and then how long the work will be needed for the consultant and then how we apply it. So I don't know if we have any sense of that timeframe. Karen, Derek. So my understanding, Derek chime in on this is that the sort of the procurement part, the reaching out to them, we could do that as soon as we get the vote. So we can reach out to them. I would expect, we haven't talked to them about this yet. I would expect they have already got their list. So they just need to give us the vendors and then we go through the process. And there's something that's appropriate that we do the contract. So that turnaround time. I mean, what are you thinking, Derek? Like ideally within a couple of weeks, correct? Correct. So if I were posting this to statewide contract and asking for bids, I would put it out for anywhere from eight to 10 business days just to give people the opportunity to see it and then respond. It's not a huge amount of money. That's why I would post it for that short of period of time. So, you know, once we get the list, we would send out the quotes to people and ask for two business week turnaround time period. Then we would work with the vendor on a timing. Now, I always go optimistically on this. I think that two to three weeks to do the analysis is appropriate. I know that we've had when I was working on the executive branch side and we had quasi-public entities, we had to do this every couple of years the executive compensation review. And those came back within a week to two weeks. It wasn't the whole organization. It was just, you know, the top tier but those can sometimes be the tougher ones to do. And there are a lot of databases out there for these recommendations being made. So, the long way of saying it is within a month to a month and a half, I think we should have the report. And then if you look at the memo in the process that Karen had kind of laid out a couple of months back, then Karen has to convene her working groups to say, okay, now where do we want to be and where do we want to put our recommendations to the commission? Do we want to be right where the executive branch is? Do we want to be kind of where a clause out there? Do we want to have a premium so that we hold on to people? So, you know, that may take a little bit of time but you know, for the actual, this product a month to a month and a half. So, some of those policy questions, Karen could start kind of resolving those now, right? I mean, she'll get more informed with the consulting work. There's going to be a contract, right? So, maybe that would mean Todd and team would be working with you, Derek, and could start that now, right? Rather than sequential. I'm sorry that I'm thinking about these minutia except that I know from conversations and other matters that Karen really needs this framework in place. And Karen, I don't mean to be your advocate but I'm absolutely intending to be your advocate. So, I think that this is just something that warrants priority, right? And I'm all for voting, I'm going to be in favor of the exception. I think it's absolutely where the goal to get this consultant on board. I think it's important work for that consultant and it will, even if it's not necessarily most lucrative and big in size, it is meaningful. It's a meaningful contract in terms of size and really meaningful work. So, I think it's a huge win. Any other questions? So, you need to vote on this, right, Karen? That's correct. Do I have a motion? Unless there's any other further questions, I want to make sure because I might have missed it. Oh, I mean, I'm sorry, I might have missed you. No question. Thank you. Madam Chair, I move that the commission grant an exception from using the statewide contract for purposes of seeking a vendor to conduct a review of the overall pay structure at the commission as described in the materials in the commissioner's packet and discussed here today. Second. Thank you. And no further questions? All right, great work. Okay. Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. And I vote yes, four to zero. Thank you. I like the imagination there at work. Thanks, Derek. Okay, Karen. And then the last item for the administrative update, there's a memo in your packet from myself and from Truity regarding vacation carryover. HRD announced a plan to allow for additional vacation carryover. And they have that in the, I think it's HR CMS system that they have. And the request is to implement the same policy for the gaming commission employees. I will, I do want to disclose that for myself, I have a ton of vacation time. I can use the amount up by the end of the year, but I want to make sure that that's on the record that I do have quite a bit of vacation time. But for the, but the change would be instead of carrying over the last two years of accrued vacation time, employees would be allowed to carry over the last three years of accrued vacation time. So if you had an employee that gets, that had for the last several years, got two weeks of vacation time, normally they'd be able to carry over four weeks. But in this event, they'd be able to carry over six weeks. And Truity identified particularly for the gaming agents team, they've been, they've been working hard. We have, you know, staffing changes. And when people leave sometimes that those gaming agents have to cover and we do have a required 24 seven operation. So that's more challenging for them to necessarily take all their vacation time, particularly during this time pandemic. So, and I think Truity's on the meeting here. So I don't know if she has any comments on that, but I just wanted to flag that for the commission, you know, and the recommendation that the agency adopt what HRD is doing for vacation carryover. Any questions on that? Looks like none. Okay. And you need a vote for that as well Karen, correct? Yep. Commissioner, do I have a motion on that? Madam Chair, I'm happy to move that the commission adopt the same adjustment to the vacation carryover policy that the state human resources division has adopted for the executive branch to allow employees to carry, carryover vacation hours accrued in 2019, 20 and 21 as discussed. Second. Okay, no discussion. Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. Yes, four is zero. Thank you, Todd. All right. Thank you very much. That concludes the industry update. Okay. Thank you so much. Then we're going to shift right on to community affairs. Good morning, Joe. Chief Delaney, how are you? Good morning, Madam Chair, commissioners. So today we have the first item up we have for you is the MGM Springfield, their third quarter report. And we have with us from MGM Springfield, Gus Kim is here in a general council and he's joined by Arlen Carvalho, Jason Randall, Daniel Miller and Beth Ward. Well, I didn't see Dan up here, but I do see a few phone numbers from the 413. So he may or may not be on, but with that, I guess I will turn it over to Gus. Yes. Thank you, Joe. I appreciate it. Good morning, commissioner, commissioners. Good morning, Chair Judd Stein. And I want to, on behalf of MGM, obviously, especially welcome, commissioner at Hill, we are congratulations to you. We welcome you to MGM Springfield at any time you have an opportunity to come visit us. While the same invitation in the sense to commissioners, Stein, commissioners O'Brien and Cameron as well as Chair Judd Stein, please come visit us at any point in time. And we're welcome to have you and then show you our fine establishment. Dan Miller, unfortunately, is under the weather and he's unable to join us. So in lieu of his beautiful British accent, you're stuck with me as sort of the master of ceremonies for our presentation. And I apologize for that. As Joe stated, we've got Arlen Carvalho, our executive director of finance, Jason Randall, our director of human resources and Beth Ward, our community affairs manager, joining me on our presentation. And so with that, I turn it over to Arlen for our financial reports. Hello, good morning. I'm hoping everybody can see my screen. We can. Let's discard, so please bear with me. So Arlen, we can see it. Just so you know, it's not necessarily full screen, but we can see it fine. Okay. Let's see. Yeah, guys. Perfect. Awesome. Okay. So I'll go ahead and get started with our third quarter gaming revenues. Our total gaming revenue for the third quarter was 64.9 million and our total taxes were 16.2 million. This was our highest quarter in GDR since we have reopened for our lottery. Our total lottery sales were 278,000. We have remained flat quarter over quarter. Any questions for gaming revenues or lottery? I'm sorry, just one interjection. I'm sorry because the slides that we actually produced to the commission in advance of this meeting are actually incorrect. And so the numbers that Arlen is showing now are the correct numbers. And obviously after the call, we will update and provide you the correct numbers. Yeah, if you could work with Chris on that, that would be great. We'll just swap it out. Thanks. Can I ask a question about the lottery? So these that are up on the screen now are the correct numbers. Is that what I'm hearing? Correct. Yeah, correct. This has to be a pretty significant decrease from month to month. Any reasons that you're aware of for that? No, and looking at it, part of the challenge is that the lottery sales are reported on a weekly basis. So when a month has more weeks than the other, it tends to skew. I see. So one has five, one has four. The small dip in September, it is a small dip, but nothing that looks out of the ordinary for the whole quarter is pretty flat to the prior quarter. Thank you. Can I just ask this question? If you could go back to the revenue, I just wondered if they were, I didn't get a chance to compare the two. Okay, so that also is a different slide. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, the file that got sent over for some reason had the second quarter of financial data. It didn't... Oh, actually that's really interesting. So we can... So you can compare and you can see the improvement of the quarter. Yes. Thank you. Gus, I'll send it back to you with compliance. Yes, thank you. As you can tell, during Q3, we had a few instances of miners being intercepted on the gaming floor. But if you compare this year over year from the same period of 2020 and 2019, you will note that the numbers actually have significantly decreased and that is because as the commission knows, we've instituted more safeguards. We put some security podiums by the hotel entrance. We've put some guardrails up to block off some of the direct access to our gaming floor. We think that we've made significant gains and strides in minimizing and reducing the miners that have been able to access the gaming floor. You will note that in July, we had one who actually wound up gaming. And then in August, we had another one that actually wound up gaming as well. So one in July is completely on us. Our security officer was fairly new. He basically didn't follow a call. And in fact, the security officer actually never made a pass and I mean the probationary period is no longer with us. And so that one is on us. The one in August happened a group of about six young individuals were staying at the hotel. They waited until about three a.m. when the podium by the hotel entrance, the security guard left his post to close for the night. And they gained the gaming floor after he left and then they made all kinds of efforts to not be seen hiding behind slot machines when the security officer walked by and so on and so forth. But we did eventually obviously find them out and took care of it. But fortunately, we had two incidents in Q2 but overall I think that our numbers are looking better than they had in Q2. Next one, Arlen. That's it. And so I will turn it over back to Arlen for the spend update. Thanks, guys. As you know, since COVID, we've had an ongoing supply chain challenges. However, that being said, the property has really remained focused and actively engaged in mitigating the issues. And at the third quarter, we actually have increased our diversity efforts as well. With the suggestion of the staff, we did meet with leave and we have already seen some successes in that partnership. Little bit of the spend for the third quarter was 9.9 million and a 6% or 0.6 million went to diverse vendors. Arlen, could you explain a little bit more about your challenges because your goals are set and these numbers really aren't even close to the goals? Is there more of a rationale for that? And what are you doing to try to improve that? We really have started. We're gonna attempt a grassroots efforts. We had several events in the third quarter to find and identify more diverse vendors that we can use. They're also engaging with our corporate sponsorship partners to really dive into kind of every single item that we're purchasing and finding vendors that we can substitute. As you know, the numbers for the property have been a challenge since really we've opened compounded now with our supply chain efforts and we're just trying to go back and really dig into what is it? And I'm just making up items like, you know, is it sugar? Like we're really going in minutia to find every single item and how we can supplier there. Okay, thanks. And looking at our total operating spend, it was 12.3 million for the quarter of that, 23.8% went into mass suppliers or 5.4 million and 2 million went to a state within Western Mass, our equivalent of 34.3%. Any questions? Thank you. Jason Randall. Hi, good morning, commission. Great to meet you. Our first slide here shows our employment numbers as of the end of Q3 with 1,124 total employees and I'll call out the rolling four quarters shown here. We do continue to see an increase in women employees while Q3 and still below our target of 50%, we have steadily increased each quarter an additional percentage point. So we ended Q3 at 43%. Our next slide shows in graph form our progress in relation to our host community agreement requirements with three of the four goals being exceeded. I'm not sure if you're advancing slides or am I? Oh, sorry. Yes, thank you. So I have those host community agreement requirements in graph form here. And then my last slide here is calls out to start continued staffing efforts including continued recall of employees as amenities have been returned to the property. We have returned to in-person hiring events and certainly continue to participate in virtual hiring events, including hosted by Mass Hire and a few of our local community colleges. And our ongoing participation in training programs at Polio Community College presented two dozens of their classes through the Culinary Arts Institute through their training program and supporting those students with interview skills to prepare them for interviewing in the workplace, hopefully with us. Pause for any questions? Does anybody want Jason to go back to a certain slide? Would that be helpful? Because there's a lot of information there if we're asking questions during it. Okay, I guess we're all set then, Jason. Great, thank you. Next I'd second off to Beth Ward, our manager of community affairs. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for having us this morning. I got the fun part. So I'm going to begin with some community engagement events that we are very proud to have taken part in. On the left, you see we got together with Habitat for Humanity. The house that we're all standing in front of is not far actually from MGM, a very deserving Springfield mom was chosen as the recipient of this house. And we were just so fortunate as a team to be able to go out and help with that build from laying concrete in the basement floor who knew Chris Kelly really had some mad concrete skills but it was a great day. Not only team building selfishly, it's just such a great time to be able to go out and participate in events like this as a team and as a company. And the cherry on top is we will help to welcome the family their home for the first time in the spring. In the center, you see we had a few big check presentations, four of them, $15,000 each, linked to libraries was what recipients, Dress for Success, another, the Springfield Boys and Girls Club. You can see they have a team to work program. All the teams came to the Plaza to receive their check and also very happy and proud to offer the YWCA a check for about $15,000. So great day for us, very proud day to be able to support our community partners in this way. It's worth noting on the right, you see a picture at Chris Kelly getting down in dirty ones. Again, we were very happy and proud to create a food drive. We saw a need from a food pantry literally right down the street on Main Street here in Springfield. They were really struggling with the record amount of need from the community. Very pandemic based, their numbers keep going up and up. We got together with them and we did a front of house donation drive and back of house as well. Our team members really turned out to help. As did our guests who came in and really supported this food drive for the open pantry, their emergency food pantry. We were able to give them 1,580 pounds of food. So very excited about that. And it is a relationship that we hope to continue. And we'll have more on that in Q4 as well. It's also worth noting that we continued our relationship with, I don't have a picture on this, but we did continue our relationship with the city of Springfield. We delivered bottles of water too. We had some very intense heat, as you all remember this past summer. And we were able to help donate water bottles to some cooling centers. We can move on to the next slide and talking about special events. On MGM's third anniversary, August 24th, we also took the opportunity to open a brand new sports lounge. Theater seating for about 80 of your closest friends and massive 45-foot wall viewing screen with 15 screens to catch the big game. This is primed and ready to be activated as a bet MGM lounge should sports betting be approved in the state. We are ready to go, great participation on that day. At the same time, we also unveiled another VIP sports lounge in the area by tap. This used to be the arcade area located near the bowling alley, which is getting set to reopen. We'll have more on that soon. But this has been reimagined into a fantastic area to watch your favorite games with a small or even a larger group that is available for our guests as well. Also want to take the opportunity to, while technically in queue for, we've been talking about this for so long, I wanted to include just a couple of pictures of our big opening on October 29th of poker, hooping and hollering by a line that went out the door and beyond. It was a great day. We'll have more on that in queue for, but just couldn't resist the chance to show that. We're very excited to bring that back. Continues to be packed every day. So excited about that. We can move on to development. 31 Elm Street, you'll recall the last time we were before you. I mentioned this project in queue three. We mentioned that there was movement happening in that project that's right across from MGM. It's a project that we have not only contributed to, but it is a project that is near and dear to our hearts. You likely recall the name Fontaine Brothers who is integral in helping to build MGM. They indeed have been named as the contractor for 31 Elm Street. So excited about that. We understand that there is more to report and hopefully we'll have that for you in queue for, but very excited. It's right behind in my windows, you can see it. So it's a beautiful property that we're excited to see reactivate again. One quick mention if I could, we have partnered with, this is something that we have been bringing along in queue three, a partnership with a local restaurant that has a huge following called Macho Taco. It's an Agua right across the river from Springfield. They have been working with us. We're excited to partner with them. They are getting set to open their restaurant in South End Market. We'll have more in that for queue four, but the build out is underway and we hope to open next month. So lots of things going on that we're happy and excited about and I will turn it now back over to Gus, I believe. Yes, thank you. Just a quick quick words on entertainment. We reactivated Symphony Hall in queue three. We had initially hoped to have it started with the boys tonight in early part of September. Unfortunately, for circumstances that we couldn't control that show had to be postponed. So we did kick off the Symphony Hall opening with September 25th with a comedy show, I Mom So Hard. I was not there, unfortunately, I was out of town, but I heard great reviews about the show. Everybody was very excited. The show was funny and it got great reviews. And then I know that October 6th is really queue four, but it was so short following on queue three. October 6th, we had Chicago in concert at Symphony Hall. I wasn't time for that one. I am a huge Chicago fan and for a group of old 70 year old summer guys, they've put on a fantastic show. There was so much energy, so much excitement in the crowd. Everybody was so happy to be able to get together and see a show in person. And my understanding is that when I spoke with our team that put on the concert, that Chicago was so excited to be there and because of the energy of the crowd, they actually play some extra songs that were actually not on their set list. So we were very happy about that. And in queue four, we'll go and tell you more about the show that we run in Symphony Hall, but we are very, very excited that Symphony Hall has been reactivated. That's right. As you all know, we started the Free Music Fridays out in the Plaza and that went over so well. We actually brought that indoors. And again, it slides a little bit into queue four as well, but we wanted to show that we used one of our ballrooms to run a limited number of indoor shows. Again, extremely well received, big crowds. Everybody was really, really excited about these shows. Lots of energy in the crowd. I was fortunate enough to be able to walk through the crowd and participate in all of the shows. It was really, really well done. Again, Kudos to our entertainment team for a job well done. Many of these shows were run while the Masked Man Day was still in effect in the CDF Springfield. And very surprisingly, we had very little resistance from our patients in complying with the Masked Man Day. I think we had one incident where we had to escort one person out for not wearing it. But again, the crowd was very, very enthusiastic and we were very excited to host these indoor Friday night music days. Next slide. And then again, Q4 upcoming shows in Symphony Hall. Brian Regan just happened earlier this week. We've got Joe Bottamacic coming on, I believe, tomorrow. And we'll present you more information about the shows in Symphony Hall for our Q4 presentation. If there's any questions, I'll entertain those. If not, I think we are done without presentation. If you could take down the presentation, we'll go back to our gallery. Thank you so much. Questions, commissioners? I know that we asked them along the way, but no reason that we can't return. Anything? Okay, commissioner Cameron, yes. Just to comment really exciting to hear about some of the things that you're planning and have started to reactivate the good things you're doing with the city as well as with entertainment in the city. So that was just really nice to hear. And I'm sure that we'll just continue to get stronger and stronger. So congratulations. Thank you, commissioner. So before we continue, I do want to properly introduce commissioner Hill and thank you, Mr. Kim, for acknowledging that this is probably the first time you've had the chance to meet him officially, but we appreciate fully the invitation and actually Jamie and our executive assistant is working on scheduling already. The opportunity for commissioner Hill to visit. I think, Brad, you have visited in your earlier capacity, Springfield, but only briefly. So you're really looking forward to this tour, correct? I am looking forward. I've stopped in there many, I think when you first opened as a consumer, but it was ever so brief. I was on my way to another meeting in the western part of the state. So I'm looking forward to the tour. And like my fellow commissioner Cameron, the entertainment is something I love. And I've been seeing these crowds are starting to form in all these entertainment venues, whether it be at a casino or at local theaters. So I was very happy to see who you have coming. That was a big name. So I'm sure you're gonna get a lot of folks coming down, but looking forward to what more you will bring for entertainment purposes. Because I think that's a very big piece of the casino business. And I look forward to seeing what you have there. And I look forward to meeting you in person in the very near future. Thank you, commissioner, and all those kind words. And we look forward to hosting you. And I had one comment because I don't want it to go unsaid. Your record on minors and alcohol consumption is exceptional this past quarter. We wanna applaud you for that. Thank you for your vigilance on that matter. Anything else? Anything else? Commissioner O'Brien, I've lost you in my gallery here. No, I'm all set. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Cameron, I'll set. Thank you. And we look forward to seeing you in person, but thanks everyone for showing up. It's really nice to see your faces. Oh, and have a good Thanksgiving. Thank you. Okay, so next up, we have the third quarter report for Plain Ridge Park Casino. We're joined by North Groundsell, the general manager, and several other staff. So I will turn it over to North and for the start of the presentation. Great, thank you, Joe. Good morning, Madam Chair, and good morning, commissioners. It's good to see you all again this morning. I wanted to start our comments by taking a moment. Thank you, Madam Chair, as well as commissioners Hill and O'Brien for attending the Sire Steak Finals on October 25th. It was a great day at the races, albeit a little bit rainy. We distributed $800,000 in purse money to Massachusetts Standard Bread Horses, and we had several exciting races that day. We'll talk a little bit more about the Sire Steaks in our next quarterly update, but I wanted to thank you for your attendance. And as always, we do hope that you'll come see us again. Transitioning now to our quarterly report, we appreciate the opportunity to provide you with an update on our business. The team will provide additional details in their portions of the presentation, but I wanted just to highlight a few points at the outset. First, as of the end of Q3, 2021, net slot revenue total taxes paid and lottery sales in 2021 exceed the total amounts for these categories in 2020. In Q3 of 2021, 59% of our qualified spend was with Massachusetts companies. This represents an increase from the Q2 amount of 52%. 13% of our Massachusetts spend was with businesses and our host and surrounding communities compared to 9% in the prior quarter. Our total diverse spend for Q2 was 26% on a goal of 21%, and the total qualified spend was up compared to the prior quarter as well. On the employment side, we came in- North, North, can I interrupt? I'm not sure if it's on my end, but I'm not seeing your screen scroll. Oh, I'm just doing highlights and then- Okay, good, okay, thank you. You've done this to me before, thank you so much. I'm catching on, all right, thank you. That's okay, and the total diverse spend, like I said, was 26 on a goal of 21. On the employment side, we came in with 25% of our workforce meeting the diverse criteria on a goal of 15, and veteran employment continues to exceed our goal of 2% with 6% of our employees meeting the criterion. Finally, in compliance, we had one instance of an underage patron intercepted while gaming. I'll provide more detail on that, during that incident during our compliance side. So those are the highlights from the update, and with that, I'll pass it over to Dana, who'll provide details on our financial performance and spend. Thanks, Narth. Yep, sorry. Good morning, Madam Chair, commissioners. It's a great thing to be here with you this morning after what feels like so many months of not being in person downtown. So I'll begin with slide two, our gaming revenue and taxes. Well, there's a lot of information here on the slide for comparisons. I'll draw your eyes to the bottom half. In the third quarter of 2021, Plain Ridge generated 37.7 million in revenue with total taxes paid to the Commonwealth coming in just under 18 and a half million. This brings our year-to-date total to 105.6 million in revenue and nearly 52 million in taxes. The next slide is our lottery sales. In the third quarter, Plain Ridge sold 583,000 in online and instant tickets. We continue to see positive trends in our lottery sales numbers, especially compared to 2020. Year-to-date 2021, we have sold over 1.6 million, which is now 22% more than all of last year. Up next is our spend-by-state for the third quarter. In-state spend was 550,000, or as North mentioned, 59% of qualified spend. The percentage of in-state spend increased from the second quarter of 52% and total dollars spent in state increased 187,000. Moving on to our local spend. In-state versus surrounding community spend shows an increased quarter over quarter. Of the 550,000 of in-state spend in the third quarter, local spend came in at 73,000 or 13%. Driving our local spend is primarily rent them and Bristol construction. We had a decent spend with them this quarter relating to the capital project for outdoor dining area that we did, the patio. And then also rent them outlets. And then North Attleboro is with a company called OptiMark. So moving on to diversity. The third quarter diverse spend shows that we exceeded our goal in all three categories. Overall, we exceeded our diversity spend goal by 5 percentage points. Women owned came in at 13%, minority owned at 8%, inventor owned at 5%. We'll go into the details of these figures on our next slide. So looking at the data behind those goals that we just mentioned, qualified spend increased 34% from the second quarter which included material increases over 129% in both minority owned and veteran owned spend. If there are no further questions about these slides, I'll pass the presentation back over to North to review compliance. Commissioner. This is commissioner Ryan. I just had a question about the drop in the WBE. Yes. So in the third quarter, let me grab my information. I believe we had a material spend in WBE last quarter relating to a capital project. So this was almost just a normalizing back to our standard spend, but I can validate that data and send you an email to follow up. Yeah. So this is similar to what Q1 would have looked like? Yes. All right. But it still exceeded your goal, correct Dana? Yes. We still exceeded our overall percentage goal for women owned spend. Okay. Thank you. But it shows the commissioner Ryan, it does show how one contract can make a big difference, right? Yeah. Well, thank you for getting that contract during that capital project. All right. So onto the compliance side, as I mentioned, in the third quarter, we prevented a total of 307 patrons from entering the gaming establishment. 21 of those patrons were minors, 70 were underage, and 216 had either an expired and valid or no ID. So I mentioned in our opening comments, we had one incident where an underage patron was intercepted playing on the gaming floor. The underage patron was intercepted after gaming for four minutes. Patrons was challenged at the entrance for their ID and provided a valid ID from an older sibling who had a similar appearance. An observant member of our security team recognized this person from interactions outside of work and alerted their manager in the GEU. This patron was underage and they were removed from the gaming floor. So that's the story on compliance. If there's no questions on that, I'll pass it to Kathy who will talk about employment. This is Mr. Cameron. I had just, that's excellent work. I have to tell you, first of all, your compliance numbers are always strong, but that story about how this one minor was intercepted is really, you know, your staff is well-trained obviously to look for these kinds of violations. So really good work. Thank you for telling us the details of that story. Thank you, Commissioner Cameron. We're very proud of that team member and obviously the efforts that we take as it relates to responsible gaming. So we hope to continue to put up good numbers in the future. North, one metric that other establishments provide is the time on the floor for the violation. I know, Commissioner O'Brien, you've been interested in that. And I'm assuming in this case it was a short amount of time, any case? Yes, ma'am. So the patron came on the floor, let's see, at 8.39, I'm sorry, they came on the floor at 8.31. They were in a non-gaming area until 8.39. Then they were on the floor at 8.46 and then were approached four minutes later. So their total on property was less than an hour. Excellent. I gathered it was pretty quick, so thank you. Yes, I'll pass to Kathy who talked about the employment. Thank you, North. Good morning, Madam Chair and commissioners. With our employment, you'll see that the employees on this exhibit represent Q3. During the quarter we had 340 team members which is an increase of 49 team members from Q2 supporting our goal of bringing back our business. We continue to exceed our diversity goal of 15% in Q3 with our percentage of 25 team members being diverse. As well, we exceeded our veteran goal of 2% in Q3 maintaining 6% from Q2. In Q3, we also remain stable at 40% with our continued focus on women versus our goal of 50%. We've shared over the past quarters that we are increasingly aware of getting our members back with the opening of our fluities venue. We're close to our goal of 35% in Q3 for local hires. We're at 31% in our local area consists of Attleboro, Foxboro, Mansfield, North Attleboro, Plainville and Rentham. And then finally on the slide, you'll see that of those 340 team members, 69% are full-time, 29% are part-time and 3% are seasonal. Lauren. Kathy, excuse me, do you, I see the drop in the local, do you have any insight on that drop from 40% to 31%? I wonder if it has to do with COVID related matters or maybe fluities, is that it? No, because that would be the same issue. Right, one of the things that we have been monitoring as we're trying to bring back team members is really the focused on women and local. And we've had a lot of competition in our local area. And so one of the things that we worked on for the latter part of Q3, going into Q4, very similar is ensuring that our salaries are competitive for the local candidate and for all candidates, might I say. So we have made some movement in that area and I think you'll see in Q4 our numbers are trending back in the right direction. So literally we can look at some of the local competitive competition, as you know, just driving up and down the area. You know, some of the things we were competing with were sign on bonuses, retention bonuses, hourly salaries. And so we're in a better place because we reacted immediately to that. So you'll- That's excellent. Really helpful, Kathy, thank you. I'm glad to hear that they're entering the workforce and it's even better if you're capturing them. So thank you. Thank you. So next slide is our supervisor and above information. So in Q3, we had 75 leadership team members of those 28% identify as diverse, 3% are veterans and 35% are women. We'll go to the next slide. And again, you know, at Plain Ridge we honor some of the work that we do with PPC Cures and then also some of the Penn diversity and diversity initiatives and community issues as a priority. So right in the top, we celebrated Palmia during Q3 and with that we unveiled our Palmia Day Chair and Flag with a commemorative service. This is a permanent display and it's down in our racing entrance. We also have a second chair, which is portable and displayed in the gaming areas on Palmia Veterans and Memorial Day. This along with the missing soldier table to honor the falling missing or imprisoned military service members who are no longer with us. These chairs were generously donated by our local Rolling Fender chapter. I know we talked about it in Q2 but it actually fell in Q3. So I want to again thank the commissioners who attended the Spirit of Mass Achievement Race in Q3. And then going over to the other side, the IMGL and also the MGC sponsored the IAGR 2021 to Boston. And I'm excited to share that I participate on a panel with Linda Dorsana-Forey, who is the vice president of Dorsian Inclusion and Community Relations for Suffolk Construction. Jill Lacey Griffin, the VP of Diversity and Equity Inclusion for Accordia Partners. And then our panel was moderated by our Nikisha Skinner, who is our Licensing Division Chief. The topic we discussed was disrupting the regulators, sparking innovation in a regulatory practice. So again, just very proud to sit with those ladies and talk about our business. And then finally, just recognizing the awards for the National Council on Gambling Annual Awards where we were, well, Plain Ridge received the Corporate Newsletter Award, which recognizes outstanding problem gambling related issues over the last year. And then we were also happy to present our Game Sense Champion Awards to three of our team members. So again, we congratulate Michelle, Mark, and Landy for the work that they do on the property. And with that, open up to any questions and turning it back to Nora. Question? This is Commissioner Cameron. Vice President Lucas, I have first, I'd like to comment on the fact that your numbers of supervisors for diverse and women and veteran owned are increasing. So the work you're doing is paying off. That number was considerably lower a few years ago. So I thank you for that. And secondly, I did have the opportunity to attend this panel that you just mentioned. And I have to tell you the comments in the audience. First of all, I have to credit our former employee, Jill Griffin, because she submitted to the organization. This is an international group, right? She had to make a submission and they had to say, yes, we think this is a valuable panel. And it was excellent. And a couple of the folks that I was seated with, some of the regulators from the islands were saying they had never seen anything like this in all the years of gaming conferences around the world. So I just wanted to thank you and tell you that I thought it was an excellent panel. And it really did get people thinking about what they can do to improve their numbers and how important diversity is in casino gaming. So I thanks in our licensing director. Skinner also did an excellent job moderating. So I just wanted to thank you and tell you that it was one of the most meaningful panels that I attended. And I was there the entire time for the conference. So thank you, well done. Any other questions for Vice President Lucas, Cathy, or for anyone else? If this is the end of the, it might be easier if we could bring down the slides, please. Thank you so much. And I can see if anyone's leaning in. Thank you. Commissioner Hill, I bet you noticed how well they are doing with respect to their veteran numbers. And I know that that's really a meaningful metric for you and your past work as an elected official of the Commonwealth. I love seeing the POW and MIHA, which is very important to the veterans. And certainly that you recognize them with the table of the soldier who has not come back yet is something that is very meaningful to a lot of people. So thank you for putting that forward. And all three gaming establishments have really been able to surpass their goals with respect to veterans. For that, we're very, very grateful. And we do see that the challenge remains with women, but we know that your work is intentional around that. So thank you. Any other questions? Good work, good work. And Cathy, thank you for participating on that panel. You were one among other rock stars. So very, very nice. Fantastic, thank you so much, Madam Chair. We look forward to talking to you next quarter, if not sooner and hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. And you too, happy Thanksgiving everyone. Thank you as always for your presentation. It means so, it's meaningful and a critical part of our work. So thank you. Thank you. Okay, so the last item we have up for you is the Community Mitigation Fund Final Guidelines and I will just share the document briefly. Let me see. Okay, has everybody got that on? Perfect now, it's larger. Okay, so at the last time we met on this, we looked at the draft guidelines and since that point in time, we have incorporated those changes that we talked about. And I just wanted to highlight a couple of things that we did. Firstly, there was the new category that we had talked about, the project of regional significance that we agreed to take out of this solicitation, which we did. We will be taking that up separately with the communities to try to give us some additional information about some larger projects that may be out there that we may or may not want to try to tackle in future rounds of the Community Mitigation Fund. So that was done and just a couple of minor items that changed in the allocation of funds. We are still proposing 21 million to be out this year, but the allocation by regions changed a little bit. 12.55 to region A, 7.95 to region B, and of course the half a million that we put each year towards the category two facility in Plainville. The reason those numbers changed is we received additional, well, we originally did those estimates, it was back in August and of course, we have new information that came in just in the last couple of months. And also these numbers revised a little bit. This is the amount that's carrying over from each region into 2022. So we have 4.2 million that's carrying over from region A and 5.1 million carrying over from region B. And then the only other item that you had not seen when we did the draft guidelines, and I'll just scroll down here, in our evaluation criteria, we added a new item where we said that we would consider the vendor spending practices relative to minority veteran and women businesses in our evaluation of grant applications. We did not attempt to set particular goals for that. We are just considering that as one out of our several evaluation criteria that we would use. For instance, if we had two grants that were very close and one had a higher percentage of minority veteran and women spending, we may get that one over the other one. So it's just one out of our evaluation criteria, but we do think it's an important one to add into this program where we had not had that as a criteria before. And so those are the changes that we have from what you had seen before. We will need a motion to accept these guidelines so that we can then go out with our project solicitation next week. Any questions for Joe and Mary? Great work. And thank you, Commissioner Hill. I know you've been involved all on the way. So I'm just gonna say that just to let the other commissioners know that we have been meeting with the subcommittee members and they have been offering their input as well. And as of yesterday, everybody seemed to be on board with what was proposed. Joe has done a wonderful job as has Mary. And I would say that we should move forward with these new regulations and I would be more than happy to make a motion to do just that. Thank you. Okay. So I would move that the commission adopt the version of the 2022 community mitigation fund guidelines included in the commissioners packet and discussed here today. Second. Any edits, questions? Excellent work and great process. Thank you. Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. I vote yes for zero. Thank you. Joe and Mary. So next week it goes out. I'm sorry. The next steps. Yes. So this goes to Comby's on Monday. And once that we're reviewing the final documents that will go up into Comby's we'll finish those up tomorrow and Monday that will get posted and our communities can go on and find the application and start putting their applications together. And the deadline is February 1, right? January 31st is actually the deadline. Yep. And we will be having our workshop on December 14th. We've sent out a save the date notice at least at this point we'll be firming up our agenda in the next week and sending out a final meeting invitation to all of those folks that we sent the whole the date notice to probably by the end of next week or thereabouts. Great. And I'm assuming that Sarah and Austin are helping you too in any kind of furthering the application notice. Yep. That's great. Excellent work. And excited to hear about the workshop. We can attend if we want to listen is it invited to the public or only for community only for those who would actually apply? Well, we are only inviting those communities that are eligible for grants and we're also inviting the local community mitigation advisory committees and the subcommittee and so on. So it's not a public meeting yet. Got it. But no, it's not it doesn't really make sense to open it to the general public where we're really trying to focus on those communities that are eligible and trying to help them help themselves. Perfect. Thank you. And I did see on the agenda that you've got a couple or at least one community that was a successful applicant presenting as well, which is always We're working with three different communities that are each gonna present a little give it their own flavor of how they want about getting grants and hopefully giving some other people ideas on how to maybe do some better applications or be a little more creative in how they do some applications. Great. Good work. Great, thank you. Any other questions for Joe or Mary before they go on this process? It's both familiar and yet each year you tweak it nicely to make enhancements. Well done. Great, thank you. And that completes our report of the community affairs division. Great, thank you so much. Moving on into item number four. Good morning, Dr. Lightbound. Good morning. So the commission had the public hearing on November 8th and a Judicatory hearing on November 9th regarding the application from Plainville Gaming and Redevelopment to race at Plainville, Plainridge in 2022. After those hearings and reviewing the application and also getting some written comments the commission would grant them their license 110 days. Steve O'Toole, their director of racing did mention that he's working with other racing area tracks. So it possibly may come before the commission for some tweaking to the dates and in later date. A few requirements were put on such as the independent track review that we've done in the past. And I wanted to thank the legal team general counsel Grossman and the associate general counsels Kerry Turisi and Caitlin Monaghan. They did a lot of work on this as well as the other application which I'll get to in a minute. Steve O'Toole is on the call if you would like a brief statement from him. And Todd Grossman obviously is on the call as well if you have any further things you'd like to discuss with him on this application. Any questions? I'm sure the comment would be if everybody took their mute off, it's great work. It was thorough and understandable. We thank Mr. O'Toole for his comprehensive report and Dr. Lightbaum, we thank you. So for your all around work or particularly the work on that application and your recommendations for it. Thank you. Thank you. I don't know if Steve wanted to make a comment. He might be saying things are going pretty well. Right. You're doing the short and sweet version. So also we did get a application for a thoroughbred license from Surbridge Equine and Agricultural Center. They did withdraw it. Their letter regarding that is in the packet and they have expressed their desire to come back with another application in front of the commission which obviously we're always happy to hear about anybody interested in reestablishing thoroughbred racing in Massachusetts. The decision regarding Plainville Gaming and redevelopment is in the commission packet as well as the letter from Surbridge Equine and Agricultural Center. Excellent. Thank you. Any questions for Dr. Lightbaum on either application or the legal team? No, again, just great thanks. Really, really nice work on everyone's part. Thank you. Okay. On our timed out agenda, there was an opportunity for a break. It's 11.26. Do folks need that break? Otherwise we can continue on to Chief Skinner's report. Anyone, raise your hand, please. All right, it looks like we can continue right on. Crystal, we appreciate you including that. But let's see how we do. Okay. Good morning again. Makisha and again, congratulations to having Nate on board. Thank you very much, Madam Chair and commissioners. Good morning again. In your packet, you have an exemption request on behalf of MGM Springfield. What MGM is looking to do is exempt their dealer trainee position. It's a new position. And they wanna be able to exempt that from the service registration requirements. MGM intends to resume its table games dealer training program under a brand new model. They're delivering the training in-house instead of outsourcing it to Mass Casino Careers Training Institute, MSP CTI, as they've done in the past. So to support the new model, they'll use their current dealers, pit managers and table games managers to deliver the training to the trainees. It'll be a full-time training, 30 hours a week for about eight weeks, with approximately 20 individuals per training. It'll be conducted offsite at MGM's administrative office tower located at 95 State Street. And they intend to train the trainees in two games out of Blackjack, Carnival, Roulette, Batharat and Crafts. I think MGM inadvertently added POCR to the job description that's in your packet, but POCR won't, they won't be, these dealer trainees won't be trained on POCR. And that's an option for this program. And it's done. Since the training will take place in a non-gaming area, there's no access for these trainees to secure back-of-house casino areas and no training will happen on the gaming floor. The strategy MGM uses here is to incentivize participation in the program to attract more employees interested in training as dealers. They'll be full-time employees, eligible for full-time employee benefits. And this is all while they're attending training. Once they've successfully finished the training, they'll go through the regular gaming employee licensing process. And only when they're properly licensed will they be transitioned to a full-time dealer position. Well, I support the exemption, but I'll turn it over to you for discussion and happy to answer any questions you may have. Commissioner Hill. I just, I'm trying to learn the process a little, so bear with me. What's the difference between in-house training and going out and hiring the company to bring in that they bring in to teach these dealers, in your opinion, like is one better than the other? Well, I think the short of it is MGM wants to be able to hire these individuals, these trainees, and to be able to pay them as they're receiving training, as opposed to going and spending full-time 30 hours a week not being paid, as was previously the case. The other value to this for MGM is they actually employ the trainers. So previously when MCC-TI delivered the training, it was through a partnership between MGM and MCC-TI. And those individuals were not employed, the trainers were not employed by MGM. They were employed by, I think if there were two community colleges, two local community colleges, Springfield Tech Community College and Holy Oak Community College. So I think that's the big difference is that in order to pay these folks, MGM wants to hire them. I do have Jason Randall on still, and I believe Daniel Miller might be on. If either you, Jason or Daniel would get her elaborate on my response, feel free. Thanks, Nikisha. I think you did a great job summarizing kind of that relationship with MCC-TI, which was operated through a partnership of Holy Oak Community College. And she did hire our pit managers to be the facilitators of the program. So it's the same trainers that we intend utilizing to train these students. But Nikisha, you're 100% right. Our goal with this is to hire these individuals and have a PAP training. So they are earning income while learning this new skill. So can I just follow up then? As I understand it, if we allow this exemption to move forward, they wouldn't be going through a license and process until they have been educated, they're going to be hired and then they would go through the licensing process to be put on the floor. Is that how it works? That's correct, Commissioner Hill. What, if the exemption is not granted, these dealer trainees would be required to register as service employees. So this exemption, if granted, would eliminate that requirement. And that is favorable because there's an application fee, a service registration application fee. So there's no need to pay that if these positions are exempt. But once the training has been completed successfully by these employees, they will transition over to actual dealers. And it's at that time where they would need to get licensed as gaming employees. Thank you. Welcome. Questions, Commissioner Cameron, yes. First of all, I think it's an excellent incentive program, really thoughtful and probably will help you get candidates who may have been unable to train full-time and not be paid, just wouldn't be in a financial situation to do that. I wondered, since you are paying them, if someone needed childcare, would that be available to any of these trainees at the time? Great question, thank you. All of our existing benefits that would be afforded to any other employee would be available to the trainees as well, where we don't have an on-site childcare format. We are providing that as an in-person service. However, we do intend to run two cohorts, like both a day and evening cohort, that may allow flexibility for someone who has to have different childcare arrangements so that they could attend. Great, thank you. Any other questions for either Jason or Nakeshuk Chief Skinner? We do need a vote. I guess I would just confirm that all of the training is not on the gaming floor, it's in the separate space. So the risks that would be associated with licensing really are minimal. It's just an excellent idea. And I suspect it keeps you quite competitive too during this market. So we need a vote. Do I have a motion? Commissioner O'Brien. Certainly Madam Chair, I move that the commission exempt the dealer trainee position at MGM Springfield from the commission's registration requirements in accordance with 205 CMR 134.031B for the reasons discussed today and described in the commissioner's packet. Second. Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. And I vote yes. Good luck with that, that's excellent. Thank you, thank you for your support. Thank you and thank you Chief Skinner, excellent work. Thank you. Okay. So we're moving on now then to, really we have the full variety of work today. I look back at our agenda and think about the diversity of the matters that we get to think about and work on. And so it's an exciting agenda. So now to Mark, good morning. Good morning, Director Vandenberg I don't yet see you there, you are there. Good morning Marie Claire. Good morning. It's good to see you Madam Chair and commissioners. Here I'm gonna pull up the document that I'll be referencing here. Today I wanna talk to you about the ad hoc report that we have lined up as part of our annual research agenda being carried out by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, our Sigma team. So just quickly by way of background, the gaming commission has an ISA with the University of Massachusetts Amherst to carry out social and economic research that's barely defined in chapter 23K section 71, the Expanded Gaming Act. We've been working with a team of researchers known as Sigma, the social and economic impacts of gaming in Massachusetts since 2013. And they've provided in a pretty amazing library of reports and studies on the social and economic impacts of our still relatively young casino industry in Massachusetts. I would say that this has been really important work and information for the gaming commission but as well other stakeholders around the state and even around the country. So beginning in fiscal year 21, we began to include one or two ad hoc reports in the sort of listed deliverables that are being carried out by the Sigma team. And the advantage of this ad hoc report is that it provides us with some flexibility in defining the study after the fiscal year begins. The other parts of the Sigma deliverables that are carried out by Sigma are largely defined very early in the calendar year. So we began working on that back in January, February. So this allows us at this point in time with new information to define what it is we'd like to study. I actually wanna give credit to former commissioner Stevens for this line of research because he would often come to me in July, August, September and say, wouldn't it be great if we took a very close look at X? And I'd be like, commissioner Stevens, that's a great, great suggestion but we have a budget and we have a list of deliverables and we're trying to stay on track with those. So kudos to former commissioner Stevens for spearheading this. And so that's why we have this as part of the research plan. So last fiscal year, there were two ad hoc reports that were included. One was on gambling harms and the prevention paradox that was presented to you just during our last meeting. We have another economic study that is close to completion that's under final review by the Sigma team right now and it focuses on the impacts of COVID-19 on the gaming industry. So in fiscal year 22, we only have one ad hoc report and it's set up and it's largely because we have a lot of resources going to the follow-up general population survey. So we can only do one here. Before I kind of talk about some of the possible topics of it that we do have limitations on this report, the primary one being that it can only include data that currently exists. In other words, data that's available from the Sigma team or from some other readily accessible database. I have in the memo outlined five possible options for you, five possible topics. I'm very interested in your thoughts on these topics but I'm also, if you have other ideas, we can certainly entertain those as well. So to go through these five just very briefly, first is update and revise a problem in pathological gambling measure or the PPGM. This is an assessment used in Massachusetts and a number of other jurisdictions to measure the population prevalence of problem at risk and recreational gambling. The results of the magic study that had just wrapped up could be operationalized to create an improved scoring criteria, particularly for at risk gamblers in this measure. So in other words, sort of a clearer definition and clearer understanding of who the at risk gamblers are, which is obviously a great interest and concern for the gaming commission to make sure that we're doing the best job we can to mitigate gambling harm. The second one is an etiology of gambling. In other words, what is the cause? What is the origin of problem gambling? So integrating the results of magic, which was a study of the etiology of gambling with the findings of other major gambling cohorts and other jurisdictions to provide a clearer picture of the etiology of gambling and problem gambling in Massachusetts. The third is an economic analysis of local community agreements. So the targeted population surveys that are wrapped up in Plainville and Springfield have provided an estimate on how much revenue PPC and MGM have received from the host and surrounding communities. This can be compared to how much compensation the host and surrounding communities receive from local casinos to determine the equitability of these agreements. The fourth is an examination of the legalization sports betting in the U.S., who are very aware that sports betting legalization is relatively new and very little research has been done in this specific area. And specifically on social research, what have been the impacts of the rollout, broad rollout of sports wagering across the country in 32 states as of right now and more coming soon. There has been very little research, as I just said. There's one specific study that has been done by the National Council on problem gambling. So an analysis in this area would be done to take a look at, obviously, leveraging that NCPG study, looking at other data that may exist in other states, looking at how legalization has been rolled out in those states. And combining that would allow us to have a better understanding of the likely impacts of legalization of sports wagering in Massachusetts, should it be legalized, as well as what would be kind of our guiding path towards measures to mitigate that harm. I do wanna say we've done some work in this area. I'm sorry, Chair, did you- Go ahead, go ahead. I was gonna say, we've begun to do some work in this area in-house, both with Long Ban and Marie Claire, Claire Spejo, this would be a great help to us to have a lot more background as it begins to inform what our recommendations and actions would eventually be in this space. The final recommendation or the final option here would be research using mobile phone location data. So I had to scratch my head a little bit on this one when I first heard. Since 2017, mobile phone location data has been collected from opt-in smartphone applications and aggregated by companies that offer subscriptions or customized reports to interested parties. And I'm now thinking about all the times where I wanted to track my phone data and where I can say yes, yes or no, but I guess that's where all of this data goes. This data could be used to analyze casino, patron, geographic origin and expenditure both within Massachusetts and in adjacent states. We do collect information about patron origins currently, but this is largely done through our patron and license plate surveys. So that will be underway at Encore of Austin Harbor. And February that study, we've done it at MGM and PPC. This would be an alternative way to capture the patron origin data. I think it's interesting in that it could be compared to the current efforts to what we're currently doing and perhaps lead to a more cost-effective way of doing this in the future. So as required, we took these five options and sought any additional advice that the gaming policy advisory committee had back on November 1st. There was some discussion, two GPAC members endorsed the topic looking at the legalization of sports wagering or number four in your memo. And one member endorsed the topic which looked at the use of mobile phone location data. The last one that I provided with you. So kind of weigh in on this personally, if you don't mind. I think they all hold, go ahead, Chair. Can I just ask before we get too much into the discussion on item four, the underscore language is very broad. Do you mean that it's really going to be connected when you say really social impact on the health and well-being of patrons with respect to responsible gaming or are you talking full review of every piece of legislation and examination of economic impact, et cetera? Is it, no? I think it's just taking a look specifically at the legislation or the bill that was passed and comparing that to the existing data that we would have. So I'll take Iowa because most familiar with, so it's been legalization has been passed in Iowa. What were sort of the requirements of that legalization comparing it to the study that was done by the National Council on Problem Gambling that certainly includes a cohort of individuals from Iowa and looking at if there's any connection between the legislation and or efforts currently underway and sports wagering behavior or problems that are arising from sports wagering behavior. Okay. Does that make sense? I think that you're saying it's narrow to really responsible gaming issues. Correct, yes, but it's also, it is, I would say it is responsible gaming issues. It's taking a look at sports wagering behavior too. Yeah, okay. Which, it's all of it. It would be recreational sports wagering behavior all the way to problem sports wagering behavior. And then the only other thing, because before I get in, it's just these logistic questions. What would be the timeframe of getting the, yeah, the audio question. So the good news is that it would be drawing upon data that's readily available. So it's not like the team has to go out and do their own surveys and develop and move it in that way. So it moves more quickly. This is an FY22 deliverable. We make every effort to have these wrapped up by June 30th of 2022. There are many sort of twists and turns in any specific project. And it's not uncommon that it slides into the following fiscal year. But our goal is always to have a wrap, would be to have it wrapped up by June 30th. Okay, Commissioner Cameron, I think you're leaning in first. I just did have the benefit of a two by two to discuss this matter and really learn more about it. So that was very helpful. And I certainly agree that sports betting is the most timely as well as I think can add the most value to our work now at this present time. So I just think for those reasons, of course, they are all worthy projects and research, but I am inclined to agree that sports betting at this time would be the appropriate use of this channel research in this direction. Thank you. Commissioner Hill? I'm in full agreement. I think this is gonna be the issue that we're gonna be all dealing with in the very near future. And the more information we can get the better to help us as we come up and make our decision. So I agree with Commissioner Cameron on that. Commissioner Bryant? No, I was in the briefing with Commissioner Cameron as well. And I agree that to me is the most topical option. And we also talked about sort of the mobile device might get captured a little bit in some of that sports betting analysis, but I think it is the right choice. So I'm a little torn because I really would love to be able to provide the legislature with the information about the mobile phone data, particularly with respect to our adjacent states before they, we don't know what the legislature is really looking at right now, but if they aren't looking at something right now, then perhaps in early next year that data would be really helpful, not only for sports betting, but it also might inform our work with respect to Regency. So I am very interested in that data to understand casino patron practices. If it were only in Massachusetts, I think it would be less interesting to me, but it does seem to capture casino patron activity in our adjacent states, is that correct, Mark? Yes, yep. Yeah. So I just think that that's really interesting, but what's also interesting to me is that you're saying that that data must already be available. Yeah, that it is already available, correct. And we can't have two. Karen. I hate to be that. I hate to say no to the chair of the gaming commission at any time, but it really is limited to one this year. And I hear Commissioner O'Brien saying that maybe it's integrated. The other thing I'm really thinking about is that if we could push the deadline for the deliverable, if we're going with sports betting, because I mean, I was at the G-PAC meeting on the committee, I hear my fellow G-PAC members advocating for the sports betting. I guess I just wonder if they had asked that question about timing, if they would say, is it possible to have it earlier than the end of the fiscal year? I can absolutely pursue that. I think that the Sigma team kind of plans out what their activities are. The bulk of the work this year is in the follow-up general population survey. That survey is in the field right now. And it will, in some ways it makes a lot of sense that once we give direction on this, that they take that and run with it and see about getting that done before they're beginning this very in-depth analysis of the data from the follow-up general population surveys. So I can pursue that. And what will be your direction with respect to policy recommendations Mark on that? I guess I always see it from those been the responsible gaming. And I think that there's a range of potential policy options. All of which have been on the table for us as we begin looking at what's happening in other jurisdictions already. But I think that this study would kind of help either back it up, either strengthen it or send us in new directions. And I say it's responsible gaming, but it's really just its policy about how do you roll out this new form of gambling that is quite different from any other form of gambling that's currently legalized in the state. I think that there's great value of looking at how other states have gone about doing this and how does that tie to research that's already been done. I think about what types of regulations would create the greatest protections to mitigate gambling related harm. That would be the focus. But I think that maybe if there are other interests of what we should be looking at as within kind of the structure or confines of this study, we would certainly, I think that research team would love to hear that. I would love to hear that. So I just have a couple of additional thoughts. I think those recommendations around responsible gaming are really appropriate. I think we've also had some discussions with Commissioner Hill about advertising and sports betting in both, and that's where it gets more expansive beyond responsible gaming. Obviously responsible gaming is advertising discussion is so much about responsible gaming, but it's also about the economic analysis of sports betting and the models the state choose. We might be benefiting by being later in if the legislature decides to go forward on sports betting. I'm understanding this needs to be somewhat narrow in scope but if I had sort of two wishes that it would be narrow to responsible gaming in the behavior and then also the role of advertising in terms of not only the impact on patrons but also the impact on the states. Commissioner Hill, do you want to add in on that at all? Am I streaking it? Yeah, you're right on. Yeah. I think we're gonna have to address. Yeah. So again, but if it gets so big, I don't think it may push the deadline further down so. Yeah, I agree with that if we could push this study to take a front seat for the team, that would be great. And I can't speak for them and how their work is being teed up right now but I will certainly talk to them about this and express that it's a priority. That was a great list. I'm assuming you just wanted a consensus today. I didn't need a vote. So. Yeah, you know, the commission voted on the gaming research agenda earlier in the year and so it was, if we could move forward with consensus without the vote then I think that that would be fine. You're after marching orders then. Hi. Sounds good. I'm excited. Thank you very much. We look forward to getting, you know, hearing about the report down the road. It can't come soon enough. Okay. Thank you, Mark. And before we say goodbye, Marie Claire, safe travels. You have a nice vacation ahead. Thank you. Thank you so much. Alrighty. Thanks, Director Vandal-Linden and thank you too for your presentation at the GPAC. It was really, it was very good as well. We just have a couple of commissioner updates. It's really Karen, your update as much as mine. I think the annual report traditionally had been sort of driven by commissioner involvement, particularly former commissioner Zuniga. And I think that we have gathered that with respect to everyone's involvement ultimately that it makes a lot of sense to have it driven instead by the team. And so Karen, I think that you were going to sort of roll out what you're anticipating so that the team can start to pull together the information they'll need. Right. So what would be helpful for me from the team and would be asked, I think we're going to ask Christa Howard to sort of coordinate and collect that information. But the team is going to have to participate in that because they're the subject matter experts and the materials in the annual report. So the expectation is that it's a collaborative effort but that Christa would run point and sort of assembling that information and putting it together. Yes, we thank Christa for taking on really the drafting of the annual report. So, and then, but it will come back to us. I think Christa, you're imagining it being an iterative process and the commission would have the opportunity to review and make edits. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, we, I anticipate that it'll be similar. Many people have worked with Enrique in the past and I don't think we'll be changing the process to detrimentally to anyone but we'll gather all of the information, pull together one voice, have you guys review it and put in all of your input, get it back and continue that process until. And then you work with Sarah and team. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. And whoever's here for me. Yeah, any questions for Karen and Christa on that? Does that process seem to make sense, commissioners? Yeah. Okay. And unless one of you really, really wanted to do it. Commissioner Karen, does I see you leaning in? Your plan is superb. Thanks. Thank you and Crystal, thank you. And then the next item, Commissioner O'Brien. So fortunately and unfortunately for Karen, it's that time of year and we're doing her annual evaluation, both herself and then our evaluation of her. So I had asked Trip to you to distribute the form that we had used last year. So everyone could take a look at it, see if anyone wanted to make any changes other than obviously needing to make the date changes in terms of retroactively assessing her goals from the last time. So this is sort of the time if anybody wants to talk about making changes to the form. Otherwise what we did last year was set up a timeline that gave Karen sufficient time to do a self evaluation. We each did our individual evaluations of hers and then to HR. And then she had the opportunity to talk with each one of us individually after receiving those. And then we would come to a public meeting and discuss her evaluation and any salary adjustment requests or recommendations. So I'm sort of open at this point to hear if anyone looked at the forms and had questions or recommendations for changing one. Commissioner. Yes, I did have a chance to review as a good refresher of what we did last year. And I thought the process worked well last year and I do not have any changes to suggest. Commissioner Hill, you weren't part of the process. Do you have any questions for Commissioner O'Brien? How can it be ringing when I have it disconnected? Sorry. Commissioner O'Brien, I don't have any questions at this time but I'm sure I will and I'll give you a call. Okay, sure. Great, sorry about the phone. I'm upstairs and we still have a landline and I thought I should, because we have two phones. So you can follow up with any questions for Commissioner O'Brien. Commissioner O'Brien, do we, because we have Crystal here who's keeping track of our timeline. We're imagining a December and January date. Is that what you're thinking? So I think it's probably a January. The December one is really gonna key up if Karen feels she has the time, because I know she also has user lose time even with, I think the policy change with the vacation carryover. So I wanna be mindful of that in terms of staying on our schedule but also being mindful that this is a unique December, in terms of making sure that we pick a timeline that works sort of with what she's heading into in terms of December, January. Yeah, so Karen, you can think about that for us and then we'll get it on the agenda. All right, excellent. I'm all set with the forms. I like the process very much. So thanks. Okay, is there any other business we do have to reflect upon a possible and possible executive session? But do we have any other business items first? Okay. Then our next item is that the commission anticipates that it will meet in executive session in accordance with GL Chapter 30A, Section 21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to litigation related to personnel as discussion of the subject matter at an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigation position of the commission, excuse me. We will need a vote, as you know, to go into executive session and the public session, if we do the public session of the commission meeting, we'll not reconvene at the conclusion of our executive session. So we would leave this virtual room at this time if we so vote. Do I have any motion or discussion around going into executive session? Any questions? So moved. Thank you. Thank you. All right, then before we vote, I just wanna thank everyone who attended today's meeting, both our guests as well as all of our team members, excellent work and we were able to hear from on a lot of matters. So again, thank you and everybody have a nice Thanksgiving. So we'll vote Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. And I vote yes. So we will now go, I will leave this meeting and we'll go into our other virtual room for the executive session. And again, Crystal, thank you so much. And again, to the entire team, happy, happy Thanksgiving. Kathy, do you wanna give people 10 minutes for a break before the executive session or anything? That's a good idea. Would we like that everyone? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Is that the team? Yep. Thank you. Thanks. Bye. All right. Bye.