 Good to go. Thank you Good morning. This is a convening of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. It is Thursday March 14th And we're holding this meeting virtually so I will do our roll call. Good morning, Commissioner O'Brien. Good morning. I'm here Good morning, Commissioner Hill. Good morning. I'm here And I love your shirts. Good morning, Commissioner Skinner. Good morning and good morning, Commissioner Maynard Good morning This is public meeting number 508 and before I call this meeting to order everybody Will allow me to tend to a little housekeeping and in a little bit of a Some commentary So and I and I do have notes to keep myself organized everyone So this morning the Commission posted an agenda for a public meeting set to take place on Monday March 18th at 10 a.m. The agenda for this meeting includes final interviews for the role of executive director These candidates were selected by a screening committee chaired by Commissioner O'Brien and included Commissioner Maynard Commissioner Skinner Hill and I learned the names of the finalists earlier this morning Yesterday my fellow commissioners learned that I intend to recuse myself from the interviews discussions and ultimate boat Given that I will not have the opportunity to work with a prevailing candidate as my final day of commission will be on Thursday March 21st And I want to thank all those who submitted applications for the role of executive director in which the person selected the best of luck They will inherit They committed and talented team as they began their new position. I Planned to call the meeting to order on Monday through my rose chair and then reiterate this decision So now you can indulge me just a bit Take a few minutes here as I noted my last day's chair will be next Thursday and Today's meeting is anticipated to be my last full public meeting before my departure First I want to thank our fellow regulators Industry experts and stakeholders the Department of Public Health and the Attorney General's Office and our Licensees for your support and generosity over the course of my tenure You have shared guidance and generosity I'm sorry, you have shared guidance and expertise to help me My fellow commissioners and our MGC team understand best regulatory practices informing our work and decisions We have been influenced by those who led before us from New Jersey and Pennsylvania To Louisiana and Colorado to Nevada, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. I Feel very fortunate to have been able to turn so readily to you as leaders in ever evolving being landscape I'm especially grateful to those of you who have participated in our public roundtables and our public meetings We continue to participate even today the insights you offered Advanced our work significantly. I Incredibly proud of that body of work in the talented team here at the MGC responsible for it for me That work launched with a complex adjudicatory hearing That ultimately led to the opening of Encore Boston Harbor Nothing pleased me more than reciting in June of 2019 the number of jobs created as a result and Declaring to rows in attendance at that opening that more trades women had worked on that site Than on any other private construction site in the nation That energy and you'll remember it commissioner Brian Fuelled the commitment of my fellow commissioners and our amazing team to turn to the future of gaming and our responsibility as the regulator Inspired by thoughtful enabling legislation that offered critical funding for community mitigation and research and responsible gaming However, no more than seven months later. We were learning from around the world That a pandemic of significant consequence was on its way We began to play in we began to train within two months With the full cooperation of the leadership teams of the three casinos and in coordination with the governor's office and the department of public health We held our first virtual public meeting and voted to close the facilities doors During that time our licensees demonstrated their commitment to the welfare of their employees and to working with the MGC To plan a safe return We convened the first of our roundtables led by our licensees who collaborated to produce guidelines That would ultimately meet the requirements of our own IEB and state and local public health officials Permitting the casino doors to reopen under the great leadership of director field and Of course More recently this commission over the course of no less than I think a hundred plus public meetings and United by our shared values We successfully stood up as required by law the sports wagering industry Our commitment to consumer protections Responsible gaming and the health and safety of all of our patrons has led us to promulgate among the most rigorous regulations across the nation Safeguarding our most vulnerable populations particularly those under 21 are on exclusion lists. I Will leave my position next week Certain that this Massachusetts gaming commission is poised to continue its commitment to transparent and Inclusionary decision-making Grounded in integrity and fidelity to the law This commission once wrote or said and it stays true today That we in the commonwealth will always err and we have the most vulnerable and we will expect MGC licensed Corpus citizens to lead in that effort The law of Massachusetts affords the commission Significant breath in the exercise of its discretion but notably I'll stress with that comes an equally significant duty of fairness I Will have a chance to thank our wildly impressive team Over and over between now and next Thursday, and yet my words will still prove inadequate I am so grateful to each and every one of you for your professionalism expertise and kindness over my time as chair As I said earlier to you in a written statement When I announced my departure public service is difficult but essential and the work of a gaming commission is complex and not without public scrutiny For over five years I've had the honor to work with all of you and many other talented and committed individuals who have since moved on different new and exciting opportunities For me public service has offered the rewarding opportunity to influence policy for key public and private interest intersect My appointment to serve the MGC has been such a privilege as we championed transformational policies on behalf of all of Massachusetts residents advancing a safe and sustainable gaming landscape Our efforts have played out in full public view and while nerve-wracking at times and simply uncomfortable otherwise That process proves time and time again that collaboration and transparency Produce the best results I will be forever in your debt and with that I call this meeting to order Commission you have some minutes for us Madam chair if I could before you move on I know you don't want us probably to do this But I do want to take this opportunity after your remarks to thank you for your service I was here when you were appointed five years ago you were dropped into a situation that was on a precipice of going into those hearings and the scrutiny was intense the grace with which you were poised in the adjudicatory hearings and and everything that has followed I just want to Thank you for your public service, and I want to say To you and to everyone as well. I have been struck by your intellect your work ethic Your stamina be that you know not needing food as much as I do or just being able to you know dive into a project it's second to none and Your adherence to the statutory missions of this commission have been Amazing and I just want to say that I wish you well in retirement I think that your love of family has been also very obvious I think they will now benefit from all of that intellect and intensity and stamina and I hope you enjoy your retirement. It is well deserved Thanks, Commissioner Ryan, and you look great With your green with a game sense shirt Thank you so much. Madam chair If I could add We played we played a not played we Conducted an ice-breaking exercise yesterday during our implicit bias training and It was about how well you know someone If you know madam chair You know that She would not want us to do this as Commissioner O'Brien alluded to I hope you all can hear me Again, thank you. Okay. Good. So um, but so I'll keep it very short and sweet I want to add my thanks and gratitude to you for your leadership here at the Commission and your Years-long Commitment to public service and I also want to congratulate you on your retirement and to simply say as I've said to you before well done Thanks, I'm a show scanner. I appreciate it very much Commissioner Mayer do you have minutes for us a Commissioner may know that you can get going back and forth because of your phone. So we'll just exercise patience. Thank you Yeah, you're you're not going to get by that easy And I was looking at Commissioner Hill And I'm gonna speak really You know, I Want everyone to know that Kathy Judstine. She's an inspiration to everyone that knows her She was a trailblazer and a lot of people know that right, you know, the first to do many things I I You know, think that's all apparent But she's also a fantastic friend When it's clear that my closest family members were going through some really really difficult health challenges She personally counseled me on how to help them and also cope myself She's always quick with a quip and has a listening ear She's left an impact not only on the MGC But but to me and in my life and I appreciate her not just as chair not just as a commissioner, but As a fantastic human being who's given a lot to the Commonwealth, so I Just thank you Kathy for everything you've done well, Jordan But we're gonna turn to the minutes before we get too choked up But I appreciate that very much and I called you Jordan Christian made in my apologies. Thank you. I called you Kathy I'm sorry Commissioner Hill does have his mic off Madam chair I Am not going to share anything at this time I Have a commissioner's report and at that time I'm going to make some remarks So I'm going to save you my remarks for now But they're going to be forthcoming at the end of our meeting So we can't do a quick exit out. Is that what you're saying? Okay, that is correct Commissioner Hill, thank you so much and you look awesome for those of you who are some of the public you probably recognize that Commissioners are Brian and commissioners Hill are wearing our game sense shirts and they look like Official shirts because they were rolled out with sports wagering really What is today guys? About a year and four days ago, right? So there we are And you look great. Thank you. So now Mr. Maynard are you prepared to go forward with the minutes? I I'm touched and I don't want you to think that I'm not appreciative of your comments. I Just get a little bit choked up. So thank you Madam chair with that I move that the commission approved the minutes from the june 1st June 15th and june 21st public meetings A sound of the commissioners packet subject to any necessary corrections for tough graphical errors or other non-material matters second Commission, did you um, was it all three? Did I because I was just finding my packet. I'm sorry. Did you just do one at a time? He did all three. Okay. Thanks. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Um Any questions other than mine It's not a question. It's a it's a request for clarification in the minutes the june 15th set Do you know what page by chance madam chair? I know what page which page of the minutes not the packet page But it's page 17 the june 15th one. Yes, sorry and page The very last page and it's the Last substantive paragraph on that page I do remember inadvertently referencing the operators that are the subject of the diversity audit as category one licensees But I also remember madam chair you making the correction On my behalf Sorry No, it's okay. But so I I hope you if you also remember doing that. I'd like the record to reflect that So, can you just um, can you actually start by reading the Line the paragraph i'm speaking about commissioner scanner stated that the procurement procurement team identified and selected an independent contractor in connection with the diversity equity and inclusion audit of all category one licensees I just asked that the correction be indicated and and read Casino licensees If that's permissible and again madam chair if you do Oh That was the yeah, I got it. I didn't I think that's right and and I might have helped you on that right? Okay Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Skinner and I'm looking at judy who I see has already taken the note Thank you beauty for all that you do problem Excuse me guys, we've got a little bit of Backlight on my screen here. So I'm feeling a little trouble seeing all right. Um, so with that edit Um, are we all set any other questions? Okay Commissioner o'brien Hi commissioner hill I commissioner Skinner I mr. Manage I And I vote yes five zero There we go Now we're going to move right on to our administrative update. Good morning. It's from executive director grossman Good morning, ma'am council. Yes. Thank you. Good morning, madam chair. Welcome to everyone who's joining us into our team Uh, we do have one item under the administrative update and for that I'm going to welcome in assistant attorney general jarrod rinheimer Who is on the call here? and we will be offering an update relative to the impermissible Offering of certain games by daily fantasy sports operators recall recently the commission Discussed this matter and cease and desist letters were sent out by the attorney general's office And I see jarrod is with us and here he comes Good morning to you jarrod Good morning The flipper is yours if you will great, thanks, so You'll recall that we had previously discussed Sending out cease and desist letters for various fantasy sports operators who appeared to be offering Essentially what are parlays on the platform? Um, they were games that were against the house um, and they were Fairly close to what would appear as a parlay on a sports betting platform. So we sent out 10 letters um, we have received confirmation from all but one operator that um, the Operators are either never offered this particular game or are no longer doing so as of uh, march Which is the date and the letter that we told them to respond by so, um That is uh, that's the update I'm happy if there's any questions to to take them commissioners questions and thank you for this report. Nice to see you jarrod. Yeah, good to see you as well chair. Thanks Any questions on this update? Guess I'll ask the one. What about the one that didn't respond? so, uh, one of them, uh It it did respond. Um, the company, uh Requested additional time to modify its platform and we said That the that the events still cannot be offered after march date eighth that it would be, you know First of all unfair to the other operators to have stopped this practice and also We can't abide by an unlawful practice continuing in the state. So Um, they uh, they have not confirmed that they're no longer offering these games But our position has been made made clear to them and we'll we'll be following up with them as time goes on commissioners I I'll just I'm sure my fellow commissioners join me in this sentiment, but I Feel that That step that the opinion general's office did and we appreciate The fact that it was collaborative and effort and I know our Team has been helpful to you, but I'm very appreciative of the attorney general's actions here Because I think it's a really critically important first step to addressing the illegal sports betting and As I've said repeatedly and I all of us have said it one way or another We do make our licensed operators human Massachusetts jump through hoops and so This is the first step to leveling that playing field Jared and we thank you for Again the isa that Was executed and look forward to Continue collaboration on you know the separate. Thank you and please relay that to the attorney general herself I I will do so and of course we also appreciate the gaming commission's collaboration on all these efforts and We will certainly miss you chair. So Thank you for what may be the last time but thank you. Oh, well, thank you. And uh, no, it's it's been great Have the opportunity to outline public service to work with a lot of one of the attorney general's office and this experience was You know just a continuation of that same sentiment And I'm very very pleased for Attorney general Campbell and uh in her team So, thank you. Thank you Okay Todd, how do you do you want to add anything? I know that you're you're working closely with Jared and team. Yes. No, thank you very much Jared much appreciated. Uh, that's that's uh all for that topic And I think that concludes the administrative update Okay, excellent. Thanks Then we turning to our legislative update commissioner hill Yes, I'm happy to report to the commission. Um That we do have a legislative breakfast set Uh, so in your calendars. Um, and I'm sure through Um, grace and trudy they'll send something out to you April 2nd, which is a tuesday From 10 o'clock till 11 30 we have Um partnered with representative or chairman paracella and chairman finegold Of the economic development committee And we're going to hold this breakfast in the members lounge, which is on the third floor of the state house Right down the hall from the house chamber We have Decided that we would ask the head of finance the community mitigation and responsible gaming To come and speak to the legislators And that if there are any questions after that that uh for somebody who may not Be speaking that we would get them, you know, their questions answered In a timely fashion So April 2nd 10 to 11 30 co-hosting with Chairman paracella and chairman finegold in the members lounge And looking forward to it. It should be, you know, a good day of information Um And I did forget, uh, and i'm so sorry dr life Um, uh, we're going to be asking you to speak on behalf of horse racing, uh, as well. So four subject matters Um for that day So looking forward to it and hoping you can all attend Commissioner Question sorry Yes, commissioner hill. Um, I got finance cmf horse racing and what was the four Responsible gaming Thank you And you've got grace robinson assisting Yeah, tom mills Good Yeah, and and taut And taut so all four Um, uh, of you will be part of the um The whole effort and it's Great opportunity for the gaming commission to show off its good work Send and inform You know, I think sometimes I think you've recognized that that's a really important Opportunity and cultivation so great excellent Thank you for that. Um, all right The chairman of the chairman o'bron. Sorry. It's in my mind. Um did I'd have a quick question I did and I you know if they still tbd you can let me know but is this a Public meeting because the four of us will be there possibly five or is it It it would not be a public meeting because uh, all we're going to do is be introduced Uh, we will not to be debating anything and quite frankly, I don't think any of us will be Speaking at it except for after the fact, you know, meeting with the legislative response. Got it. Okay All right. Thank you. No no deliberations, right? correct And Todd's nodding his head no deliberations. So that's excellent Good. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you. All right. Um So dr. Like that you just got an assignment and now Now it's so there you go Good morning, Alex. How are you? Good morning? Thank you very well. Thank you I would like to take a quick moment to just thank you for your leadership Through the many complex racing issues that we've dealt with over the years and particularly during COVID which was, you know, unprecedented and um through your Leadership, we were able to get racing up and going very quickly in a safe manner And I'm sure I'll be talking to you privately Yeah Absolutely, but on dr. Like that on COVID we, you know commissioner brian you and I remember The horse community wanted to get back to work they wanted to be racing and We were able to Get racing back on the street because of your leadership We knew you were the best in the business and that you would work closely with The horse um people in the community I know you had to tell a lot of them push your mask up push your mask But ultimately um racing went off safely and it was after a very difficult time for that community. So Back at you dr. Like on it really um Was a great effort and I also know we had the leadership of even the health and human services secretary at the time I think I told you It was secretary sodders who redlined your guidelines personally It was a lot um really love village, right? Yes, but your leadership is all about you So, okay now let's hear what you've got. We've got a couple of items for us today Yes, the first item is a request from rain and park to add a simulcast import location A sky racing world so they can show the dubai world cup Which is coming up on March 30th and This is a site that's been on Both plain ridge and suffix list for years. So this isn't a new site to us So my recommendation is to approve it and i'm sue rogerig's Vice president of operations for rain and park is on the meeting today if you have any questions for her or for myself Michelle brian Oh, I was okay. I didn't make a motion unless someone has questions. Okay. Uh, first off. I want to say Good morning to you soon. Thank you for joining us any questions for either dr. Lagoner or miss rogerig's Okay, go right ahead commissioner brian Um, madam chair. I moved at the commission grant the rain and park request for approval of simulcast Import location sky racing world for the remainder of the calendar year 2024 has included in the commissioner's packet and discussed here today Thanks, mr. Maynard. All right. Um, with that any questions for sure brian Hi, mr. Hill Hi Mr. Skinner Hi Mr. Maynard Hi And I vote yes So five zero Next on your list If if i'm may man chair Oh, yes. Hi Hi, I just wanted to good morning and on behalf of mr. Carney and all of us at rain and park. We wish you a wonderful retirement Thank you very much. Um, I appreciate it. Um, we appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you and have a great day It's a lovely one. So thank you all right Moving on to Oh, okay. It's deep. Sorry. Now your unpaid winners. I was thinking you had three items Three items today abnc by far Hey, dr I found So our next items are the recovery of the unclaimed winnings. Um, this is part of the statue match general law 128a section five um Chad Bork our financial analyst has reviewed the unclaimed tickets with the each track and For plain ridge has determined that uh, 116,328 and 16 cents Is to be Turned in by plain ridge to the gaming commission for the 2022 out And uh, this does require a vote by the commission Dr Like on does that come to the gaming commission or to the commonwealth that um, the memos I'm ready. Derek can remind us. Uh, do you know Yeah, it it comes to the gaming commission and then by statue We send it back out once the checks have cleared um, and the um for the horse tracks it goes back to the tracks To put in the purse accounts and then for the dog tracks it goes to the racing stabilization fund Thank you helpful reminder okay Commissioners, do you have any questions other than the one I asked? Dr like them? I do manager Just wondering why we're talking about 2022 Are we like really a year behind and I don't mean to frame it that way. So let me reframe that um I guess a better question to start is what is entailed in the review process? And why are we reviewing 2022 at this point rather than 2023 or 2022 and 2023? Yep, so it's all by statute and um patrons have A year from the year that they made the bet to cash it in So the 20 people who placed a bet in 22 had all of 23 to cash those Tickets in and so anybody who had a 22 ticket that they did not cash in By the end of 23. Those are the ones that we're talking about now And that's why it looks like we're behind but actually we're not because they're given a year to cash those tickets in And then chastis down with the um tracks and reviews what they have for unclaimed tickets there Um It would be a possibility that maybe some patrons Had lost a ticket or had a damaged ticket that they were trying to claim and if that's the case Chad reviews that with the paramutual people from the tracks and They determine if it's um legitimate or not, um right With today's technology and all and a lot of it being done Through account wagering We we don't have any of those this year And we haven't uh, we haven't had any for a couple of years. I think Thank you. Dr. Leibbrandt that makes perfect sense as you explained it Okay, very good question Okay So, um, we need a motion on I think we do each individual one so for For playing with job face course To prepare I'm I'm happy to move madam chair. We have a we could move all together as a two part But I leave that to your discretion. Do you want them broken down or I think we should do each one because of difference in amounts I mean, I guess I mean, I could just read them Yeah, I could read it seriatum if you want me to I'm sure Brian. You just use some Latin on me. I think I'm keeping up with you That's the only time you're gonna hear that today Oh We'll wait till the end of the meeting. I'll decide that. Um All right commissioners that doesn't matter to me. Whatever you want to do Want to do it all together would be fine All right, okay Madam chair, I move that the commission approved the following payments to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Um, I think I think he's saying do them all together then we need to hold because I think Alex needs to go through all the reports Okay, got it Okay, so we'll hold on on the motion if we're going to do them all together Got it If there's a question about amounts, we'll just have to we'll revisit. Okay. Thanks um I could say that in French, but not mine. I was pretty good in Latin too. Um, there we go Uh, moving on uh, Alex to the next one Okay for uh, subject downs the amount is 114,479 dollars and 36 cents Um for wonderland the amount is 655 dollars and 85 cents And for renum the amount is 127,549 dollars and 82 cents Right and there's a separate memo in our packet for each one Yes Okay, and any questions on any of the individual um recommendations Okay, then go right ahead commissioner brian. Thank you. Thank you. Um to chat too. Thanks so much Certainly, ma'am chair. I move that the commission approved the following payments to the Commonwealth of massachusetts for the 2022 unclaimed winnings as included in the commissioner's packet and discussed here today 116,328 dollars and 16 cents from plain ridge race course 114,479 dollars and 36 cents from sterling suffix race course 655 dollars 85 cents from wonderland grayhound park and 127,549 dollars and 82 cents from the renum taught in massasoit grayhound associations And further that the commission authorized the finance division to distribute the funds from unclaimed tickets From plain ridge race course in that amount of 116,328 dollars 16 cents Into the plain ridge race course purse account from the sterling suffix race course in the amount of 114,479 dollars 36 cents to the sterling suffix race course purse account And from the renum taught in massasoit grayhound association the amount of 127,549 dollars and 82 cents to the racing stabilization fund And from the wonderland grayhound park The amount of 655 dollars and 86 cents also into the racing stabilization fund second second I got commission hill Next time twisher scanner My apologies And Just to really start to the latter part that is on the agenda as well that Dr. Lightbound did need authorization for Derek Lennon our cfao To be able to to move these funds. So thank you for that Any questions? Okay, commissure brian I Christian hill Hi Commissure scared I Mr. Maynard I And I vote yes, so five zero. Thanks, dr. Lightbound. Thank you all. Thank you. Okay Now the meeting to sports wagering um and Director van. Good morning. Good morning chair We're going to proceed with some amendments to the house rules which will be handled by andrew stephen I think riffs. Yep. Thanks riffs. Um, good morning to madam chair commissioners Three items for your review today and we'll start on page 47 of your packet with a house rules update from fanatics betting and gaming Fanatics is requesting minor changes to their existing house rules Most of the changes today as we've seen from other operators recently are revisions for clarification And in some areas specifically just for resettlement clarification on certain markets In addition to the settlement clarifications fanatics has added new markets or prop bets for their existing sports For example, you'll see this right from the start of the red line exhibit on page 53 of your packet For the football market rules for first team to score last team to score And the first team to score wins game Where if neither team is scored at the completion of the game and the game results in a tie the market result is avoid As I mentioned within the football rules fanatics is adding several new market types to their in-game wagering prop bet selections Such as result of next play result of current drive Will the team making new first down on the current drive and so on And those are listed there in the red line portion of the of the document These new football markets are similar to what other operators offer as well as well and nothing here stands out as unordinary Moving down to page 58 of your packet for their basketball section fanatics It's deleted a few provisions on certain market rules again for just clarification purposes for the customer They've reordered their lightning bet markets Nothing new added here just moving the section around And they have deleted their entire feeba rules section as all feeba market rules Will now settle in line with their general basketball rules I should note that you may notice in the summary of changes provided by fanatics back up on pages 49 and 50 of your packet Two sections are marked as deletion of market type. This includes player next team for both their football and basketball markets These sections were added in the initial request submitted to our division on february 26 However, as you may recall these markets were not approved by the commission during our february 1st meeting During our review of these submitted changes our division requested these markets be removed from the house rules revisions And then be resubmitted accordingly, which fanatics promptly provided This language which was added and then removed is not included in your red line today As it was never included in any approved version of the house rules and at no point did fanatics offer waders on these markets I just want to make that point clear The last section I'll really touch on here is baseball starting on page 60 of the packet And commissioners, this is something we'll see Next with fando as well and something expect to see in the near future as the baseball season approaches But fanatics has added settlement clarification language to a few of their baseball or the few of their rules and market types But most importantly as the season does approach opening day Fanatics has added several new market types offering more wagering options for the customers for this upcoming season The new markets include wagering on the correct score will extra innings be played and the number of pitches thrown during the next ad bat among others Lastly for baseball, they've added additional language for rules to detail how they will settle markets for a player injured in game These new baseball market offerings align with our other operators as well I'll touch briefly on the remaining sports for ice hockey They've added a new market type called grand salami where you can wager on an occurrence Usually total goals during a time frame usually one day For example, if there were five games listed for a day An option could be to select 30 total goals to be scored combined between all 10 games for that or those five games for that single day It's typically seen in baseball markets, but it is now also popping up in hockey as well For golf they revise rules for clarification should the new schedule or for the scheduled number of rounds be reduced for any reason And typically this we've seen this for weather. We've seen that recently For soccer they've added rules to address additional market types for their prop best selection such as player assist player shots or player shots on target And then for their boxing mma darts and volleyball markets all changes are revisions for settlement clarification only Lastly fanatics also now wishes to offer wagering on badminton And you can see those house rules at the bottom of this exhibit on page 71 of your packet These badminton house rules are in line with what other operators already have approved in their house rules as well We have confirmed these house rules have been approved in other jurisdictions in which fanatics operate such as colorado, ohio and vermont among others And to note, we do have a representative from fanatics There was a slight adjustment from the agenda But today we do have fanatic senior regulatory council michael levine on the meeting today to help answer any additional questions as well With that the sports waging division confirms After an extensive review that all requirements have been met pursuant to 205 cmr 247.02 and has no reservations on improving these house rule changes today Madam chair Thank you, andrew and re stephen excellent report comprehensive any questions Concerned and good morning again, mr. Levine i'm glad to see you again morning Any questions for either michael or andrew any concerns It's not a concern. It's just a question. Maybe for mr. Levine or andrew in terms of the soccer shots on net I know, you know in baseball, there's more formal definitions of you know error run hit, etc the does this Do the soccer leagues do that or is this your definition of? You know goal on target shot on target I believe shots on goal is tracked by either fiefel or the governing body And that is similar to hockey as well. I think hockey also allows shots on target or shots on goal Very similar language for each sport. Okay, great. Thank you That's I was on Just going to mention the page if anybody was interested and then I rolled it. So that was on page Uh 68 great Okay, any other questions? All right, i have a motion It's not easy today Michael I have a motion christians Maybe not um, madam chair, I Move the commission approve the updates to fanatics house rules as included in the commissioners packet and discussed here today second Thanks, mr Any questions or edits? Okay, mr. O'Brien Hi Christian Hill. Hi, mr. Skinner. Hi, mr. Maynard Hi Michael. Yes, five zero Well done, uh, andrew. Thank you again, and thank you Michael. I appreciate you're showing up Thank you, madam chair and just quickly on behalf of fanatics, but in the gaming We want to congratulate you on your many achievements and wish you nothing but the best in retirement Yeah, thank you so much. Um, i'm gonna just acknowledge that it's public requirement I don't know what i'm going to do next but and yeah, i'm still filling out those papers I must say for those of you who ever decide to retire from public service start a year ahead And i'm looking at you director van. Thank you I I appreciate so does my family. I appreciate your your kindness very much Michael. Thank you Okay Okay, um, next up beginning on page 72 of your packet is a fan duel house rules update Um, and I did mention earlier that fan duel submitted several new additions to their baseball markets All of which they did not offer last season In addition to the baseball revisions fan duel is also updating other sports for clarification and to reduce ambiguity as well as offering One of the newly approved sports We'll start with baseball on page 74 of your packet And as you can see from the red line all this language for baseball is the additional prop bet markets They would now like to offer as you'll notice most of this language here It's very specific to baseball such as quality start no hitter and perfect game all related to a pitcher's performance Other pitcher performance wagers could be nine up nine down or a number of total pitches thrown Additional baseball markets include a player's performance Such as player to record the first hit rbi run stolen base They've also added new the new futures markets such as regular season stat leaders for home run stolen bases wins hits, etc Or team to earn a first round buy Moving on to the other sports a very slight adjustment for basketball specifically for futures on the nc double a tournament Fan duel has expanded their rules to include the final 68 teams instead of 64 68 teams now make the official tournament and they're including that the first the first four is included They've also added some settlement clarification rules for their golf section for closest distance to the pin and longest drive markets And I did mention the new sport offering. They've added language to include highlight as a sport They would now like to offer these house rules are in line with the other operators house rules for highlight as well that we've approved recently And lastly, they've restructured their motorsport section moving indy car settlement markets with their NASCAR markets And then keeping formula one racing markets separate on its own With regards to other jurisdictions and fan duel may be able to speak on this further Through our review, we were unable to determine if other jurisdictions have approved these house rules recently From what we found that all other jurisdictions have the most recent approval date of early december 2023 Similar to our most recent current approval date in massachusetts But these house rules were just submitted to our division on february 22nd So perhaps they have to go through a similar process as far as approvals go in massachusetts But we do have a representative from fan duel on the meeting today trading compliance manager chris black To help answer any of those additional questions and more With that, uh, this force wagering division after an extensive review confirms all requirements have been met pursuant to 247 O2 and has no reservations on improving these house rule changes today I'm sure I have a question I don't know if you do Highline We approved but we it was a limited approval, right? It was who what's what's it called commission hell out of florida the florida-based jurisdiction Don't remember I meant to google it last night. I didn't Andrew if i'm not mistaken they have now have a league that oversees it which we were concerned about The first time around when we said no crowd Maybe I should go to bruce because i'm not sure andrew was in his position at the time Is that what you're asking mission of hell? I think it's not global. I think it was limited to just that Version of the florida highlight that we approved. Yeah, that's correct now covered by us integrity And they started a whole new league all together So it's not like part of the original highlight that we discussed the first round Right, but the second one. Do we remember precisely the name of it? That's what i'm saying it was Do you remember what the the name was the league itself was world highlight league? Yeah, that's what we approved back and yeah, that's what we approved back in september last year Okay, that's sort of my point. I wonder if um, I don't know how the others are doing it But do we need this is a question not I don't have an opinion Do we need to clarify that it's that highlight? in the in the house rules In other house rules leagues aren't necessarily defined Like in in certain golf markets. It's not defined as a pj league or nba league Sometimes the the house rules are just combined for general basketball rules or general highlight rules That will be very clear that it's that world Highlight in our in our event catalog. The only league approved in our catalog is the world highly highly. Oh, okay That's perfect. Thank you I I watched a lot of video of that It's a fast game. It's a fast game commissioner hill if you're ever in florida and I can meet up with you It would be fun Yeah fast game. Okay, so All right, thanks Anybody else have a question No, I actually had grabbed bruce this morning madam chair and asked that same follow-up trying to jog my memory Yeah, and and I remember it was first under sort of florida's jurisdiction and then as bruce said us monitors doing the monitoring But it was Yeah And the only thing I will add just for the record is I know that when we did approve it We had asked for the opportunity for any of the players to give input There was no player representation And so we wanted them to know if they wanted to give comment that they could and I confirmed with bruce this morning That we did not get any Comments from any players We invite that for all sports Yeah, and the application basically says is there a player association that represents if so have you contact them Instead are there there is no association at this point? And so that's why we kind of put the general reminder that they could themselves individually contact us and bruce confirmed that no one did Got it Okay Hi chris. Thank you for joining us today Sounds like my fellow commissioners might be all set any any questions for either mr. Black or manager stefan Okay, do I have a motion? Yes, madam chair I move uh that the commission approved the updates to fendall's house rules as included in the commissioner's packet and discussed here today second second Hey, I don't know who got that one Um, mr. O'Brien. I think he moved first, but I think lag time bumped me in front of him All right, we'll clarify that as commissioner brian second and And again to autumn and her patients. We thank her um No further questions Mr. O'Brien I Mr. Hill I Mr. Skinner I Mr. Maynard I Yes Five zero well done. Andrew. Thank you Yep One last item for me today Is a new event petition for a new leak speaking of new leaks and beginning on page 79 of your packet And commissioners i'll start by stating that i misspoke during the agenda setting last week I mentioned this was a joint submission by both Fandell and draft kings when actually they each submitted separate petitions to our division Fandell first submitted theirs on february 21st afterwards draft kings had then reached out and submitted their petition on february 27th So while both operators want this league added to the new catalog to allow wagering on spring football They are separate petitions with that said though both petitions are similar and both operators submitted the same supporting documentation such as the integrity policy and the rule book With that out of the way we can get into the details of the petition and the league itself As it stated in your memo in the packet on december 31st 2023 It was announced that the united states football league the usfl And the xfl would be merging to form the united football league the usfl And it should be noted that both the usfl and the xfl were approved leagues at the initial launch of sports wagering in massachusetts last year The newly merged league consists of eight total teams three from the old usfl Birmingham, Memphis and michigan played in detroit and four teams from the old xfl Arlington, washington dc san antonio and st lewis houston headed team in both leagues so they merged to create one team so eight total This upcoming season will be the usfl's inaugural season kicking off with all eight teams playing on the weekend of march 30th and 31st The 10-week regular season will consist of 40 total games culminating in a three game post season Playoff to be played from june 8 to june 16 with a championship site yet to be determined The league itself is financially backed by fox sport ceo eric shanks representing 50 percent of the usfl While the other half is comprised of members from the most recent xfl ownership group Which includes dwayne the rock johnson and dana garcia There is also significant sports leadership in the front office The memo in your packet highlights usfl president and ceo russ brandon Previously of the buffalo bills front office as well as vp of football operations daryl johnson A multiple super bowl winner and pro bowler in the 90s with the dallas cowboys In addition to the front office leadership several of the usfl teams are held Are led by previous nfl and college coaches with decades of coaching experience such as skipholz bob stupe and wade phillips The official rule book is posted on the usfl website and while the league looks like the football We're used to watching on sundays in the fall There are several innovative rules brought over from the usfl and the xfl A few of those rules include overtime which will consist of alternating attempts to score from the opponent's five-yard line Or a three-point attempt from the ten-yard line after scoring a touchdown The the full rule book provided by both operators is linked in your packet as well as posted on the usfl's website Speaking of rules, uh, both fandal and drafkings have confirmed that this league will fall under their already approved house rules For their respective football sections in their general football. So no house rule updates are needed with this league today With regards to other jurisdictions when the petition was initially submitted by fandal on february 21st Fandal confirmed wagering on the usfl was approved in the seven jurisdictions of cancess Connecticut, wyoming, washington dc, arizona and maryland with pending approval and several other states And on march 5th fandal followed up and confirmed an additional 13 jurisdictions had approved wagering for the usfl Including new jersey, west virginia, louisiana, india, indiana, illinois, michigan, tennessee, virginia, vermont, iowa, colorado, pennsylvania, washington Also on march 5th drafkings reached out and confirmed they are offering wagering on the usfl in 22 of their jurisdictions including arizona, colorado, connecticut, iowa, illinois, indiana, louisiana, michigan new hampshire, new jersey, oregon, pennsylvania, tennessee, virginia, west virginia, wyoming, washington Kansas, maryland, main and vermont as well as ontario canada As for integrity measures both operators in their petition state in their petition that integrity controls are online with current football approvals Fandal has also confirmed us integrity will be conducting integrity monitoring on all usfl games In addition to their advisory role on league policy and procedures And the usfl integrity policy is attached to the packet as well and i think link to the memo This integrity policy outlines the standards of conduct expected from all individuals associated with the league To ensure integrity of its games specifically the prohibition of placing wagers on usfl games and disciplinary actions Lastly on february 23rd vandal confirmed they contacted the united football league players association the ufp la local 9004 the day prior on february 22nd To inform the players association of their efforts to petition regulators to approve the usfl for sports wagering In addition to chris black of fandal still on the meeting I believe we may also be joined by drafking senior director of regulatory operations jake list to help answer any questions from their side as well So through our review the sports wagering division confirms all requirements have been met pursuant to 205 cm r 24703 and has no reservations on approving this new league be added to our event catalog madam chair Thank you for that questions I have a question madam chair For uh andrew good morning Relative to the official rules. I understand that there are some Areas where the rules here differ from where we're modified From rules applicable to other leagues. I won't ask you to list any of those um because i'm not an expert on the rules of football But are those modifications um In line with the integrity standards standards that are applicable in other leagues Both in the nfl or excuse me both in football and other sports And that's yeah, and that's what fandal and drafking's both confirmed in their petitions Um, and the rules were combined from the usfl and the xfl There are no new rules that are in place for this usfl that i'm aware of they're just all combined merged together To form this new league I see so the modifications that you're referring to were already In existence when the two leagues were separate Correct, correct. And then as I stated both those leagues were approved In massachusetts and they just brought those those merged rules together with this new league Okay, were there any jurisdictions and through that denied either of the sports waging operators this newly Unsure about denial, um, but there should there may still be a few jurisdictions that are pending approval I'm unaware of any denial. I don't know. Chris you have the answer available Yeah, thank you very much. I can speak to that none of the jurisdictions that we've reached out to For approval have denied the ufl for approval Did you want to ask how many are pending or you asked that? No, I'm all set, but I'm if if there's anyone on um, I'm drafking's could we Direct that same question I believe jade john Good morning jade Good morning. Madam chair and commissioners and obviously echoing a simple sentiment on the call that we've appreciated working with you commissioner Juddstein since the launch of sports betting in the commonwealth Thank you jade. I appreciate you. Thanks so much Of course, uh, and yes, I can I can answer the question. So, uh, we have 24 states approved We are pending still in kentucky north carolina and new york as well as massachusetts But we're not uh, it's more of an administrative process thing We're not expecting or any hiccups or we haven't received any uh, questions that would be Not in line with what we're saved from other states And no jurisdiction has denied that you've applied for okay. Thank you And I have a follow-up question So I know we've been looking at the form in terms of adding and we added the reference to whether or not They had reached out to the players association I know andrew you sort of amended this they have after the submission reached out I think we might want to think about adding Right now our form just says if you have Tell us what they said I think we also might want to think about saying if they haven't why not Here they have and I guess my only other question would be Was there any Response from the players association when you did reach out to them Sure. Thanks, uh, commissioner o'brien. Yes, uh, no response from the ufl players association after we had reached out Okay Thank you Of course Yeah, commissioner o'brien. We'll be sure to add that to the to the form I know we talked about that with the professional women's hockey league a few months back But we'll make sure that add this to the the actual form Anything else for jake or andrew christ Yes Okay I'm happy to move Thanks to the question Madam chair I moved to the commission amend the official catalog of events and wagers to include The united football league as included in the commissioner's packet and discussed here today Okay Any questions that it's all right commissioner o'brien I Wish you help. Hi, mr. Skinner. Hi, mr. Mead Hi My vote. Yes. I have zero Good work. Andrew. Now. What do we have next? We we have uh crystal Bozeman on uh extension of waivers coming up. Okay. Thank you. Andrew. Thank you chris and jay All right Good morning commissioners. How are you? Kathy I'll spare you but you've heard plenty of my sentiments um So I'll just direct you to page 97 or at least at what last time I looked Yes page 97 of your packet. Um Today, I'm just presenting you A recommendation to extend a uniform waiver which has already been in place That waiver is 4205 cm r 257034 and it is a uniform waiver that expired on march 1st um The waiver was originally discussed during the november 16th public meeting for some context and At that time the commission had decided it would revise the language in this specific regulation had a further date to determine if it should be clarified um As I understand it the Uh a and k team and our legal division will be bringing those regulations in front of you within the next few meetings To do that. So we feel it makes sense to extend the waiver through that initial discussion And further if revisions are decided upon through the amended regulation um The finalization and the publication in the massachusetts register And just to add a bit of clarity you do have the two waivers in your packet One is from grafting the one is from that mgm and although we do have two It was a uniform waiver that was applied. These are the same two requests we received back then They have not been modified While other operators have not submitted for today that um, there were indications that they just might need to submit waivers depending on how the regulation language lands um, and In general, there are already current protections in place for this waiver It's just going to depend on the technical specs once the language changes if it should um I think that's all my notes for this if you have any specific questions. I can go forward but um That's the overview questions for Crystal on this and I think to legal standing by um, should you have any questions on the regulatory process I think um The question would be Both grapkins and the mgm has They have submitted decision and I believe um Turning turning she suggested that we add to the agenda the ability to extend it universally Is that for your crystals that and here's Kerry now? Yes, there are options um, how you want to move forward because you do have two specific waivers in front of you I suppose you could review and approve just those and then um, you know, you could just Extend the universal waiver. So all three options are presented in the agenda yeah Hi, Kerry. Good morning. Hi. Good morning. Um, yes, I was just going to add you can certainly um address only the two that were submitted or address all I think my understanding from speaking with crystal was that There really is some question from all of the operators as to, you know, what they're supposed to be doing with this section right now so When the new reg comes and when we can get that in place They'll have that clarity and they may still need some sort of waiver But this would give them the time to wait and see what the update regulation will look like And if we if we give the universal It ensures compliance for them. Exactly Richard Skinner To follow up on that I would assume that since we haven't received a waiver request from the other operators that they're in compliance given that the waiver was only through march 1st 2024 And I know that's probably a terrible assumption Given that the waiver was universal and we did hear from all operators at the time But the I guess the absence of silence here on the part of those operators To me is meaningful So have we heard from any of the other operators? I know I don't I don't want to assume that they need it Um at the same time I don't want to assume that they don't need it, but I do think the onus is on the operators Um to submit the request again given that the waiver that we extended Last fall just currently expired Sure, so we had a suggestion uh requested um the initial First report under these 257s, which if you recall when we were doing the review of their waivers They had various dates that they were looking to be in compliance and the commissioners determined various uniform dates for each piece of that most of them which run through june 30th So our second set of reporting will be due june 30th But this first set of reporting was more of a check-in. So we have received that from our operators And in that The the feedback we got was that this one, you know, because this one was expiring march 1st It was only because the language was supposed to be already revisited by march 1st. It has not been um So in that a lot of them are saying as I had mentioned they're complying and Doing what they think makes sense to the reg as it stands But they're not certain that that's what the commission is actually looking for necessarily Because there's questions about the encryption versus the hashing versus if there are other ways to do this PII protection And in what form so that is what the clarity will become And when it's revisited and I think in for now, they're saying we comply as far as we understand so You know, they're not putting in waivers because they're not saying that they're not doing this And we're draft kings and bet and jams waivers vary a little bit. We're drafting to saying We don't want to try to comply with something that will then will then change Because it's coming to change and bet and jams saying we would like a waiver forever because We think we do something different than hashing and encryption as far as I understand it So I do know that The conversation will also be had For some more technical expertise related to this reg and that's where we're going with it. So then I wouldn't necessarily say Them not putting in a waiver means that they're Sure, they're going good to go. They're just As they are reading it as it exists. They think I I apologize for adding any confusion on that I think it was my point about bringing it sort of on us to help them because we're still clarifying So to the extent that there's any ambiguity By giving a universal that kind of ensures While we're being Заikin clarification that everybody is is offset No, I understand that madam chair and crystal. Um, I just uh Crystal, I'm glad you mentioned the progress reports That MGM references their progress report and their description and the waiver request and I I guess my next question then is And I'm assuming I think you indicated that the other operators also submitted progress reports So is there anything in those that we as a commission need to consider in order to Determine whether a universal waiver Get here or is it is it is is that just The baseline is that where we're starting given that we have Um an action item on this end to complete Yes, I think that's it. So they were you know pretty basic progress reports at this point since a lot of it Almost of these expired June 30 30th A lot of it is just we're working to comply with that. We're in progress with complying with that And this particular one as I said was You know right now we've been doing what we're doing as far as protecting this That may change if the language changes before or where it hasn't come back yet. So Okay It just might another request manager. Sorry if we could get um A copy of those progress reports in anticipation of the upcoming discussion Whether it's going to be around table or what have you To see if there's any information that that we can glean that might be helpful to us in our discussion I'd appreciate that Are there questions Um, I guess the only question I have um is for Kerry in terms of the timing um It looks like through the spring would anticipate getting a potential changes in front of us for discussion. Is that A reasonable timeline just want to confirm Yeah, so we don't so you'll you'll recall that we brought this reg a few weeks ago And you asked us to go back and speak with the AG's office, which we did do so we'll be adding it I would assume with the next agenda setting to an upcoming meeting I'm just not sure where it will fall in an upcoming meeting. So that's why I had suggested to just put something in place through promulgation So that would give them time to assess their needs and if they need to come back with some other sort of waiver request Okay Thanks Harry, I know you distributed the prior recordings of the discussions around 257 in this particular Issue. I haven't had a chance to look at them Given as you noted that we postponed the discussion a couple weeks ago So it sounds like though we're past the round table stage And I was just drawing on the language in one of the waiver requests that where The operator offered to come in and talk to us in a closed session or of some kind to explain exactly where they are with their attempts to comply um, I think the waiver should at least extend Some time out So that we're not up against the same situation where you know For whatever reason During the transitions here. We're not able to have a comprehensive discussion You know by the by the date that we anticipate we will And so just just provides a little bit of of a cushion for for us as as well as the operators with that first up is It would be your recommendation that we do this in the first right and so the second yes pieces Um, do we need a date? Oh, we probably should that's what i'm hesitating with either a date or um through the Final promulgation of the amended regulation either one And that's really a decision for the commission If you if you want to do a date, you know, you could say two to three months away It may mean that the operators need to come back Or an additional waiver needs to be issued if we haven't completed the regulation They're still not sure what the ultimate language is going to be So that was the only reason I had um raised the possibility of through the final promulgation because then they'll have that real clarity Yeah, and that's how your your trap And we have done that in the past with other waivers as well Yeah commissioners any other questions on the approach No, I just I would feel more comfortable with a date rather than the The reference to the process So I guess what i'm searching for is a realistic date, you know, I don't want to make them come back in if we're not ready, etc but um, I hate to just say Do not have a date certain on an extension on a waiver I don't know. June 1st, June 30th Sorry, commissioner hill I was actually going to push it out a little bit more Commissioner o'brien. Maybe we would make it through august 31st or some language that if we should um fix the Regulation to the way we want to see it if that comes for whatever comes first type of thing I'd be comfortable with that but um I'm not sure we're going to be ready by june 1st Being realistic with with the with the you know what we have before us Yeah, I'm just wondering if by june 30th, they would be able to Know what their real-time extension would be like do we have the language such that they can come back? Technologically and say okay, if that's what you want I need six months whatever I'm not expecting to necessarily be able to comply in june But maybe if our language is clarified then they'll be able to give us a date certain Put the difference to july 31st I love your your desire to compromise I don't know. I just want to be realistic. That's all. I know I do too I just don't want it to fall away where it's not prioritized. So um I'm not you know fixated on june. I don't know what my fellow commissioners feel like on the dates Oh, I'm sorry, sorry for the lag too a former legislator giving up the 31st of july makes a lot of sense I would join commissioner hill on that date and um, what's the the hope that we can have a substantive conversation before then To commissioner bryan's point I'm gonna do it. I'll check in with Our team in terms of management on this crystal and carry. What do you think Bruce? What do you think? From legal's perspective, I think that's fine crystal, of course is the one who would be tracking the Well to her there I was okay, then we're in good shape because I was gonna say well, I have to check to carry his point first But I do I'd be more comfortable with july I think then june just because Looking at what's happening in may in june um, so And I do think that that gives us a good chance to even if this has to have a discussion on a couple different meetings perhaps But we also know that that the it team is probably going to be necessary. So it just gives a little bit more room for coordination I can live with you by 31st Okay, and for the discussion then So in terms of a a motion We're ready to move at this point I can move madam chair unless commissioner bryan was leaning forward. Nope like you instead. No go right ahead Uh, I moved that in accordance with 205 cm r202.032 the commission issue a waiver to all license and sports waging operators From the requirements outlined in 205 cm r257.034 Through july 31st 2024 As granting the waiver meets the requirements specified in 205 cm r102.034 and is consistent with the purposes of general laws chapter 23 n Second In further discussion commissioner bryan I commissioner hill I commissioner skinner I commissioner leaner I I vote yes 5-0 All right Thank you Thank thank you everyone. Um So we still now have the outstanding report on Values, which I know commissioner skinner you talked to us to remember that we needed that Director ban Yes, ma'am Yes, uh Back in december, uh, we met with brett kaylor He was the chief operating officer of Valley's interactive north america. I reached out to him last week To see where they were since they've gotten road island open up And he indicated that they were aiming towards The end of quarter two for us opening Which point we kind of met is a group to see where everything was and I sent him a letter basically spelling out all the things that they needed to do and complete Prior to Opening and to obtain a operation certificate here in massachusetts Which was a pretty extensive list And that's kind of where we stand at this point. I've not heard back from him since I sent him the letter Uh We've extended numerous meetings to meet with their staff for uh to work with them And hopefully we hear some some things soon, but they do have to go through all the gli approvals house rules Uh, I believe extensive licensing Issues You have anything to add to that cod or Yeah Because they do have a temporary license with us. So I just wanted I want to mirror the what we did a year ago with It's getting the approvals of internal controls and those kind of things But we did we did that in a certain time period for multiple. So I'm wondering why It's not the same timeline Uh, we we've offered To have meetings with their group and stuff. I know that they were doing Internet gaming in the road island up to last week. I think is when they opened But they have not taken us up on our offers and we've made the offers probably three or four times since december and I wonder if it's time to you know Take commissioner skinner's idea and move it forward and and stop the offering and sort of have them up here uh, like I said, I sent the the letter to them yesterday and Asking them when are you doing this and hopefully that will get a reaction With it I will push the envelope, you know harder if I don't hear Madam chair. Yes, commissioner him I think I am agreeing with commissioner o'brien I think I'd like to be a little bit more strict And say no, you are having a meeting with us and if that means before the commission. So be it Yeah, how we do that. I leave up to staff, of course Uh, but I think We're at a point now where we need to move forward here Yep, adam chair to commissioner hill's point in commissioner o'brien's point. Um, I Would like to have uh valleys appear before us. Um, just to communicate what their intentions are at this at this point It is it is it has now been quite some time Since the temporary license was granted and I think um, We as a body owe it to to to massachusetts To understand exactly what it is. Uh, they have got planned for this common month And when Right turn to Todd. He just turned off his mic. Good morning. Yeah, I'm sorry. I might might think of letting up But um, yeah, no ultimately the process is the same for them as it has been for everyone else And that's what was in uh bruce's letter was just kind of laying out the things that they're required to do They're not ownerized per se. They're just part of the process. Of course, we need to see their internal controls and things like that Um, so there's no reason to believe that they won't be able to do that There is a slight Difference in the licensing part of the regs and I see cara is here and she can explain it better than I You you'll probably recall that we set certain dates in the regulations by which the process adjusted a little bit when it comes to the licensure of the Certain of the the staff and the vendors and and what have you but otherwise it's it's the exact same process so certainly we can Tell them that the commission is interested in having them appear before them, but I feel like Bruce's letter did a nice job articulating all of the Things that we need them to do In order to get up and running So if it would be helpful, we could Ask cara to just jump in it would be helpful just to clarify that one Area where the rules are slightly different In this case than they were for everybody else Certainly so essentially under the original Licensing requirements the occupational licenses Which are our key licenses people who are Presiding over sportsway during innate supervisory capacity Need to be licensed before go live, but prior to for the initial push back in last year We were able to license them based on attestation that attestation has since sunset and so we need to be able to do a temporary license where we do a Preliminary investigation and then issue of the license I I I guess i'm really appreciative because I've wondered what You know jaylen has to refer to this to me. I this isn't a regulation. It's because they delayed now That they don't get the benefit of what was really our emergency Procedures to use attestation that now we're saying We're not going to get them going Was that a decision that we made? Yeah, that was a regulation. We had a conversation about how to read compromise on that uh So we say in the fall. I believe the 2023 Well, but did we say it we sunset the ones who never operated I have to say we had another We had an applicant who was very transparent with us Our application period where they said You know what we need to tell you we're off on our timing That didn't exercise the same courtesy to us And I'm going to use the terminology that commissure o'ryan is going to register with you And and I'm sure maybe you heard this is a peerless privilege to have a master's license They have it on their documents that they have our license I'm kind of I'm upset if we haven't properly Protected us to say you don't get to just say you have a license Right you've been producing revenue quite frankly. They're in ron island Are we are you know Are they not operating? Because in massachusetts because they you know want to benefit ron island You know commissioner mater you're always very good about reminding us that We captured the revenues from neighboring states. So I'm hearing you say that because they Because they didn't launch at the beginning We now have to we can no longer rely on what was really the initial review which was By by law based on the statute We could do rely on the attestation. We can no longer do that. We have to do the full licensing process I just want to jump in to say I think that's accurate But I want to be crystal clear that we stand ready to begin to process those applications as they come in We're just not there yet So it's not that the commission or the the iub or the staff hasn't done things that we're supposed to do We are waiting for the information to come in and we'll process it as it does And we and we accepted of course they did pay their million dollars for the second year. So I mean that's the good news Um they're not behind on that So what's I'm going to ask the tough questions because I'm I'm leaving next week um, what's the time frame on on um, it's they haven't submitted anything either. So you can't get busy, right Kara So we've been working with them. I will say we have had um some helpful discussions too We've been making sure that we're getting Um, you know all of the lists and everything else that we need and we are working through that process with them You know, we were making sure that all of the qualifiers were You know The what we wanted them to be after the statutory change As we did with uh, all of the other operators. So we have We have been working very closely with ballies to make sure that We are on track If they would like to go lives end of q2 Yeah, I don't think we probably didn't anticipate this commissioner of ryan when We made that something that somebody would not have started operating. No, it's funny. We thought it would be potentially a new Entry into the market and we would be more steady state and we could handle on the course We did conceptualize this idea and we we were all Having trouble thinking that someone would get the license and not be launched um, or in process by that time, um, but Here we are. Yeah, it was for somebody who was a new entry and that made sense because we no longer had the The you know, right the enough the bus show. Yeah, exactly. Yeah That's an interesting, uh Okay, well And I also just for another point of clarification Um, we are also using that process with the other operators. So if they have somebody who Leaves and they need to have somebody else come in. That's the process by which they are also operating But it doesn't disrupt their operations Right now. We can't that we they can't start operations until you do them the deeper dive, which we We of course very much Value, it's just that they've got such a delay now That they're actually outside of the original process that we imagined for new operators That's a long time to be not operating um But they did pay their million dollars. So that's a good news for the um the commonwealth commissioners Good luck with that. You'll have them You'll have that on your agenda coming up commissioner skinner. Um, we have our um We have our um agenda setting on wednesday. So just a note to grace and trudy to make sure that we Come up with a date that would work for our team But I think I you've all expressed a desire to to have them come in front of you and not You know, and that's not to disrespect Director ban. It's good work, but I think to really just Further support it, right? Yeah, I've also put them in contact with the gli people that they need I've already done that so they have all the tools in front of them Yeah, because that is but again You know but for this difference on the licensing um The other should go sort of in the same good due course as As we had last year before launching Of course gli would have to be available. They made themselves readily available for us during our gli and in the internal controls. They haven't submitted those They haven't submitted anything at this point. They need the uh, uh equipment inspected and approved as well. So yeah We need to have Okay Um, anyway, that's my update That's your update and that's my commentary. Um here. Let's privilege Keep them. I know that everybody gets that. Um, it is an asset to have been approved by this commission Um, all right any questions taken up some Time here Caitlyn, thank you for the help and care. Thank you. I I now You'll truly understand all right No further questions and you'll get it on your On your schedules. All right. So now we're hearing from i e b Yes, so uh licensing the licensing division actually has two matters for you this morning And I will turn it right over to cara and david mackey. Okay, sorry um madam chair Commissioner do you need break? I need about a five minute break if you don't mind You know, I was just looking at the time. Um, and I was thinking the same thing. So hi daniel Before we start the next section that would be helpful. Okay, so it's a quarter up We want to do about 10 minutes on live up tomorrow Thank you And thank you again to katelyn cara. Thanks so much. I know we'll see you in a bit. Thanks Thanks, everyone Kathy Yes I meant to say to you yesterday. I forgot how fun it was to get a thank you card an actual thank you card Oh, so I I know weird to say thank you for a thank you card, but Well, I'm doing it. We'll just stop with that. You don't need to thank me for the thank you cara No, that's so cute and I showed it right away to my son who's been in columbia recently too I think I told you he had brought home an exact thing and and I said look I have now another columbia treasure, so it's fun Here we are. I think we're still in Or all back now commissioner mader just finishing up. I think commissioner hill All right. We're all set Okay, so this is a reconvening of the message of this game Christian To a roll call we're still on public meeting 508 58 I am here. Great. Mr. Hill I'm here Chris is good. I'm here She made it I'm here Okay We'll get started and we left off with you chief of brian on Licensing question. Thanks Madam chair and commissioners We have two items for you for you today But just before we do that on behalf of the licensing division madam chair We want to thank you for your tireless support guidance and wisdom It's been Really wonderful working with you And with that The licensing department is just a special division and I like Each and every one of you so very very much We give you and you and even though you were a newcomer chief of brian at the time you and your team Were Co-recipients of the mcqueal award After lodging in recognition of the Work that you did To really stand up sports wagering and what I love about your division is that each has a special goal And yet they work in unison together. So You know, I'm having a really great team there We all the teams are great But that um licensing division just has these very particular roles and we count on them and It's not always proper recognition But we were delighted to give you that the cure award I guess in 2020 23 last year. So thanks Thank you So we have two items today. Uh, we have mgm springfield is requesting to amend their beverage license As well as clean ridge park casino is requesting a withdrawal of a service registration exemption and David mcquee our licensing manager Has prepared both of these items for you Good day, madam chair and commissioners. Can you hear me? Okay, you can hear you david. Good morning. Good afternoon Good afternoon. Um, yeah, if I may just before I start off. I just wanted to echo carousel sentiment I'll you know, keep it short and sweet, but it's it's been a pleasure getting to know you and and work with you and Well, I'm sure I'll see you in person again before your last day Just wanted to personally wish you all the best as as you move on from the mgc. So thank you again Thanks, david and it's been fun. You've We've seen you shipped in in your positions with a nice promotion and and In two different divisions. You have expertise so valued and and valuable and You are a new dad. You know, I saw that happen and that's really special. So Well, thank you so much. I I appreciate all of that. Thanks, david Sure, uh, so as caro mentioned our first item here MGM spring field has applied for amendment of its gaming beverage license to add a new venue of the name converted church This venue area was formerly the kringle candle location as discussed Starting on I believe page 104 of the packet This application was reviewed by the division of licensing The scope of this review also included verification pertaining to the licensed area manager christopher smiegel executive director of hospitality and an on-site inspection was performed by angela smith ieb casino regulatory manager to confirm the accuracy of the reported information Um, this and uh, this inspection also confirmed the licensed area's surveillance and security wearing compliance and provided adequate coverage I'd also like to note our division worked with daniel miller compliance director of mgm spring field to obtain the necessary information to develop this request At this time happy to field any questions you might have but uh, our division is recommending that commission approve this request Questions for david caro or daniel. Good afternoon Then nice to see you You too lady chair and I guess before uh, the other commissioners chime in. I'll just say my little piece as well It has been a professional pleasure working with you. Um, I think you naturally find I find myself in just a little bit of a dilemma Of if you have a successor that is also a lady. Does she become lady chair? Or does that honorific title go with you? Um, you know, but I think thank you very much. Best of luck to you and enjoy your retirement. You deserve it Thank you so much daniel and um, I think Nothing pleases my fellow commissioners more than hearing you say lady chair Um, if the successor is a factor woman, I suspect that she'll enjoy it as much as I have And but it always brings a smile to all of us. You know, we we appreciate your Your british roots and we um Appreciate your citizenship now here in the united states. We saw that happen here. So it's great Thank you. Thanks daniel. So let's get started. This is back to business Questions I'm ready for a motion If everyone else is Commissioner manor, did you know that this was how the church was going to be used? I don't know if I missed that development, but this it's been exciting development, right So thank you I think it sounds awesome and and I was satisfied by um, all the security in place and and the monitors monitoring the space so with that said I move that the commission approve ilmgm springfield gaming beverage license amendment request to add a to add converted church as a new licensed area in accordance with general law chapter 23 k section 26 and 205 cmr 163.03 and 136.04 Think there's numbers. I think you accidentally said 163 instead of 136 the very first time That's also what I heard commission. Yeah Well, I will amend that to 136.03 and 136.04 Yeah, and do I have a second second second Okay Any questions All right, what's your everybody? I To him. Hi Mr. Skinner. Hi Commissioner me Hi And I vote yes, I'm zero Great, thank you madam chair and commissioners um Okay to proceed Yeah, and and Daniel you're all set Yes, thank you very much. Just thank you all for posing. I appreciate that. Have a lovely day Thank you, Daniels great so Moving on this next request is coming from plain ridge park casino As Kara mentioned to withdraw the exempt status for the food court attendant position This request is being made under the statutory provision enacted in 2017 that authorizes the commission to exempt certain job positions from the 23 k Registration requirements. This ability also includes the commission's discretion to revisit any job position at any time um I believe On starting on page 110 of your packet This request was reviewed by the division of licensing and to summarize some of the key details therein Uh, this position was originally approved for exemption by the commission on may 10th of 2018 This position previously was working amongst the two food outlets in the food court area slice and smash burger Neither outlet offered alcoholic beverage options Recently plain ridge park casino made the business decision to reopen the smash burger outlet with the wall burgers In addition to food offering food menu items wall burgers will also be offering alcoholic beverage options specifically a draft to beer only If approved this position will now be acting as a cashier for wall burgers alcohol alcohol transactions and will provide alcohol service to patrons Due to this change in responsibilities It is the division of licensing's recommendation that the commission revisit this exempt status And designate it as a gaming service employee that shall register in accordance with 205 cm r 134.09 I would also like to note that the licensing division is reviewing a beverage license amendment request related to wall burgers Uh, this exemption request We're discussing here today has been submitted to the commission in advance of the amendment in part to allow individuals to apply for the ser credential should the request be approved At this time, I'm happy to try and answer any questions that you may have but in summary This is the request before you that the division is asking you to vote on Questions for davin and this and Karen is available too. Chris. I don't have any questions But just a comment um the vote to do this was you know, probably my second or third meeting on the commission Um, and I just want to laud both you and ppc for going back through and making sure that when things change You know, we revisit Um and put it where it's appropriate and so just thank you to you and the licensee Into that effect uh commissioner, I just I meant to note before and I just wanted to note since you mentioned it We worked with lisa mckinney compliance manager and Collin burns hr business partner on behalf of plain ridge park casino To obtain the necessary information to develop this request. So just wanted to include them as well Yeah, definitely. They're great. Thank you Thank you Any further questions? I do have a question Hi dav Hey commissioner I'm okay with pulling back the exemption on this position but um, I assume these employees will be Employees of wall burgers and not ppc correct Uh, they will in fact be uh employees of ppc Oh, they will be so okay. So wall burgers will not then become a jointly responsible person under the license of ever its license amendment that you're going to be submitting After this process So there's not there's not a need for wall burgers to be involved in adopting this job description, etc So, okay. Well, that's that's interesting. How is it that? These wall burgers employee with these attendants who will be Providing a service on behalf of wall burgers ppc employees franchising right Yeah, my my understanding is is they're licensing the the name only For their use but the the outlet itself will be owned and operated by plain ridge park casino Um, I believe it's noted in the memo This position is is currently a union position and and those employees are shared between the two outlets Within the food court area Okay, got it So I ask the question because I don't know if the wall burgers is still out at mgm springfield And that I think operates that that establishment that franchise operates under a different model So that's why it came to mind. So thanks for the clarification joy Can I just say that's another favorite memory? but I'm just walking down um memory lane when Wall burgers open they had an opening And it's the only time I remember being handed a burger to me To take a bite or a picture It was the best bite And then I got to eat it privately, but it was very very funny to me And I've never had a wall burgers burger. So anyway, uh, it was delicious. So, um, yeah They are still in business at mgm springfield They are in a separate building and I think that was part of the um The difference in models, uh, commissioner skinner. All right Madam chair Yeah, first of health you're not mentioning how much you like a wall burger and you want to move Okay, I'll let you And I always talk about food and then I I noticed later in twitter that they're talking about me talking about food So I will say nothing However, I am ready to make a Motion madam chair in accordance with 205 cm r 134.03 1 b I moved that the commission withdraw its prior approval to exempt from the service Employee registration requirements the position of food court attendant at plain rich park casino as included in the Commissioner's packet and discussed here today Second any questions Commissioner brian I Mr. Hill I Mr. Skinner I commissioner I I don't yes fine zero Okay Thank you, madam chair and commissioners Thanks, david excellent work. We appreciate it All right now we're Turning to Hearing my apologies. We're all done with item number seven and we're turning to legal We have both um general counsel grousen And karen carisi and it looks likely have helped commoners and and annie Lee joined with them and k good afternoon everyone Good afternoon, madam chair and commissioners. We have three regulation items for you today We will start with 205 cm r 2 21 which is the regulation related to sportsway during license fees This regulation has been working its way through the promulgation process and we did hold the public hearing I believe last week on this regulation. We've not received any comments to date And today we are seeking Approval to finalize the promulgation process and file this regulation with the secretary of the commonwealth So I will turn it over to paul commoners from inerson and krigger to discuss the regulation a little bit more in detail and you can answer any questions that you might have Good afternoon commissioners 205 cm r 2 21 governs fees for the licensing of sportsway during operators This amendment was a small cleanup amendment because we realized that we had Accidentally written it in a way that could be read to require Operators to pay two million dollars for every temporary license and while they are welcome welcome Certainly welcome to do so. We are not we would not require them to do so they're I believe this I believe the the text the text of the amendment is straightforward We're simply cutting out the section that creates the second obligation And as kerry said no comments have been received issues questions for I can Could just no questions. Thank you madam chair um paul um Could you just take a second look at the regulatory citation in 2 21 oh two one it references 2 21 2 I can't speak 2 21 too many twos 2 21 0 1 2 a And I don't have a 2 a in my copy I wonder if that should be 3 a It looks like it might So it's on page 115. Yes, that looks um If I had to guess what happened there, I think we might have tried to fix that twice Yeah, uh, so yes, you you are correct Same with the the annual assessment is under a 1 3 not a 1 2 and so we would not be So we would not make the changes indicated on the second page of the draft regulation. I apologize for that Those two citations, right? Yes Thank you Any other comments and expressions? Okay Madam chair I move that the commission approved the amended small business impact statement and the draft of 205 cm r 2 21 as included in the commissioner's packet and discussed here today and further that staff be authorized to take the steps necessary to follow the required documentation with the secretary of the commonwealth to finalize the regulation promulgation process Second Thanks Any any edits? Okay, commissioner very I Mr. Hill Hi I'm commissioner skinner I First I made it Hi And I felt yes five zero Thank you. The next regulation we have for you is 205 cm r 238.12. This is related to sportsway during operator letters of credit This is the first time you're seeing this amendment. So we would be Discussing the regulation today and then seeking approval to begin the promulgation process and then it would go out for comment Um, so I'm going to turn it over to annie lee to discuss this one for us Thank you. Carrie and good afternoon madam chair and commissioners So as you'll recall 238 12 was last amended in october 2023 in conjunction with the promulgation of the cessation regulation The cessation regulation called for operators to obtain a letter of credit to ensure that pending pending wagers Would be able to be redeemed by patrons in the event of cessation of sports wagering operations Following that amendment can commission staff considered whether a letter of credit would be beneficial for other purposes specifically for Protecting patron deposits So this is money that's in a sports wagering account that unlike what is required in the cessation reg has not been Placed or committed to a pending wager and so The proposed amendment to 238 12 would allow operators To back up patron funds in addition to the methods that are already permitted in the regulations such as cash reserves in a segregated account It would add an option for operators to back up patron funds in sports wager accounts through a letter of credit Or through a combination of letter of credit and the existing options being cash cash reserves segregated account The effect of this proposed amendment would be to allow operators to co-mingle funds And use funds for operations where there is a letter of credit If there is not a letter of credit and this operator continues to utilize methods such as segregated account or cash reserves Then the operator would still be subject to the same requirements that the Funds be protected and not be co-mingled with any other operator funds And so those regulations you'll see Where those amendments are specifically at 238 12 subsection 2 Where you're adding in a letter of credit And also in subsection 3 Where there is the specific requirement that funds held in segregated accounts or cash held in reserve Do not belong to a sports wagering operator or not co-mingled. We've also added a subsection C in section 3 that ensures that letters of credits That are Withdrawn to or that are taken out to back up patron funds in sports wagering accounts are not available to creditors of the sports wagering operator Questions for any and I see If a London is here good afternoon, Derek I don't know if you have any thoughts on this You're joining us for that It's a new madam chair. Um, just want to say congratulations as well to you and thank you for your Your time to us here. Um, and I am here for any questions because this has been somewhat of a A troublesome reg from the from the gets outset The intention of it was great. Um, and I think this amendment gets to Um, the best way to maximize the abilities of operators to utilize funds in their possession as well as protect The patrons 100 in the event that an operator cannot go on Working so this gives a lot of flexibility And I have to commend a and k on working through this about 20 different times to get the language to a point where it does what we would like to see it do Okay, and thank you Derek and thank you for the Thoughts mostly as always. Thank you for your expertise and sharing it today Commissioners, are you thinking or are you? Comfortable with taking this first step Madam chair. Yes I'm comfortable particularly in light of Derek's statement relative to the the amendments being Uh, less restrictive, I guess with respect to operators, but more protective of Uh patrons, so I appreciate that Clarification, so I I am happy to make a motion if there are no other questions I'm seeing everybody Yeah, I agree with that Great. Thanks. Okay. No, I see no objection from commissioner hill. Go right ahead commissioner. Thanks. And thank you I moved that the commission approved the small business impact statement in the draft of 205 cm r238.12 As included in the commissioner's packet and discussed here today and further that staff be authorized to take the steps necessary To follow the required documentation with the secretary of the commonwealth to begin the regulation promulgation process Second Okay Fisher Brian I commercial I Mr. Skinner I Commissioner Maynard I And I will yes 5-0. Thank you, Annie Appreciate it. It was nice seeing you the other day kind of Madam chair I just also like to say what a great job Carrie did taking this on Mid stride And getting up to speed because this is not an easy one. It is not easy to follow so The fact that she was able to work with a and can get this done is you know It's it speaks highly of her Thanks, Derek. I appreciate that Be careful now that we know you're going to get a lot more follow-up questions too Actually, I don't know anything about this regulation Good clarification, Carrie right on Thank you very much So our third item for you today related to regulations is not a draft regulation but for discussion A madam chair had requested that we bring 205 cm or 238.35 regarded to regarding canceled or voided wagers for a commission discussion on the existing regulation and Potentially if there are any changes that you'd wish to make so Mina mccarious is going to sort of kick off Where the regulation stands and guided discussion here for us today Good afternoon everyone. Good afternoon, madam chair and Congratulations on on well-learned Retirement after this but not not quite so soon So 238 35 as Carrie mentioned is up Before you for discussion In light of I think some questions that came up in prior conversations around this issue and Sort of a pause and a deep breath to figure out where we are and if this is working The way the commission would like it to if regulatory changes make sense Or as we discussed last a couple of months a couple of weeks ago now with line the line moving issue if simply Having a shared understanding of how it works is sufficient for now So this is really just again a beginning of a discussion and bringing it in that light So what I thought I would do today is walk through how the particular provisions of 205 238 35 Work in the context of a cancellation or avoiding of a wager by a Mayan operator And what it doesn't doesn't do in a little bit of how it might be consistent or different from other jurisdictions So just a sort of a historical recap a little bit in In The initial drafting of 238 35 we followed a model that many states use Which have has a number of different circumstances under which operators can cancel or avoid a wager Many of those are things that are sort of changed objective circumstances on the ground an event gets A rain delay so a different starting picture happens It's sort of an obvious of the different or different players or a different venue is used a different Player on whom there's an individual Wager placed is injured suddenly and doesn't play in the game, etc In those circumstances The operator must it doesn't have any discretion but must cancel or avoid the wager the the circumstances Underlying why someone bet what they did have changed there was initially in december 2022 a provision which was Consistent with what many jurisdictions but not all do which allowed operators to also Cancel or void wagers when there was quote an obvious error in the placement or the exceptions of a wager In the opinion of of the operator in that case This is distinguishable just to be clear from an obvious error by that the patron knows and immediately cancels for instance, you know, they they miswrite something on a on the ticket or they Miss type something and and catch it right away before the the wagers this place In April of last year The commission revisited 205 cm r238 then the impetus for that actually had nothing to do with this At the time we were adding provisions to accommodate category two sports wagering that Facilities that had, you know, we were just starting to upgrade the regs for that or update the regs for that However, during that Time I think based on some Feedback some of the issues that you know, I think we're starting to pop up around the country around the Ability of operators to cancel or void wagers on their own There was a suggestion to go closer to what We understand New Jersey does although in a slightly different context because they have a sole person doing this as opposed to a commission in public where operators and Operators can come to the commission and ask for the for the ability to void a wager Um, if they believe there was an obvious error that day or a vendor of theirs made in its placement And that commission would then approve or deny that That is how New Jersey operates my understanding We've talked to director band about this And his understanding as well is that New Jersey rarely if ever approves that they're sort of have a very heavy presumption on that Um other states because they have the automatic ability for the operator to make the decision It sort of never comes up And as we learned in the uh draft kings issue a couple of months ago, I believe Connecticut Simply just doesn't have a process for it. It's a little bit of a There there isn't a clear regulatory piece. That's sort of the lay of the land by that The the way the current reg works and again, this is um, you know devoid of a sort of a context of a particular Um request before you just want to lay it out Um is that there's a essentially a process where there's a submittal of information to the commission Of what it is the the the basis for voiding a wager is now I I think we all have focused heavily on obvious error because that was the Origin of this and that is the most common reason an operator Would ask but it could be for other reasons. They decide that you know, there was there was Some other public policy reason that they think it's uh, it wouldn't be inappropriate to keep that wager in place or not There might have been you know A bad associate event with it something like that right where that wasn't expected at the time Whatever it might be They would come to you with a description of it uh facts relevant to the request an explanation of like canceling or voiding It's in the best interest of the commonwealth and ensures the integrity of the sports wager industry And you then as the commission can request any information And consider any relevant factors. So as currently written There is very broad discretion I will say that the way that the new jersey regs are written are similar. There's very broad discretion The question Really before you today is One is that discretion something you want to keep in place as is Other options and this is not one where we're recommending a variety of options But you know, we can I can chart a few ideas would be to essentially go closer to the Connecticut model where there is no option at all that Makes it hard to predict what Do what you might leave out or what might happen that might cause you to want to say yes To cancellation or avoiding Because we'd be left our imaginations to figure out what that could be You could have the same Discretion but with giving you're putting more limits on yourselves in the regulation so that you don't Have as as much discretion each time You could keep as is but make clear your your position on Circumstances that are likely to arise for instance Through multiple requests the reason that I think we are able to say new jersey rarely does this is when multiple requests have come up The answer has been consistent over time. Um, especially where it it relates to mistakes made by vendors and third parties on behalf of an operator And that that is certainly a permissible and kind of common way for agencies to make Their positions know this current commission's Views as a policy matter could change over time as new commissioners come in as circumstances change But the industry would have an idea that this is a kind of burden Of proof that they have to show the particular group in front of them if they would like to cancel or avoid a wager And what will count or what will Count in their favor or not So that's where we are. I'll I'll stop there and first ask if there's any questions on the current process and and then we can Open it up to thoughts on kind of going forward if there any changes are warranted Just a clarification today's on for discussion only and um, thank you Kerry for mentioning. I I am have brought this up uh Jenna setting to to get it in front of the commission But I believe In director may have maybe you can correct me, but I think you and I both Sort of said at the time when we were dealing with us, maybe we might need to look at this regulation again So here we are But it is on just for discussion today Okay So questions about where we are right now Nina and then where we might be going right? Okay Michelle bray, are you leaning in I have a Comments on where we might go from here, but I don't want to block anybody from If they have questions about where we stand right now I'm not seeing any so maybe I should just march on Well, then we can go back. Yeah um So, yeah, I was in favor of bringing this forward as well Madam chair because the discussion that we had about the the draft kings avoiding We're different states. We're treating it differently and I was interested in new jersey and I did talk to bruce band about that too that it's um They don't have a rag necessarily that says under no circumstances, right, which is why they go forward But I believe it was um In there too that if they do ask there's certain things that have to come forward with specifically in terms of who is the vendor How did it happen? How are you going to stop it from happening? So I have kind of two areas of thought one which is I've sort of expressed all along Which is for me an obvious error is something that's either You know illegal or factually impossible and I know that's probably more stringent than what the others in this commission may feel and so there's probably a third category of That goes into what we have in their integrity of either the event or sports wagering industry in general etc I'm Curious to hear thoughts and whether there's a way to further define that So that we don't have an industry coming in and asking for these I am Troubled by some of what was in sort of the washington post article that was included with what we received in terms of The level of complexities of some of these emerging Parley bets and the lack of ability to catch errors or see what these statistical Glitches may be and I'd like to know a little bit more about that So that that I think would inform Where I want to go if anything because I don't want it to be so rigid, but if there's something that's an obvious error It Devastates a company But I also don't want them to not realize this is their responsibility and so Knowing that it's rigid enough That you can't just come in and forgive when there's been a mistake on your vendor Um, so maybe some more guidance in our reg or or protocol on what we mean in terms of figuring out when it happens and You know fat fingers to me that maybe some sophisticated person may know is obvious may not be obvious to someone else So those are my thoughts on what I'd want to talk about and think about going forward I think also I'm really curious you may or you have a memory of this Could I think I have the memory of one of your thoughts, but how if we are avoiding How do we calculate it? You know the calculation that especially Is there leeway If it's all voided or partially voided and and some fortunes giving back so maybe the page is not made completely whole You know, is there any room for negotiation? Commissioner if you remember, I think you were the one who Reminded me about how large You know, draft king's was at the last time I so thank you madam chair um There are a few times in this job that I've looked at my fellow commissioners and seem to Anguish on their face and I remember looking at commissioner skinner and both of us kind of squirming at the same time because it was such a tough issue and You know, I think I'm really functionally even though You know, we had a slight difference of opinion that day I'm kind of where commissioner o'brien is in structure and what I mean by that is I want some discretion to be able to look at some of these If it was going to quote devastate the company I also want to Be cognizant that, you know the patrons when they make a bet expect To get respect in the pricing right and and we thought a lot about the consumer affairs protections and various consumer laws From the attorney general's office. So, you know, there is something about when a price is set it's set But there's also going there's going to be times when there are mistakes made mistakes are human And so I like the idea of us, you know, whether it's three different categories or two with Some language like Mina talked about some interpretation of how we actually implement I'm open to that. I'm open to that conversation other thoughts Madam chair, I'm aligned with my fellow commissioners on those particular points Something else that troubled me during our discussion of the draft king's void is um the varying Varying degree to which the operator was responsive to patrons and The remedy that was offered to those patrons I you know, we we we I think ultimately we got to a place where we were comfortable with Some level of uniformity But as part of this process As we're continuing to discuss any changes that we might want to make either in the regulation or in guidance That we insist on information from the operator as to what their communication has been To the patron and that includes, you know, the initial notification that they are pursuing a request For this commission to approve avoiding of a wager And I you know, I took a look at the regulation in there. It seems to be a catch-all provision in there. Um I don't know how how whether that needs to be strengthened or not. Um, but it seems to me that 238 If we're talking about what additional information we might want to include in this regulation as required as part of a request It seems that 238.35 three Provides just that catch-all language that I think would Would cover us if we're looking for any additional information as as we have a live request pending Madam Madam chair if I may just a couple of reflections on what I'm hearing. Um, in case in case they're helpful. Um The Some of what was raised about gathering information. Um, I think as we thought about this more Um, it because it's so difficult to figure out exactly what might happen at each circumstance um, I part of the the Benefit of that catch-all is being able to ask for more information and perhaps it might make sense For illegal and sports wagering to think about putting together Uh, not necessarily a form because you don't want to encourage us to be something that's happened so often That's a form but but that there is a sort of a little bit of an understanding of information that's going to be a bare minimum to even get on the commission agenda For that to meet that The other thing I would just say on the discretion piece based on what I'm what I'm hearing The point about, you know partial remedies, etc. I think you absolutely Have the discretion to do that because you you can't at the moment say no all together So being able to fashion a remedy that makes sense Um, I would caution let's not say that you can't go in this direction But I would caution that if you, uh put into the regs as opposed to through policy guidance A limitation on your discretion Um to say you will not for instance void a wager due to technical I'm making one up I'm not saying this will be a technical error by a vendor And you end up with a very sympathetic situation where you Decide based on some of the totality of the circumstances and the information you want to You might be giving um a a litigable right To a patron to now challenge the commission's decision on that or the operator So there's the you know the flexibility you have now actually is is I think broad enough That it really does leave it up to each particular situation um You know keeping in mind that it does create a challenging conversation and perhaps anguished conversations Uh on those particular moments when there's a really tough call What do you think for sure? I want to give some thoughts so that Nk and We know that have some guidance if we do decide to tweak this Show going I mean I like the idea of Sort of a proposed You know protocol right for sports wagering and think if one of these comes in saying This is what the commission would likely be expecting in terms of information. I also think that Maybe getting I'm also curious to know the reports some some of the information or Communications that we got from patrons was finding out whether or not bets that Shouldn't have happened due to clerical error, but a new work to the benefit of The gaming operator the the sports wagering licensee aren't canceled So whether there's some way for us to think as we go forward in terms of compliance doing audits on whether or not we look at things that We're also Maybe obvious errors, but allowed to go through because the profits went back to the licensee. So That is another area in terms of if sports wagering is going to work with legal to come up with Sort of a memo in terms of what we like. That's another area that I think we should be looking at Not necessarily reg language, but just process Yeah, to that point. I don't want to Encourage litigiousness For trying to creatively trying to solve a problem for a patron So I I would you know, even if we do this in a policy or just Internal run of show I wouldn't for the reasons Mina outlined I think Give me caution to put it into the wreck anything you want to add any questions from the legal team for us to further prompting sort of clarification Issues that you're thinking about If you were asked and we might just not be asking the question Mina um This is just from me and and so as outside counsel if others are you know Don't feel strongly about this Wish they should speak up, but I I would think as we're getting the guidance one of the the issues these are kind of Quick turn type things even though, you know, they take a little while to develop but there's you know Folks are going to want to know what happened to that wage or what's going to happen to the cancellations happening in other states Um, and for that reason, I think it would be helpful in the policy You know the decision ultimately needs to come to the commission, but it might be helpful in the policy to have clarity Um on who's collecting the information in the first instance I would just think organizationally and again, that's not my role. That's that's for the executive director and others But and and you but I would suggest Some thought to that as well. I think sports wagering has the first kind of line of interaction um And whether that, you know, how much is expected of them versus legal review versus the bureau others or something That's a really good point director ban you you You raise us, you know, of where the patrons are looking to get reimbursed um Made home You know burgers are saying uh, uh, so I don't know how we can provide additional support, but Do other states Is it must be out through a procedural guidance as opposed to the rags, right? You know Correct. Yeah, that's that's then again, that may be entirely internal procedure, but it just um, you know, I I think for instance, um, when we started Working on rags and so on 18 months ago We probably didn't have a particular process in mind kudos to Todd and Caitlin and Carrie for organizing us all and getting sort of We know what you expect in a reg packet We know what you need and I think just having that same level of clarity Hopefully these aren't coming up with the same amount, but you know, so that you know There's sort of a clear expectation of operators and to everybody involved with what you need So ma'am check to that what one of the things that it's this is jogging my memory now that Struck me with the waiver we had a month or so ago was The remedy that was being sought by the licensee was sort of canceling the bat giving them back the money they had put in You would have thought that at a minimum to make them as whole as possible That would have at least happened before saying and I don't want to pay them the winnings And so I wonder if there's a way to sort of make that clear Look if the request is I want to give the money back and the option is you're either giving Money put in or money put in plus winnings I would think at a minimum you would make them whole on what they put in While you're debating whether or not the overage has to go back to them. This is This is sort of I was trying to address probably not very artfully earlier. There was I believe discussion around What whether to make them whole and Do you get what does that mean? I have the winnings. What does it mean? And I think commissioner to remember I'm just gonna remember there was also desperate treatment Depending on the customers I don't know how we I I do know the director band probably would love Some you know guidance on that so that He can say okay. This is what you gotta do immediately You know to the extent there is an immediate action that can be Recently taken and mean I don't I just don't know I mean, it's it certainly can be part of a submittal to have a what you know, what are you actually asking to do and what is And you know justify the option To right and that that is you know, and it's not unusual if you're asking for Relief just to get the you know what justify the relief and As you build up Our common law of this again, I don't I hope it's not thousands of cases But as you start building it up, it'll be kind of clearer to folks that if if the mistake is of x nature Asking for complete cancellation may not get you very far with the commission But offering something like had them last time might make perfect sense and maybe better Received and and it certainly, you know, there's also a customer Relationship piece of this for the operators. I would imagine so Not not portraying yourself as more aggressive or less or or you know, Being fair to your your own company, but also to patrons is going to be rewarded external I I do think one you Sorry, sorry about that. I have a question and maybe this can't be answered in this forum, but If you're in that circumstance and the licensee says I'm going to give you back the money that you put down Is there any legal inference? One way or the other in terms of their ability to claim that they want to void it all together Like I wouldn't think there would be impact to them saying Look, while we dispute everything over the 50 you put down. I'm going to give you the 50 back But maybe I'm wrong Then action follows down the road Brett, right? Well, can I can I jump in madam chair? Because to commission a buy-in's point if there was an error And they're seeking The ability to void it it should it should you know also apply You know in favor of the of the of the patron right because after all no matter no matter what side you're on It is a it is a a bet that the operator is alleging should be voided So I'm in agreement with you. I think at a minimum That's what the expectation should be and so along the lines of what you were suggesting earlier as to guidance Or you know that that director van could provide an advance. I think that has to be included Right And commissioner brian to your question. I'm just sort of the legal piece of that You know while certainly I can't speak for every trial court judge who might look at that or any trial court judge who might look at that I can imagine, you know, I don't think it puts the operators in particularly a bad spot to say We think we have the right to go ask the commission who in their discretion to go cancel this all together however as a you know Customer relationship piece we're offering to at least give you back Your wager amount and not pay you up because what they're because the commissioner skinner's point What they're really asking you for is the permission to not incur the additional liability of The over it's like and so and I so I think You know, you could decide whether or not on your end the Settlement offer so to speak is is indicative of any Feelings of culpability or anything else, but you see if you were to want to encourage that behavior You don't have to take that to account and then a court whether or not they would under a different claim I guess as your reg is currently written Um, I think a patron would currently have a hard time Just based on your rec another maybe 93a issues other consumer affairs issues But just based on your regs I don't think a patron could reasonably say they have a right to see the wager go through all the way Or that they have a right or that they have an expectation that it's be voided on the operator side, right? It's it's really discretionary This is a complicated one Right Yeah, and I do think the more the industry develops and the more complex some of these algorithms get on the On the parlays We might need to put more specificity in here, but I think this is a good start definitely for a conversation Yeah Any any other prompts or anything? I don't think so madam chair. I think uh, this gives us a bit to talk through with Legal and sports wagering to see, you know, what what might make sense to put together as kind of as policy documentation and bring back before the commission Um Then and I think we can we can take it from there Okay So thank you. Thank you. Kerry and and Mina for Bring this up and Todd Director ban, we should just make sure you're all set too because you know Is this isn't going in the right direction from your perspective? Yeah, I'm all set I've had conversations with Okay All right Okay, everyone. Thanks Mina. Thanks. Thank you Okay So now we turn to a little bit of a fun project for Justin Uh, I'm I'm I'm imposing if I see pictures in a legal memo. It has to be a little bit funner There you go. Justin. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, madam chair misters. Um, yes If you if you'll turn to page 130 of the packet today, there's a brief memo This is for discussion purposes only but with respect to what commissioner O'Brien had brought up to the commission I think maybe some time ago I looked at the legal authority under our current regulations to to To enact a seal of approval on behalf of the mgc and I I do believe that We are we could be authorized to do that under our The scope of our regulations when it comes to what we ask for an operation certificate I also in the memorandum just provided a couple exemplars of other jurisdictions where they use seals of approval one of the interesting Pieces probably for discussion and as we start thinking about you know If we want to use a seal and what kind of seal it would be would be the technological sophistication behind these seals because other jurisdictions do have Some sort of interesting features whereby you uh, if you've if you've stumbled across one of these on a website or something You click on it and it pulls up the certificate of good standing of the licensee or takes you to the The regulator's website and indicates that yes that is a current and active license Um, so there's there there are some interesting nuances to how we want to use a seal besides just the graphics I'll also note that we have not designed the graphics yet That that will come after if we do decide to go down this road But uh, I just wanted to present you know present this information for everyone to see and think about and potentially discuss questions for justin The visual is really helpful. Thanks. Um All right, commissioner brian, what do you think you know, I like it I mean justin and I had the conversation about um the fact that it looks like we don't need a reg change this is within our current authority I like the idea of putting something visual um, you know, you often talk madam chair about sort of our efforts to combat the illegal market and to give kudos to our licensees who pay money and go through hoops to operate here. So um Obviously there's certain technological questions beyond my Expertise in terms of how sophisticated this is going to be. Um, I like it. It's another avenue It's not just a visual, but it's actually another layer. So I'll click on and make sure they're actually on a legal site. So I'd love to Figure out how we go forward in terms of the technological part and the graphics Richard hill you Let's move forward Would love to see it Okay, so that's a project that um, justin will coordinate with our comms team Um, and and probably our vendor who helps on these kinds of matters. It's exciting and Again, enough an opportunity. So Great. Thank you for that clearance big step forward on this project. Thanks so much Uh developer van. Were you weighing in or no? You're all set. Yes You like it Okay, all right Um, then we're all set with legal. I'm going to do a check in on timing commissioners We're going to move on to um IEP has a policy and procedure and then we get some Work from community affairs division. Do we need lunch break or do you want to follow through? I guess my question is do we have a time estimate on these two? I don't have your stamina to not eat and so the question is do I need 15 minutes to run and get a snack or Can we power through? Oh, you muted commissioner hill The community mitigation um matter will not take that long right joe Yeah, I think um 20 minutes or so I would think So katlyn, what's your ballpark? Yeah, I I think it could be done in 10, but if um, if there were a bunch of questions It might take a little bit longer You're gonna motivate me to not ask questions, right if we keep going through that is not my intent I love how the answer was back it depends on you guys Commissioners do you want a break or do you want to move forward? Madam chair We could always use a break so a 15 minute break would be sufficient Thank you. I think that That's that's great. Everybody can just take a little bit of time to get a number All right, um, we're very excited that the meeting is You know find this way so excellent. We'll be back in the let's say like 150 120. Thanks so much. Thank you I have a battle royale going on outside my door with squirrels and crows So you're gonna parlay that how you're gonna set that up I don't know but The squirrels are out and about my dog is going nuts months to go out and join him What you just did and he wouldn't know what to do if you ever caught one anyways It's the benefit of being at work. I don't need to deal with the barking at the squirrels My dog does not bark very often. He just goes back and forth back and forth He winds a little bit, but uh, he's gonna be um, he's gonna be 10 in three days Wow Good for him. He was born on st. Patrick's day So so was mango Isn't that funny? Yeah He'll be 17 Oh We have three dogs in the neighborhood who are all turning 10 within the next 30 to 60 days You go to the dog park and have like a big party Um, you know, thankfully we just go to our parks and let them go wild Oh when there's nobody on them and as long as we You know clean up their business, um Yeah, nice And right now you can still go on the beaches on leash Right free Memorial Day. Yeah. Yeah, so that's when he loves that Okay, do we have everyone? Let's see Who knows that we bring down the screen Thank you We're getting close. Oh, no, I hope we have everything Good So this is a recap being of the That's truth of standing commission took a little bit of a break. Thank you for that If you get right uh, commissioner health, so thank you And we are now, uh I'm doing need to do the roll call given that we're holding this virtually commissioner. Oh ryan, are you still here? I am here and in a much better mood I know I I needed it. So thank you Uh and and commissioner skinner's still here Oh, I'm sorry commissioner I guess I needed a little bit longer break commissioner hill I'm here. Okay commissioner skinner Chair, I think you knew that uh commissioner ryan and I were to that really really needed a break to get something to eat so I could That's why you associated that you associated me right after her Um, but I am here. I'm back Yeah, okay. Great. Thank you and commissioner mayer I'm here We're all here. Okay, then we're going to turn to um Bear with me for a second Item nine. We've gotten through all the eight. I want to make sure item nine Um, and I'm going to turn right over to director of our IEP Um director monaghan Sorry, good afternoon So today the commission will be reviewing What we're now calling the group a sports wagering compliance matter review protocol and as a reminder this relates to sort of low level Alleged instances of non-compliance related to sports wagering and what happens when those are reported to the commission um The commission has looked at this I believe at least once possibly twice before at the last meeting We went through and the commissioners had a handful of edits That they requested that we make so we have done that Um, and I am happy to walk through them now Obviously, um and happy to take any questions as well And I am starting on page 135 of the packet which is where the red line version is this is comparing the The new proposed version versus the last version that you saw So I'll give everyone a second to get to page 135 So as I mentioned, this is a protocol that applies to all alleged sports wagering non-compliance matters that the commission becomes aware of And that are relatively low level. We'd had some conversations about what to call these Using the words category or numbers is not helpful because we have so many other categories and numbers going on with this commission So we're calling these group a Hopefully that will be different enough that we can we can use that term without too much confusion So, uh, as you may remember upon identification of group a matter of a matter The matter goes to the sports wagering division to perform an initial review and to determine whether the matter is in fact a group a matter And the sports waging division may of course consult with other members of the staff including counsel on the i e b and reaching such a decision If the sports waging department determines that Um Well, I'm sorry just before I go ahead with that Uh group a incidents are categorized as relatively low level incidents Which may be handled directly by the sports wagering department with reporting to the commission And in determining whether a matter is relatively low level There are a number of factors for consideration including whether the issue is promptly detected whether it was self reported Whether there's a previous history of violations, etc. I won't walk through them all because they're they're there in the protocol um, so the the the sports waging department looks at the looks at the different factors and and potentially in conjunction makes a determination as to whether it's a group a matter The commission also has the ability to determine whether certain categories of alleged non-compliance should not ever be categorized as group a Matters and the commission did make a determination At the last meaning that promotion related non-compliance events are not to be categorized as group a matters and so that means that they would be uh sent up as We don't have a group b protocol yet, but it means that they would be referred over to the ieb for further investigation um, and ultimately to bring to the commission to make a decision on um, what should happen with them? so once, uh A matter is categorized as a group a the protocol sets out a procedure for all the different steps that the That the sports waging department May or shall take uh in assessing the matter and that includes you know entering the matter into the database um, basically doing an investigation into you know a review of the the incidents and then determining how to handle it And the matter may be resolved by the issuance of a sports waging notice of non-compliance form describing the issue in violations Warning or reprimanding the licensee directing the necessary remedial measures and or setting a deadline for compliance um, and to be clear the sports waging department doesn't have the ability to find or uh revoke a license or anything like that that would have to Be a non-group a matter and that would have to go to the commission or the ieb for that type of action um, and we also this is one of the other changes that the commission requested is that any decision by the uh sports waging department is subject to review From the commission and so the way that that would work I think in practice is the commission will receive Reports every other week were related to the status of group one matters So if the if if a commissioner or commissioner see a matter that they would like to review What they may do is bring that to a commission meeting And if a majority of the commissioners believe that the particular matter should be reviewed It can go on a future agenda for review by the commission and that again was another change Just making sure that a majority of commissioners would have to agree that the matter should be reviewed further um So though that's a quick overview of the protocol and the changes that have been made as you can again see in the red line So happy to take any questions questions commissioners We kind of good look at this. I'm very excited over the name change because I was someone really tripped up by So thank you for that Madam chair. Yes, commissioner. I don't have a question, but I have a comment to the sports wagering department And in specific to elissa and I hope i'm saying her name correctly Who sends out our our bi-weekly reports about what has come into the mgc and it's It's in a a format that even I can understand And if there's an issue that I Would think would come before you folks I can see that pretty easily from the reports that we be getting been getting So through you bruce and through you madam chair To elissa and the team. Thank you. I think that's what I had envisioned when we had started requesting those reports they're very very detailed And again understandable for those of us who don't know how You know some of the formats that get sent out. So thank you. Yeah, well, thank you for the feedback. I sure really appreciate it. Thank you Thank you, madam chair commissioners And feel that this is a good proposal. Let me let me finish with that. Thank you I was gonna say I like it You like it good. I like it Got the feedback Anything else madam chair Commissioner maynard you're giving a thumbs up too seems to me then we might want to give A green light on this with a motion Madam chair I moved that the commission approved the group a sports way during compliance matter review protocol As included in the commissioner's packet and discussed here today second Hey commissioner o'brien Hi commissioner hill Hi commissioner skinner Hi commissioner maynard Hi And I thought yes five sarah excellent work. And thank you for your patience for being patient as we worked our way through that And now there'll be the groups be in city. So Excellent. Thanks Oh, I see Hi lily All right, so we're turning to item number 10 Good afternoon, and thank you for being patient with us as we moved into the afternoon hours joe and Thank you, madam chair and commissioners and Kathy as with others We do certainly send our best wishes to you in your retirement from the community affairs division And also, you know, I do want to thank you for all of the support that you've given to us and And the genuine interest that you have had in the things that we do. So that is greatly appreciated. So thank you You've got a great team and harry. I'm glad to see you You really don't you You just know how to run things and you have a great team and And we know how critically important mary has been to you and lily has come in and It's a good team Thank you for your remarks Okay, so jumping right in the first matter we have in front of you is the city of medford is asking to repurpose some Previous grant funds that we awarded For the wellington rube 28 underpass project and the wellington greenway phase four This is a little complicated. So please indulge me as I as I walk through this This the process that we're going through here So back in 2020 the commission awarded $530,000 in a transportation construction grant To the city of medford for the wellington greenway phase four project now That is a little section of Multi-use path a bike path that runs along the wellington station Parking lot it's sort of the last gap in that segment along the malton river so So we issued that award back in in 2020 And they are now asking to use those funds and repurpose them for a couple of different purposes But so just as background When medford applied for that transportation construction grant in 2020 they originally requested 945 thousand dollars out of a total construction cost of a little over a million Now back then we didn't have An exact breakout of how much money had to come from the community and how much money came from the community mitigation fund If you recall now the split is one third two thirds one third comes from the commission two thirds from the from the The community so back then we didn't have a specified amount, but anyway As my mother would say through the through the jigs in the reels We came up with The $530,000 number as the award So that left medford with a gap in the funding of about $500,000 So what the what they did was they went To their state rep who went and got an earmark a federal earmark for That difference in the funds now at that time medford and frankly i was not Aware of of how exactly those federal earmarks would work So what ends up happening is when when you get a federal earmark for transportation funds It gets routed through your local transportation agency, which in our case is mass dot And basically it becomes essentially mass dots money Um and in order to advance a project In order to actually get at that money the project has to go through the entire mass dot process Which means you have to get 25 percent 75 percent hundred percent design drawings It's a much more complicated process than What the city would have had to go on through if they had just done it Shall we say privately uh, it was not really private, but just through the community rather than through mass dot So The and the other part of this is that mass dot doesn't have a particular way where we could Sort of put our money in with theirs to go to a project The way that they do it is when that money comes in the community then has to submit a An application to the to the state project review committee Which they did and then the state came back and said well this project is approved for 1.6 million in construction funds between The federal earmark and other federal and state funds So essentially what's what happens in this process is that the state is funding the entire construction of this project And our funds essentially are really not necessary for the construction of them so Now with that said The design of the project become significantly more complicated, which is why they are asking for some for this money to be used for design So where we are is um the two requests the first one is the wellington root 28 underpass This is um a proposed sort of wooden boardwalk that will pass under root 28 down by station landing There's a similar one on the other side of the river And we have funded this project in the past we gave them an initial grant in 2019 to get that through 25 design And we transferred some additional funds to that project Later on to get it through 75 design and medford is requesting that 162,100 of of the 530 that we are working with Go to that project to get it to 100 design So right now that project is estimated cost about four and a half million dollars And it's being funded through the state through federal and state funds So none of our money is going towards the construction of that Um And actually the state is expecting that that cost will probably go up when the final 75 design plans are submitted They think it'll probably be over five million dollars Um, and then the other request is for the wellington greenway phase four Um, you know medford did have a design in hand Uh, when they came in for money for us, but That design as I said does not meet mastott standards and when mastott looked at it. They said gee, this is really about Sort of a pre 25 design So medford got a quote from tetra tech And the amount of 375 thousand dollars to complete the design and permitting So the city's requesting remaining 367 9 from the 2020 grant for that work Um, and mastott did say that they fully intend to fund this project Uh with statewide funds on the uh, 20 fiscal year 25 to 29 Uh transportation improvement program Now the review team we did have some significant concerns with the costs of the design associated with this Now I haven't not done um a design like this and about myself in a very long time and I guess the rules of thumb have changed somewhat but in You know in looking at the design costs. We thought that they were quite high Um But since mastott is going to actually build these projects they'll bid and build them We asked we met with the city and with mastott and asked mastott essentially for for them to review these Requests and let us know that they felt that they were appropriate for these kinds of projects and they went back and did that and And they do feel that that these design fees are appropriate so You know, we really just wanted to rely on on the experts in the field for this and and they gave us their their assurances on that So, you know in the end The real goal of this whole program Of the community mitigation fund program is to identify projects and see these that will address casino related impacts And see these things ultimately Uh put into place and in this case meaning built You know when we So when repurposing these funds What that will do is it will allow these two projects to move to construction But it also will leverage significant state and federal funds You know these 530 000 that we put towards design The total cost of these two projects is going to be about six and a half million dollars Which is coming completely out of federal and state funds So it's really a lot of bang for the buck That we get for you know repurposing these funds So it's a two-part recommendation here where we are recommending transferring 162 100 of the 2020 grant To the wellington root 28 underpass project to complete that design and we're also recommending that 367 900 of that same grant Be converted from a transportation construction grant to a transportation planning grant For the completion of the design of the wellington greenway phase four So with that, I know it's it's a little a little complicated how we we get to the end result, but Be happy to answer any questions commissioners questions so Can you just remind me so the original The original project 30 went to wellington Yes, the original grant was to for the for construction of the wellington greenway Do you remember commissioners? I don't which is that's I don't know that that's a good sign. It shows How much we were in the pandemic that might have No, but also it shows I think how many you know great grants that have been awarded is really what it is um and then 9.5 and then the total amount now for design is You add it up. Yeah, that adds up to the 500 and Yeah, okay. Got it. Oh, I'm surprised you aren't sharing a map I know I was going to All right, the map is essentially irrelevant to the request. I know and I also know this area very very well So it's not necessarily madam chair I know you would love to see a map But over the last two to three weeks as we've been going through our grants Maps is all we look at so I'm glad we're not looking at a map today That's why that's a great assignment working with this group. Love it Yeah, so fun and so many members of the team are involved. It's a it's a great program all right commissioners questions Memo is clear to me and then Joe. Thank you for The uh, walk us through it Do I have a motion? Or do we want to? I have one ready madam chair. Let's go I um would move that the commission grant the request from the city of medford to transfer $162,100 from the 2020 medford wellington greenway phase four transportation construction grant to the wellington Slash root 28 underpass project to complete the project design and to convert $367,900 of the 2020 medford wellington greenways phase four transportation construction grant To a transportation planning grant for the completion of the design of the wellington greenway phase four Project as included in the commissioners packet and discussed discussed here today Second thanks commission reiner Okay commissioner ryan I commissioner hill I Mr. Skinner I Christian reiner I And I vote yes five zero well done No, okay. Great. Thank you, uh, madam chair commissioner. So the next item that we have is uh To we'd like to give you a little update on where we are with the 2025 the fiscal year 2025 Community mitigation fund and we'd also like to get a little bit of input from from you folks on what The approval process is going to look like for this year Because it will it will need to be a little bit different from the way that we've done it in the past so In your packet is a memo that gives a quick breakdown of of How we're doing for fiscal year 2025 with our new block grant approach So, you know the top line number is We received just over 22 million dollars in requested funds for this year and by comparison Last year we got a total request of 16.1 million So that's a pretty significant increase over that over that number Which is one of the things that we were really trying to accomplish As part of this new program With respect to the municipal applications, we have 28 communities that are eligible for funding We received applications from 25 of those So there were three communities that that did not apply and We we do intend we haven't done it yet But we intend to reach out to those communities to just talk with them a little bit and find out The reasons why they didn't apply or or what what the the issues were You know, ultimately we really want all of the eligible communities to come in for funds And Then with respect to the regional applications We received 10 applications from regional agencies. This is up from previous years since We did add some new entities that were eligible, including the regional planning agencies So we did receive three applications from the regional planning agencies and we also have Some additional interest from District attorneys offices Previously, we had only had hamden da come in for for grants, but we now have Middle sex and suffocate have also asked for some funds So So that's the that's the good news on the applications. We are right now deep into the review process And commissioners hill and maynard are sitting in on that process with us And so far everything's going pretty well, it's we have a pretty aggressive Timeline on those reviews and we are so far keeping to it And and hopefully we will we will continue to do that but so One of the things that that that happened with this block grant approach Is the number of applications is reduced from last year But the total number of projects that we are considering is increased significantly So in years past a community would apply for a grant for a particular project And I think the number last year was 54 if i'm not mistaken on total applications So that would be 54 discrete projects Well, what happens with the block grant approach? We've asked people to submit a single application for the community, but within that application Identify the particular projects that they want to do. Well, when you add up all of those projects It's it's around 130 for this year so Each one of those still requires a review and and an evaluation and a determination so As you probably all recall our memos to the commission are Are voluminous And and hopefully have all of the necessary information that that you folks need But what we are trying to do with this Since we have so many more projects is to streamline the process a little bit and I thought I would just Share my screen here If I can And what we have done here is we just created the fictional delayneville Application and I'll credit lily for that one Uh And what we this is sort of the format that we're thinking about coming to the commission with and it's more of a tabular format So can you make it just a bit? Oh, sure. Sure. Yeah And and what we've done here The idea is to color code it a little bit Put a really a recommendation right upfront for you folks to see You know whether waivers are required and so on And then for each individual Project will have a sort of a a very brief write-up Yeah, we will give you links to all the applications and so on so that you can see the you know the more detailed descriptions and so on But our hope is to keep each community's application to kind of a one to two page presentation for the commission to to try to just keep this down to a to a to a reasonable level and And then what we would do we would still propose to do two by twos with all the commissioners ahead of time to give you a little bit deeper of a dive into these And so the thought here is that each one will have You know the name of the of the application a recommendation Then a very brief description of the project And you know, we're looking at sort of one to two sentences max To try to get right at what it is And then the impact that they've identified The determination of the review team on whether this project I you know addresses that impact and then a very brief rationale behind that Now the hope is here is that on on a lot of these They will have identified an impact that we have in the guidelines They will have identified a type of project that we identified in the guidelines that addresses that impact So that there is really not a whole lot of You know really heavy review if they do those two things it's essentially they get the grant You know it is as long as it meets with our other guidelines So we expect that many of these will be a very brief discussion saying that hey this thing met the Two pieces therefore we recommend it and without really going into much more discussion than that And then what we're We are also frozen kind of color coding this in this case We were saying this is bike share program for 200 000 and we're recommending it for a reduced amount for 125 000 So here when when there's going to be some kind of a Proposed modification to the grant amount we expect that this rationale discussion will be A bit more than you would see in one of those where we're saying yep, they met all the requirements and let's move ahead and then Then we are also recommending A third type of recommendation is full funding but also with some conditions If you may remember in past years, we've had some conditions that we put on grants where we say We'll cut we'll cut lose the first part of the funding But you really need to come back to us and give us an update on where you are before we'll sort of release that second tranche of money So that's kind of the third piece of this And then the fourth piece is where we do not recommend the funding um, and again as typical, you know these these i'm sure will Uh, we'll have more discussion with the commission on those things that we're not recommending funding for then Then for those things that we are recommending Now the other major kind of change in this is that we are proposing to just bring these to the commission By community if you remember in years past we would come with maybe all the public safety applications or all the community planning applications together You know in this case where a community may have applications among several categories To come in and say on one day saying all right. Well just a piece of this community's application is approved You know and doing that over several different meetings It doesn't really work doesn't seem to work very well For that so what we're proposing is coming in with each community And or each regional entity and getting um, you know sort of approval on the entire application and I guess with that I'd just like to open it up to the commission and and if you have any ideas or thoughts on sort of the process Or the presentation or you know, you know, what you know, sort of what the application is going uh, or the uh, Presentation of the commission is going to look like Love to hear any thoughts that you have They could just get on I'll yield to commissioner. Oh, no I I am in full agreement with what you have proposed. I think it's a You know for our first try at this type of a grant proposal. I think what you've proposed as the process is a good one And and yeah, I think we have to be very clear that We are we are trotting some new ground here on this whole proposal. So we are In in some ways, uh, you know learning as we go along on some of these things Richardson I'll just add that joe. I am looking forward to reviewing these projects under this new program I for one however, uh, like the format of the old memos um and I think If there's anything you all have to know about me is More information Is better um than less and so the only caveat for me in um agreeing to this revised Uh briefing if you will is that you focus More on the substance of what's in the memo and less on the page numbers. So and I leave it to you um to Make a judge make the judgment call as to what information needs to get in in that document It's just it's helpful in learning About, you know more about the project without having to go to the more voluminous application document So that's just i'm speaking as one commissioner Not opposed to what it is you're proposing, but I guess, you know as we enter in this review phase Um of the block grant, you know under the block grant structure for the first time I guess, you know, we could we could test it out and see how it works Yeah, and I think, you know, I mean we are trying to get all of the truly salient information in there It's it's it's I think in in the past there there may have been some things that were a little extraneous But you know, that's that's but we really do want to get across all of the important points for sure Other Yeah, I I like it. Um, I I've got memories of I will say ptsd joe, but toggling back and forth and feeling like I read this already and I thought we did this already. Um So I I understand what commissioner skinner saying too is like make sure we have enough in there, you know to Make the decision, but I do like the idea of doing it by community Um and having added is one thing and then moving on. I like the idea Right and just the one other thing to add is, you know, I think we did mention this at agenda setting You know is that we do plan on bringing these things to the commission in chunks, you know throughout the the spring and and you know throughout april may and potentially into june, we're hoping to be done before june, but You know, we always have those couple of meetings in our back pocket should we need them And that's the other pieces we're trying to Bring in a good size number, but without overwhelming The commission with with too too many applications All right Thank you I'll just reiterate madam chair if I may what commissioner hill said. I mean, it's been fascinating to watch um Watch that team do its work And I'm happy to support what they're doing And I think delaneyville would be a wonderful place to live I would have opted for lilyville Doesn't delaneyville sound like it already exists in massachusetts. It's like that irish catholic town No, I did did that that's true, but but a town filled with lilies. I think would be just perfect Let's go make sure I'm always a fan of color coding. So I just thought Nicely done and it's always good to Transform, you know and and think how Um Things can be improved. I think jo the full concept you've been really Working with your team to to figure out this new Program, and I think you'll continue to evaluate and that's exactly what these kinds of programs deserve and demands. So thanks Okay, well, thank you for pleasures. I think we've been our marching orders. So, uh, I might include like mary bill Lainey lily or something A combination sorry, uh, jode Okay, well that I think is it for us for today Yeah, you got your marching orders and then agenda setting I know mary's always really good about setting up your calendar and so you guys will get that all organized We will Thanks. All right Um, that concludes our business, but I know commissioner. Um, tell you said you have a day Yes, and uh, thank you, uh, madam chair and and through you to my fellow commissioners as I just give you a couple of updates that um that I have been involved in um The first one madam chair you had put me on Uh, I don't know if we call it a committee or if it's a subject matter that you put us in charge of or As part of and horse racing was one of the things that you put me um as part of my obligations for the year Assign, I thank you. That's the statutory reference that a legislature imposed Well, I I can't thank you for that assignment because I've enjoyed it over the last couple of years And I just wanted to give you an update that I actually went to ppc earlier this week And I met with dr. Lightbaum and I met with stevo tool just to Get a sense of how we're doing for uh opening day for which happens in a month And while I was there, I was able to tour the paddock As you may remember that the commission had given Some dollars to ppc to redo parts of it and They've put in new windows. They have new offices now as part of the paddock They have brand new bathrooms both men and women new showering stalls Any corrosion of any wood was has and will be replaced So I think you'll be very happy when you folks go out and visit to see Where the money was put to use and the good job that's being done there in terms of the paddock We were very both dr. Lightbaum and I were very very impressed and after the tour we saw steve take off on his um Mechanical equipment and go back to the racetrack where he was doing work to get the track ready for next month So that was uh, that was a good visit and a good day and again, madam chair. I love the assignment and um Love working with everybody over ppc in the horse industry I've learned so much over the last year or two about the horse racing industry. So on that note. Thank you How's steve doing? good Doing excellent, um Without getting into his personal life. He had just come back from vacation. So Like fully recovered. That's all doing great. Yeah um the second um Update, I just want to give my fellow commissioners and this is a follow-up to An update that was given by commissioner maynard a couple of weeks ago Recording the attorney general Who is putting together a youth sports betting? safety coalition and As you know from the report that commissioner maynard gave, you know, we've been there to observe And we were told that on march 28th That the attorney general will be announcing Uh, the coalition as well that deals with underaged Betting and I wanted everybody to be aware that invites will be forthcoming to all of you to be at that Press conference I wish I could tell you exactly what was going to be said. I'm not exactly sure exactly what will be announced But i'm looking forward to it because I know this is an issue we all care about The underaged betting and I think This coalition that the attorney general has is putting together May benefit uh many many people here across the commonwealth. So I wanted to let you all know Please book march 28th Commissioner maynard. I can't remember if it's at one o'clock, but again the invites will be forthcoming Yeah, I think I think the attorney general's office is going to take care of the invites to the full commission Yeah There's a commission being What's the role of the commission? We actually don't have a role Um at this point We have been invited as I think commissioner maynard and I were invited to be part of it because we are one of the Designees or she's one of our appointing authorities Uh, so I think out of courtesy to us. She invited us um to be there um Nothing has been asked of the mass gaming commission and I can assure you madam chair and through you the commission That if and when anything happens where we are being asked to be involved Uh, I will make sure that that is brought before the full commission for a discussion votes Whatever may have have to happen. I I'm very sensitive to that actually Thank you. Yeah, I I can follow that up to madam chair. Um, Fisher hill and I've been very very clear Um to this entire uh group that's very preliminary That anything that has the commission field of approval anything that includes the commission Will have to come into a public meeting in front of the full commission So we've been very clear about that. They are aware of it They are aware of of course the open meeting law given their position and um, I think they're looking for a future partnership and um Uh, we look forward to everyone being a part of this on the 28th Excellent, um, and wish the attorney general's office up a lot of good luck on it It's an important topic It is for sure. Thank you madam chair And those are the two updates that I have for you madam chair and I I gave you a warning that I would also conclude my Commissioners update uh with some words for you and if you can just allow me a couple of minutes I would like to do that at this time Uh I for one, uh I'm going to miss you dearly. I'm going to miss your leadership that you have given this agency over the last a few years Um, I noticed that you're not only known here in massachusetts But you're known throughout the country for the work that you have done here at this agency Um, and for that, you know, I'm forever grateful Uh The issues that have come before this commission since I have been here and I can only speak for the last couple of years Have been uh very important and very um in my view Hard to digest sometimes and I Have not or was not as educated in gaming as some who are here are But through you and through your leadership You created these round tables That were invaluable to me and I know the commission and the staff Uh round tables that included advertisements which were very very difficult to understand and get through But through your leadership we did and it was because of the round tables that that happened The sports wagering kickoff The timing of it, you know for brick and mortars through uh through the the computers uh Getting the information right from the mouths of our operators through that round table at the state house Was invaluable to me in helping me to make the decisions that I needed to make when it came to the kickoff And of course the round table on responsible gaming Responsible gaming is something that this entire um Agency cares so deeply about But it's one that's not uncomplicated It's very complicated And through your leadership in those round tables, uh, I learned more about responsible gaming, you know at those round tables That again helped me be able to work with our staff and mark and others Um to ensure that I was making the right decisions when it came to responsible gaming so Not only did it help me Understand the issues, but it helped all of us to be able to promulgate regulations and processes To get us where we are here today I also you already had mentioned this earlier I was not here for it but your reputation and The commission's reputation proceeded me When it came to the cogrid pandemic It needed a leader To get us into this industry to get us through the pandemic You already heard from dr. Lightbaum today that we were able to get racing up and running Because of your leadership and others During that pandemic a lot of others But it took a leader to get us to where we needed to be You have a calm demeanor amongst you that you have that Diffuses many many conflicts that come before the agency and the commission And through that calm demeanor and your leadership style I actually not only have learned a lot professionally But on a personal level how to treat people And for that i'm grateful I I have looked at myself through the way that you Do these meetings that I now look at my coaching in a very different way And when i'm refereeing in a very different way It's through your leadership style Uh that has allowed me to become a better person And I think Lastly I want to thank you for the patience that you've given me over the last two years You taught me how to become a better regulator After having a career as a legislator And it's very very different And there were times While there were times when it was a gray area And through our conversations together You allowed me to become a better regulator And understand the two jobs and how different they possibly can be You've always carried yourself with integrity and compassion I think someone mentioned it earlier Whenever I came Before you for counsel or to ask questions Before we even got to the subject matter at hand You spoke about my family you spoke about my health Then we got into the subject matter Shows you the type of person you are you will be very missed At this commission so thank you Thank you commissioner hill Well, we all know we're really very very lucky to have your skill set as a formal legislator We otherwise we've got a bunch of lawyers here to deal with so We we appreciate all that you've brought to the plate And the coaching comes to and you know Brad I remember when we first spoke And there was a question as to whether you'd be taking this job or not And when I hung up I I know there's somebody else in this room who knew how excited I was because he was part of the appointment process And I just prayed that he might be appointed And my prayers came true because I knew We're the real deal So thank you for that and um, thank you And uh, we are going to continue to think about your family And your good health So thank you all right, so um This is the conclusion, uh, 508 I I I like round numbers 509 I think is in the works for monday But I don't think we're going to get to 510 unless um by a miracle there's something that has to come in on next thursday but um I don't mind today ending officially with 508 So commissioners, thank you for allowing me to acknowledge My time here My appreciation for all of you for the entire team As I said, I'm going to have lots of opportunities to thank you in person But it is nice when we get to use this public Platform to our own personal advantage. So thank you for taking the time today to express Sort of your feelings and allowing me to do the same So with that Do I have a motion to adjourn? so moved second Okay commissioner by I commissioner hill I commissioner skinner I commissioner maynard I And before I vote To Todd Thank you for all that you have done for your leadership in two Very critical roles. I am forever grateful Well, yes Meetings adjourn 5-0