 I bring this meeting to order of the master's gaming commission. It is public meeting number 293 on Monday, March 16, 2020 at 10 a.m. With respect to further housekeeping matters, again, given the complexity of our technology, if you could remember to mute your phone or device after your presentation this would be recommended for all participants. Otherwise, I do appreciate everyone keeping their phones mute. And of course, when you do commence a presentation or speak, if you could just identify yourself for all of our participants. Again, as I said, I do appreciate everyone's patience as we navigate this uncharted territory holding remote meetings at the same time we are dealing with unprecedented outside stressors. To future commission meetings, we had anticipated an agenda-setting meeting on this coming Wednesday. We have decided to cancel it for Wednesday and the executive staff will work on revealing the calendar over the next day and we will be coordinating that with all of my fellow commissioners to see if the proposed calendar works for you and that it reflects our priorities at this time to assure continued operations. So please stay tuned. As I stated on Saturday morning, the authority and responsibilities of this commission are broad and we do maintain that the safety and well-being of our employees and the employees and patrons of our licensees is of paramount importance. I want to say I continue to be so proud of the work of the commission and I thank each employee of the MGC for their tremendous work as we assess a moment in history that's changing so rapidly. We recognize this moment's enormity and its reach. Last night, Governor Baker took unparalleled action and issued several orders including, as you know, the closing of all private and public schools for the next three weeks. I believe it's effective Tuesday and limiting all public gatherings to 25. With that backdrop, I do be telling that we have a need for this emergency commission meeting and so at this time I would like to proceed with our item 2A on our agenda, an update on the temporary suspension of operations of the gaming licensees in light of the coronavirus that took place over the last 48 hours. Interim Executive Director Wells, if you could begin that update please. Good morning, Madam Chair. But the Chair had indicated that the safety and well-being of our employees, of the casino employees, the public at large is of paramount importance. So I would like to thank the licensees for working so expediently and so quickly and with our commissioners in regards to all things and their operation. We would also like to accommodate staff as well as the police staff who have effectuated these closing in such an efficient and effective manner. So first of all, I'd like to have gaming agents chief, our Assistant Director Bruce Vann, address the commission on just an update. Should we hear from Bruce first? Yeah, I think Bruce is on the call. I saw his name. Are you there, Bruce? Actually, maybe Bruce. You don't know how to unmute if you could do star 6, please. That's now Bruce. Are you able to unmute? Madam Chair, why don't I go ahead and it's Brian Connors on the line. Captain Connors, if you could please just give the commission an update from the police state police perspective on the closing. That would be helpful if it's done. Sure. And just to interrupt so literally, Captain Connors, for those who need to present, the technology right now allows me to mute everyone. It is very difficult for me to find everyone's names fluidly. I'm going to try to do that as we speak to see if I can find Bruce, but that is what the challenge is. So you could attempt to unmute yourselves. Otherwise, I'll try to do that in real time as well. You just have a lot of people on the phone. So thank you. Captain Connors. Thank you. Good morning. Just in a general sense, things went very smoothly from our perspective, starting Saturday through Saturday evening into Sunday morning. I think the licensees did a great job preparing for this, planning and implementing their closure procedures. You know, they should be commended for that. It did go very smoothly. They did take precautions and necessary steps beginning Saturday to make it a pretty seamless closure across all three properties. We did see significantly less crowds. We somewhat had anticipated, but obviously did not know going into Saturday evening what those crowds would look like. Again, everything from the staff, the licensee staff, security departments, and their managers and executives did a very good job. So from this end, it went very smoothly. Were we able to, candidly, and Burke, what I'd suggest, you know, any of the licensees just want to confirm the effectuation of the closure this time. Maybe we could go through each of those properties and comments they need to make to the commission and while I try to contact Mr. Bant. Yeah, I can see that he doesn't seem to have the same established line here that others have. So he might be having a question. Harbour, if you would like to give your update and again, forgive me, I had intended to thank all the three licensees for their transparent and cooperative work with us over the last 48 hours and before. So again, I think that we all recognize every entity here and along with our commission and all of our employees are working so hard to achieve such a major responsibility that, you know, reaches well beyond our own entities. So thank you. So on court, Boston Harbour. Yes, good morning. Thank you, Chair. Good morning, Chair and commissioners. This is Brian Bilbrant. Everything went very smoothly. We want to thank the GEU for their cooperation. Everything was executed as planned. We are fully closed. There are no guests. There are no occupied rooms. We are in good shape. And we are, her comes at us. Okay. Thank you very much. MGM Springfield, would you like to give an update as well, please? Yes. This is Seth Stroud from MGM Springfield. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you, Seth. Fantastic. Yes, we effectively closed on Saturday. It was a smooth closing. We're able to get all customers in an early fashion off the floor prior to midnight. We've also closed all venues and we're able to get all guests out of the hotel prior to midnight on Saturday. And so we've been fully vacated, other than our central employees, since midnight on Saturday. And it went very smoothly. Thank you for that, Seth. So that, so in fact, even though the timing under our vote was for a 5.59 a.m. suspension of all operations, you're saying it was midnight on Saturday or on Sunday? So by 12 a.m. Sunday, so midnight Saturday night, we were, we were fully, we had fully operations and non-gaming operations. Thank you. That's what I had understood. I just want to make sure it was clear to everyone that you had really had surpassed the deadline in a positive way on the right side. All right. And then, thank you. And now, PPC, President George, are you on the line? I am. Can you hear me, Madam Chair? I can. I can, Lance. Thank you. Perfect. Consistent with what we just heard from, from our fellow licensees, MGM, and Oncor. No material issues. We closed in a very smooth and early fashion. Thanks to the collaboration between both the IED and the GEDU. We closed just a little before 5.59, and that's where we are currently. With respect to the gaming, again, interim Executive Director Wells, are we able to... Yes, Madam Chair. So Bruce Band is having these computers going in and out, so we are going to have Bert Cain give an update for the group. Just got on mute. Yeah. And just so you know, Bruce, if you were able to get to him, he can dial the phone number from his phone, unless he's having trouble accessing his report. So the phone number, that would be at the top of the agenda. I mean, actually, it looks like it's in the middle of the agenda. Do you have that in front of you, Karen? But it's on the notice. If you want to send that to Bruce... Yeah, go ahead. You can call him. Otherwise, we will right now proceed with Bert. But I just wanted to offer that to Bruce as well. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Bert, good morning. Good morning, Chair. Good morning, commissioners. Can you hear me? We can. Very good. To echo what the three licensees said, the closing did go very successfully. From a gaming agent standpoint, it was very important that we got all the chips off the floor, all the gaming equipment was secured, all the money from the slot machines and TRUs was removed and counted, all the money has been certified in the count rooms. The money now is secured in the cage. I believe we're waiting for different schedules to expedite the shipment of the funds off site to the banks. The slot machines have been disabled. Let's see what else we got here. The knock has helped us with that. In surveillance or staff, they're on site. They're taking care of the requirements that we've set forth in agreement. But them, the alcohol outlets and the partner commercial properties on site, everything's been secured from their side. And GU security will be on site 24-7, watching the establishment. And surveillance, of course, will have their staffing available to watch the cameras and what's going on 24-7 also. Is there any other questions? I think you've done a good job. I'd give it a cap to the licensee. GU and the gaming agents were getting this done so quickly and well done by all. Thank you. Thank you, Burke. And please stay tuned because now I'm going to turn to all the commissioners to see if they have questions for the presentations so far. Again, I'm going to ask in order, but I'll give the opportunity for you to wait for questions and comments, and then I'll turn back to you for a second chance. So starting with Commissioner Zuniga, do you have questions for the presenters? And maybe we should take them one at a time. Commissioner Zuniga, if you're talking, you're on mute still. So if you would either like to wait and hear from the other commissioners, that's fine. But if you do have a question now, okay, Commissioner Stebbins, we'll turn back to Commissioner Zuniga. Do you have any questions for any of the presenters? Thank you, Madam Chair. First, I also would like to thank our team and our licensees, all of their ongoing efforts to suspend the gaming operations. It's certainly great when we can all work together. Just a quick question for my friends at MGM. Obviously, there's a lot of non-patron use of your parking garage. Could you update this as to whether the parking garage is available for many of the other downtown employees and workers who I know have been using your facility on a day in and day out basis? Sure. Can you hear me, Commissioner Zuniga? I can, Seth. Good morning. Good morning. Yes, the garage was close to the public along with the rest of the facility. I'm still working here, utilizing it, facility and security, as well as ADA issues of the city or since I had it. Okay, thank you. Commissioner O'Brien, I have any questions? Again, if you are on mute, if you could press star six, please. Commissioner O'Brien, I'm not able to hear you. And Commissioner Zuniga, I'm not able to hear you. So, I'm here. There you are. Who's that? This is Zuniga. Hi, Chair. I dropped off for a couple of minutes. Maybe that's when you asked for my questions, but I don't have any at this point. You have none at this point. Great. Thank you. And then I just turned to Commissioner O'Brien. Do you have any questions for the presenters? And if I can't hear her, we'll turn to Commissioner Cameron. And thank you. Good morning. I have my phone for some reason blocked me out. No problem. I don't have any questions. I just want to reiterate the praise for IBGEU and the licensees and executing it so quickly and smoothly. And Commissioner Cameron, I have no questions. And again, very, very well done by all. Thank you. We'll turn back to just Commissioner, none of the commissioners, but to interim executive director Karen Wells. Do you have any further updates that you would like to give at this time? None at this time, Madam Chair. And thank you. Before we move from that, again, thank you to the three licensees, to the GEU, to IB, I'm getting a little bit tired here first thing this morning. Thank you so much for all of those efforts. And we also know that they were working with a team that's broad through the direction of you, Karen. So thank you. And now moving on to item number two, B, the report on the operational status of final casting and advanced deposit, wagering in light of the virus again. And I would turn to Dr. Leipam, who I believe is a director of racing. Alex, can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you. I believe that we have representatives from Plain Ridge Park, Pino, Feebo Tool, Suffolk Downs, Chip Butler, and Layton Park, Mr. Carney and his team. Would you like to start us off? Sure. The licensees let us know, obviously, Plain Ridge Park racing, they went along with the casino as far as discontinuing operations. Steve O'Toole can speak to that further when you get to him. Suffolk also discontinued operations Saturday at 6 p.m., I believe. Rainham continued to operate yesterday, and obviously with the new guidelines put out by the governor, that will probably change that. But I'll let you go from there. Thank you, Dr. Leipam. So we'll start in order. Steve, are you on successfully, Steve O'Toole? I'm on. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Thank you. Okay, first, I'd like to thank Alex, Director, Alex Leipam, Director of Racing for being available 24 hours a day for any questions or comments. We close down with the long before the casino at the end of our business. No, no, no problem. Again, I'll just give you the opportunity to make any comment or question. Commissioner Stebbins? No questions at this time. Excellent. Thank you, Steve. And again, thank you for continued cooperation. And of course, for Dr. Leipam's leadership here, we do understand it truly takes the entire team effort. So we really appreciate all of the cooperation. Emergency basis. Yeah, we will also, you know, we, I think I would, I would like that to go forward and, and I appreciate you, Steve, for bringing this up today. The impact is by the governor's recent order on employees on site. Here is everything done in another jurisdiction. This is all dependent on continued racing. I understand, Lieutenant, and we do understand that many of those races are shutting down. Any questions about the ADW and PPC's continued operation as stated? Thank you. Commissioner Zuniga? Thank you, Loretta Lilios, for his part of today's agenda. And moving on now to I would, I can't cannot see if you're, because it would come to a phone number. If Mr. Tuttle, you are online online. Dr. Leipam, do you want to give a report that you, if on Chipper online you had probably understood he would give? Going to seize any simulcast operations at six, Saturday, 6 p.m. And they were going to continue their account wagering. And again, that's through the Oregon pub. So as long as they're up there, it sounds like Chipper's on now. Yes, pardon me, Madam Chair. And Dr. Leipam, I was not as quick on the star six update, uptake as I should have been. But yes, I am here and yeah, appreciate Dr. Leipam's availability. We have been in touch with her, anticipating. Leipam, do you want to just have Mr. Carney be able to add under the 250, but with the new 25 people? Creation with Dr. Leipam. I'm going to go now to each, each commissioner. Mr. Cameron. Mr. Carney, you mentioned that you had intended to close down. Michelle Bryan, do you have any questions or comments from Mr. Carney? And thank you to Dr. Leipam and that I hope he, all of our presenters at this time on our agenda. I do want to thank, thank you. Oh, I am being reminded because the technology is working with that. We did not address ADW. And I think to just be fully transparent, Mr. Carney, if you could just give an update on the ADW operations for that year. We hadn't planned to open. That's very helpful. So again, we do have an item to discuss under Item 3, but I'm going to just take this opportunity for all those who are external to the MGC team. Again, we thank you, our fellow licensees that represent us from the racing community today for all of your cooperation, your continued communication with the executive team all the way through MGC. These are extraordinary times. And I think everybody has demonstrated that we can be very nimble and we act in an extraordinary fashion. So thank you. And I do wish all of you good health right now for you and your team and, of course, your family and loved ones. Moving on to Number 3, we do have a matter that I couldn't have anticipated at the time of posting, which of course was last evening just because this is an emergency meeting, but we did have on our agenda, we had as a commission extended the deadline for the independent monitor to report, baseline report, to be by the end of this month. And we have had a request and I asked Commissioner O'Brien if he could update us on that particular request. Certainly, thank you, Chair. As we all know, we were anticipating some time in the month of April getting a presentation on the six month baseline report from the independent monitor and not surprisingly given the circumstances of the last days and weeks. The independent monitor did reach out this morning for clarification on deadlines and presentations so that they can finish compiling everything they need to and make sure that all the participants can actively participate. Based on realities in that request, I am making a motion and we'll do it formally at the end once we've had a chance to comment, but I would make a motion that extends what had been the deadline through the end of March, through the end of April to April 30th that would make sure that this could be moved forward but in a way that's safe for the licensee, the monitor and all of us. I'm going to ask each of you if you have questions for Commissioner O'Brien on me. Commissioner Stebbins. Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner O'Brien is obviously the current situation is reducing everybody's ability to travel or undertake work. Is this question based on how our independent monitor is operating or their ability to interact with our licensee? My understanding is more of the latter given not only what's happening here but they also are doing something similar in Las Vegas and so finishing the final coordination to get everything done and to us and then have them participate with meetings is more realistic to ask that we go to the end of April. And just to add in, Commissioner Stebbins, I don't think it's necessary that they need base time meetings. It would just be they're wrapping up their discussions and to make sure the baseline report is in proper final form for our consideration. So I don't think that's necessarily because they need to be on the premises. It's just more of a courtesy because these are such stressful times. Is that accurate? Yes. Okay. Yeah, obviously I have no problem with the extension. But that was a very fair question. We don't want anyone to feel that they need to travel. So thank you. Commissioner Zuniga, do you have any questions or comments? Yeah, no. You know, an extension seems only reasonable given all the circumstances. I would be of the mindset of, you know, extending it until it's reasonable or it's reasonably feasible to complete it. However, however it needs remotely or what have you. But that's really up to you, Commissioner O'Brien to decide. I'm just suggesting maybe having another hard date, you know, we may end up, you know, having to look at that in the near future. So, but an extension of any kind seems only reasonable. Thank you. And Commissioner Cameron? Yes, I certainly this is a reasonable request. And I think if we do have a date such as the end of April, we could revisit it because this is such a fluid situation. So certainly a reasonable request. Commissioner O'Brien, in light of those discussions, do you wish to make a motion? I do, Madam Chair. I would move that the current deadline for the six-month baseline presentation by the independent monitor to the gaming commission be extended from its current date to no later than April 30, 2020. That's second. Okay. Okay. The second is by Commissioner Zuniga. I will do a little call vote. Commissioner Stebbins? Aye. Commissioner Zuniga? Aye. Commissioner O'Brien? Aye. Commissioner Cameron? Aye. And the Chair votes yes. Thank you. I am going to ask at this time if there is any other business that I have not heard from my fellow commissioners that needs to be addressed in these emergency times under number three. I won't go through, but if you may just speak on your own, if you have any additional business that you would like to address at this time. Okay. I am not hearing anything. If that's the case, do I have a motion to adjourn? So moved, Madam Chair. Second. Okay. Commissioner Zuniga? Seconded. Again, a roll call vote. Commissioner Cameron? Aye. Commissioner O'Brien? Aye. Commissioner Zuniga? Aye. Commissioner Stebbins? Aye. Chair votes yes. This meeting is adjourned. Again, our great thanks to all who have participated today and everybody stay well, stay safe. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.