 But with a roll call good morning commissioner Cameron Good morning. I am here. Great commissioner of Brian. Good morning. Good morning. I am here And good morning commissioner Hill. Good morning. I am here Great It's hard to believe that today is March 3rd 2022 March 14th. Well, of course be a recognition of two years since The pandemic officially started for our state business when we closed down with the cooperation of our three licensees the Operations of the three gaming establishments. So it's hard to believe But the good news is things are starting to look up Before we get started. I wanted to also remind folks that March is Women's History Month and March 8th is International Women's Day and Sadly this time for recognizing Historic and current contributions of women around the world aligns today with commitment and Passion of the brave Ukrainian women who are taking really the most drastic of measures to protect their children and fight for their country's freedom I know that my fellow commissioners and all my colleagues at the M. J. C. Join me in keeping the people of Ukraine in our thoughts and prayers But that will turn to item number two Minutes and I know Commissioner Brian it deviates from the agenda So as I had stated earlier, I got a whole batch of these five which Good news for commissioner Hill. He was not at these So this is this is backlog that we're throughout before commissioner Cameron leaves. They're substantial I hope to be back to the team so they can distribute those to you and commissioner Cameron within the next day or so But they given me being out last week. They're not in a position to be voted on today So those will be on for the next meeting, right? So that would be for either the 10th or the 14th, right? Okay, great commissioning so That's an indicator that we did some of those where they were also with the commissioner Sunica where is it the correct? Yeah, okay, not just Zuniga With the exception of maybe the ninth or that might have been okay. Thank you So we we need our quorum Excellent then we'll move right on to item number three administrative update. Good morning Karen. Good morning chair Good morning commissioners several items under the administrative update this morning I'm going to start with assistant director Bruce van to give you an update on what's going on at the casinos Morning chair commissioners the casino updates short today And MGM will probably be updating most of the stuff for their casino in their Presentation to you today. The only update I have for MGM is at Springfield and MGM eliminated the mask mandate for them on Monday and that There is nothing new to announce at EPC and then the only thing I have for on core is that they're starting live entertainment on March 17th with the MMA fight, which we're going to discuss later on this agenda And that's all I have for you unless you have questions today Questions for for Bruce this morning commissioners All set. Yeah That's not a lack of interest. That's just knowing that we're well. We're well updated. Thank you Bruce and Karen So the next item on the agenda just is the COVID-19 updates which relates to our internal operations as you are aware We have gone back to the opening of the Boston office that has been successful. It's been nice to see everyone Getting a good response from people about being back in the office. So that seems to be going well we do have one outstanding issue which we discussed in the Working group yesterday, and that's what to do with respect to Masking at the offices as you recall when we open the office back in November Especially because everyone was vaccinated not require masks in the office at that time So we discussed it internally and we're also monitoring what's going on with the data with respect to infections and also With respect to hospitalizations and we have seen the data and the data shows that the numbers have just plummeted similar to where they were when we were back in the office and we weren't wearing masks also Consisted with CDC guidelines HRD guidelines and the Boston Health Commissioner now is recommending as you know recommended lifting the outdoor indoor mask mandate My understanding is that's effective on Saturday The commissioner does recommend masking in those settings if you're at high risk for severe illness Or you will need to be around individuals who are so That's consistent with what HRD and the CDC guidelines have been as well. I also note that our building has Adopted that Boston policy so in our building in the common areas So in the elevators the lobby if you're the hallway going to the restroom As of Saturday that mask mandate is lifted So our discussion internally was that and we and we also discussed you know having that Whatever policy we do be consistent at the properties because we have gaming agents and folks at the properties as well So the recommendation is and and also from just even just talking to people around the office and getting feedback of what folks are comfortable with You know my recommendation consistent with what the group thought of is that we go ahead and I would notify the NGC personnel that masks are not mandated But you know we recommend if you're at high risk for the illness you're gonna be around individuals that you We recommend you wear a mask but remind people that Anybody can wear a mask if they want to if they're comfortable That's that's potentially the norm and people should feel comfortable. There's no stigma if you want to wear it Absolutely, and that and if anybody's got any discomfort around you know the masking or who they're working with You know when they work with people or meetings or things like that to talk to HR talk to their supervisors This is an ongoing conversation want people to feel comfortable and feel good about being back in the office I know I'm thrilled to be back in the office. So it's good So unless there's an you know an objection from the Commission I don't necessarily need to be a boat But I was going to go ahead and do that But I wanted to sort of get the consensus from the Commission that they were supportive of this approach So I'll sort of throw that out there and see if there's any comments from the Commissioners to see if We get the thumbs up to go ahead and do that going forward So update Karen Commissioners any questions or comments commissioners a Cameron and O'Brien did you want to add you're in the working group? May I jump in I fall heartedly agree with this recommendation the working group as usual did a very good job looking at every possible scenario and You know as and also incorporated feedback everyone had feedback from the team Whether they're out in the field or they're in the Boston office, and I think it's we've been pretty consistent all along And I think it served us well, so I am certainly supportive of this voluntary mask wearing as opposed to mandatory moving forward Commissioner Brian I would say the same thing the only thing I brought up in the working group that I would read it right now As Karen said if you want to wear a mask feel free and also if for whatever reason you feel like you maybe need some Other discussion with HR in terms of your comfort level always Please feel free to reach out to your supervisor HR if you have extenuating circumstances in terms of where your work is Commissioner Hill. I'm okay moving forward with the suggestion. No problem here Excellent well done excellent work and the Working group has done such tremendous work, but I'm hoping that it gets phased out all together Great, right Okay, moving on to the next item. Okay, so on that item. I'm also, you know Assistant director fans here for the gaming agents that are going out on the floor. I'll have Assistant director fans sort of work with them on what sort of makes sense on the floor and use their best judgment and discretion So I'll send a notice down to the staff today that that's what the approach is Yeah, and I echo Karen you you know for the folks who are dealing with the public directly. I think that mask wearing is around, you know To stay so everyone should do what they're comfortable with Okay, great. I think that that's gonna be a good thing for this agency So the next item, I just wanted to get an item 3c just an update on the internal audit and compliance working group because We have commissioner O'Brien that sort of works with us internally But the other commissioners at this point are not in that groups We wanted to just give you a brief overview and certainly give you an opportunity to ask me questions Or if you want further information, I expect as a you know in a regular cadence I will be coming back before you just update you on what has been going on with that group because I I think we've had some Really positive work done and I'd like to keep that going and feedback from the commissioners would certainly be helpful So for today's update, I just want to give you just an overview of last year What I did last year was we put together basically a calendar for the year and giving it up by order and some objectives for each quarter and then Having monthly meetings and certain objectives for those meetings Of the past year, there were certain standard ongoing things that this group is tasked with and that works with And one is the risk matrix that that we do for the risks of the agencies and identifying them and identifying their priorities The other is the internal control plan There are folks that work on this plan specifically But we did bring that forward for the review by the group Which is it's always helpful to have a team to look at things because all of us is smarter than one of us So getting the team to look at that has been helpful and also so people can I just understand what is the internal control plan? Why does it matter and what do we do? And they also have reviewed the internal control questionnaire Which as you're aware is due at the end of the fiscal year. So we submit that every year I'm just having folks be aware. It's a great tool You know, it's been an education for me seeing that in that it having to answer those questions makes you think hey Am I doing that at the agency? So it's a it's a positive thing For any agency to make sure that they're doing the right thing and a compliant with what we should be doing the other thing the group does is work with Derek and his team and the aid Bailey audit so that we audit the casinos. That's the statutory responsibility So this group reviews the audits And make sure those are going properly and helps out with that. So those are sort of the standard ongoing things and then And in addition to that the group has also last year implemented What I'll call the compliance calendar project where we had at the beginning of the year the finance department Led by Derek Lennon Demoed how they track their responsibilities and how they hold their cells accountable for things that they absolutely Required to get done and that's what is deemed a compliance calendar It's sort of like a to-do list checklist, but a little more sophisticated than that and what Derek did was work through that model He gave them off He gave a demo to the other divisions and then in subsequent meetings We had the divisions come in to sort of work, you know, how they would use that kind of model of how that would help them do their work We have we have a responsibility as regulators to ensure compliance by our licensees I feel very strongly. We should hold ourselves to that same standard You know, we have statutory responsibilities regulatory responsibilities and making sure we're doing what we should be doing And unlike the approach that Derek had in this in that you sort of start small He'd sort of figure it out and then you can build on it as you identify things You want to make sure you're doing every year or that you're responsible for you can build on it So this is it's not a gotcha tool. It's a it's a how can we help to make sure that we're doing things properly? so We also implemented a quality assurance We're trying to do a quality assurance testing programs. We did a little bit of a pilot for the at the end of last year and Paul Eldridge at our financial investigations division was tremendous in helping us with that and led that effort We did a review of our protection of our PII our sensitive information Did what we call a mini audit of mini quality assurance testing checking in with each division on that? We had positive results feel very good about how we protect that information And there were some good recommendations going forward particularly with respect to policies for each division and we're going to be working individually with each division on their PII and Written policy not only for the agency but also for each division because it helps you think about How you're handling that so those are some them that's sort of the overview of last year I'm very thankful to the group and helping out with this initiative And then for next year Have laid out a proposed calendar for the year with quarterly objectives and then proposed items for the monthly's agendas Same standard objectives of the risk matrix the ICP the ICQ the casino audits Would like to delve further into the compliance calendars and really develop that as a tool for different departments that may not think like a finance department, so how would it work for a different department whether it's Problem gaming and research or the legal department things like that different departments may approach it differently So what works for them and then I also we're looking to bolster that quality assurance testing program How we're going to do that and how we're going to approach that? Currently we're working with each division on the risk matrix Mary and Julie is Logistically coordinating that effort with each team. So we're working on that the one change we're implementing now Historically, we sort of ranked risks in a way and This year we're going to for each division there They've been a self-identify as each risk they identified as either a level one a level two or a level three because different risks Can be I think it makes sense to sort of group them as a high level mid-level low-level because ranking them within it Can be difficult because you've got different divisions that have completely different you know, you know missions and objectives, so I Think that will be helpful just to test that out and we'll have the commissioners take a look at that for any feedback That's that's where we are right now. I just wanted to give an update and also just see if there's any questions I'll be updating you as we go through this through the year, but Certainly it's an opportunity if you have any feedback for me if it's anything you'd like to see me doing I will certainly do that or if you've any questions. I'm here to answer those questions Questions for Karen excellent summary. I see Commissioner O'Brien nodding your head. Do you want to add in Commissioner O'Brien? You've been working with this group for a long time No, I think Karen summarized it. Well, she's been doing a really great job of Getting this group streamlined to the point where they can do discrete reviews And not getting lost in analysis paralysis in the bigger picture So her point that each area has a very different vulnerability and process It's been I think a huge improvement to how this group is been working if I can just comment that You know, it really is a high-performing organization to go to this level of checking and making sure and you know making the changes that are needed really lends itself to What high-performing organizations do and and my experiences Many are nots and I believe we are and this is another example for me of Just at the level that the team is thinking about and working toward just being The very best we can be and you know all the best practices So I just want to say thank you and it just makes me proud to See the level that the organization where we are. So thank you Commissioner Hill I'll set well the nerd in me gets really excited when I hear our executive director cite the ICP and ICQ And Karen quite properly Notes that they're excellent road maps And they and that is a statutory requirement for us to complete and the fact this you know commissioner Cameron notes that you're you're being intentional and so Streamline and organizes commissioner Ryan says means a great deal to to me and to the organization and really Will serve the the commission and the Commonwealth well So Karen I appreciate this update and I look forward to the regular updates because it is such important work And to each of you who are a division heads and you assess those risks It's a really great exercise that you in your work today will lead and inform your work in the future This is just really core Core management work. So thank you for your efforts on it and thank you to Mary Ann On addressing the matrix. So thanks Yes, so the next item item 3d Just wanted to touch base on that event that Bruce mentioned the MMA event at the Boston Harbor which is scheduled for the 17th As you're aware, there's some questions that arose during the public hearing on Monday and written comments regarding that's that event You know that issue is guided not only by chapter 23k section 9a 11 but also chapter 23k section 1510 which deals with the I love agreements and and the process there Certainly the NGC has been monitoring that issue. I believe that commission has been aware of that issue for an ongoing period of time Nothing's ever been presented to the before the commission and no determination and you know has been made that an event between 1,000 and 1,500 is necessarily a violation of the law. So I think that needs to be clear But in any event in this case, we're looking to see if that event on the 17th is even going to have patrons and or seats Within that range that would even trigger that discussion head conversation with Representative from wind resorts With double checking on that for me because it may not be that that is actually going to take place So this may actually be premature. We do have two more meetings between now and that day So given that my recommendation, you know, stand by and see because if it's not even going to be an event That's a thousand patrons Doesn't even trigger that issue and that issue may not even be determined it to so There's a lot of open questions there But I wouldn't want to put the commission in a position of having to opine on something that is not even right necessarily for For any kind of voter discussion. So I just want to be careful when we're doing this and we'll look at that going forward I do, you know have Council Grossman on the calls looked at it if Joe Delaney operationally and then who span the gaming agents obviously will be monitoring the event From their side of the house, you know with respect to safety and compliance, you know, that the state is looking so we are aware of it I don't I didn't like the public thinking that the commission had just disregarded this but this is something that You know, we're monitoring but it may not even be an issue that wouldn't necessarily have to go in front of the Commission based on the numbers So that's sort of where we are. I don't know if there's any questions or comments at this point But we didn't want to go through the the public meeting today Given that there had been some discussion about this and not at least address it and make a note of it That they're not here and I want to thank you for you know over them before the weekend Actually, I think Joe and I had a good conversation about how we needed to Understand exactly what was happening a little bit more clearly and then we appreciate the public's input on this and then of course the ongoing Vigilance that you and your cop, you know the team would have been doing in our doing Commissioners, I think Karen has pointed out that right now we can wait to hear a little bit more from The team and from on core and as as Karen points out We do have the opportunity if there needs to be any affirmative action by the Commission We could tackle that March 10th or March 14th. Does that sound good to you? Commissioners I see I've lost commissioner. Oh, Brian. You shifted Do you have a question? Yeah. No, just to reiterate Yeah, no that I've had conversations in the past with Joe on this topic and Karen's comment about whether it's ripe Today, I think Is appropriate in terms of you know, whether we're in a posture to really discuss it or what it needs from us right now Yeah, I agree. I think probably separately. We were all having the same conversation. So That means that we're not really and I think we all feel probably we're not prepared to act without some additional information, right? Okay, we're all nodding our head Indicator that we truly don't speak with each other on the on these matters and Compliance with the open meeting law. So again, it's not because of lack of interest or lack of awareness or ongoing Review and vigilance, but we we look forward to getting an update. I guess probably commissioners will look for that Hopefully by the 10th, right? And I'll keep you posted Okay, excellent and thank you to Todd and Joe and Bruce and Mavetta for your work on the matter as well Karen Okay You've all said is that You're I don't want her Nothing else commissioners any while we have Karen on administrative update any questions for her on anything or on this last topic Okay All right as we Move on to item number four And enter the month of March the Massachusetts gaming Commission also recognizes that this month is problem gambling awareness month The MGC as we know is fortunate to have significant resources and expertise To address responsible gaming and is committed to the mission of this particular month by increasing public awareness of problem gambling in the availability of prevention treatment and recovery services Today it's always a joyous moment to recognize the game sense program and honor the game sense advisors who provide critical intervention services at all three Massachusetts casinos Their expertise is a key resource to promote responsible gaming in the commonwealth and to help all of those at our casinos make healthy gambling choices Finally before turning to Mark Vandalin and as we know our director of research and responsible gaming I'd like to thank Governor Baker and Lieutenant Governor Polito for officially declaring March as problem gambling awareness month in the commonwealth and issuing an official Proclamation for those joining us today. You can view that proclamation on our website We are grateful for the governor's support now turning to mark for details about Pgam Thank you, madam chair. Good morning commissioners It's March again, and it's problem gambling awareness. It seems like it comes around More frequently than every year The theme of this year's problem gambling awareness month is Awareness plus action, and I think it's really fitting and represents the commitment of the Massachusetts gaming Commission as we continue to advance what I consider to be the nation's most comprehensive gaming research agenda And then strives to mobilize the findings from that that agenda Into programs and services that aim to reduce gambling related harm This agenda has been underway for almost 10 years now As Marie Claire Flores-Bajot pointed out to me last month. We've generated more than 50 Reports covering all aspects of gambling impact in the commonwealth. We're looking at social impacts. We're looking at economic impacts We're looking at what is the effect of opening a casino on public safety? Where the programs and services that we do have underway we're committed to improving those through through program evaluation All of these together. I think kind of lead to as as Commissioner O'Brien pointed out We aren't suffering from analysis paralysis We're looking to operationalize these these findings and really strive to to implement the most effective programs we can I just wanted to go through and this is certainly not a comprehensive list that would take too long But to just highlight some of the findings that we found over the years and how we're how we are really using those to operationalize Into programs. So for example the baseline general population survey it was fielded even before the first casino opened up in Massachusetts and conducted by Our research team at the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that while 63% of adult Massachusetts Gamble responsibly 8% are considered at risk and 2% would be considered problem gamblers As a result we've developed a voluntary self-exclusion program that seeks to Empower people who struggle with internal controls of the gambling to manage their gambling by offering an External control through the voluntary self-exclusion program Additionally to make sure that we reach as many individuals as possible Those 2% or those 8% who wish to enroll we've recently expanded and offered voluntary self-exclusion program Remotely so you can enroll through a smart thrown through other device with a game sense advisor Also recognizing that it's important to try to connect people with additional help after enrollment the game the the gaming Commission supports What we call a recovery support specialist and Jody Neely To help shepherd people into to additional treatment after they enroll The magic the Massachusetts gaming impact cohort study Found that there's instability in the gambling behavior between non gambling recreational gamblers and problem gamblers So there's a lot of movement in between here I think that this was a really important study and allowed us to continue to look at how we can leverage that a Positive play study looking at people's actual gambling behaviors And most Massachusetts gamblers have medium or even low levels of gambling literacy specifically 57% of those age 21 work Scored low or medium on pre-commitment factors. That means that the ability to set a budget or set it set a time a time limit We did an evaluation of the play my way program early on when it was just When it was launched at Plain Ridge Park casino and we found that Individuals who enrolled Ultimately ended up enrolling in the play my way program and those who never enrolled in the play my way program They were very similar just before the the program launched. However after the program launched Those who ended up enrolling in the program Ended up gambling gambling less and spending less over time compared to their counterparts who never never chose to involve role in the program What this tells us is that? We want to influence gamblers at different points of their gambling journey, whether it's prevention Whether it's treatment or policies to support player help We want to support positive play by offering information and education to spell gambling Gambling myths and fallacies and we want to continue to expand and offer Play management tools to allow players to track their money in time spent gambling The play my way program that we evaluated it at Plain Ridge Park casino You'll hear shortly and just a bit an update on on our progress towards implementing that at MGM Springfield later this month as part of problem gambling awareness month and then later in the year at on core Boston Harbor We're also Working to develop and roll out lower risk gambling guidelines easy to understand guidelines on how much money How frequent to gamble and how many types of gambling to help people? Understand what what does it look like to gamble it at lower risk to hopefully help prevent them from moving down down in that continuum? And then just a final piece Magic also identified specific demographic groups that are at higher risk of experience in gambling related harms and in Massachusetts and That was followed up by a study conducted as part of our community-engaged research by Asian cares that found that That Asian Americans and Pacific Island communities Are at greater risk and identified specifically that perhaps this is perpetuated by the proliferation of gambling advertising And in Asian communities around the state Partly as a result of that We're currently drafting and in a white paper that looks at At what what is research further telling us about the impacts of gambling advertising? What are other states and jurisdictions doing about this and how the Massachusetts gaming commission May wish to consider to just strengthen our own our own attention on this on this important issue I could go on and on I'm not that's it But what I do want to say is that this is an important month We we do take this as an opportunity to try to really push out some really important information Resources and tools, but it doesn't stop there and I know it may sound cliche, but we will continue to do this this year round Thank you and happy problem gambling awareness month Mark that was a great summary got commissioners. Do you have specific questions for a mark at this time? I think mark you would I Know you've stated it and we'll state it again that we are fortunate to have the full collaboration of the three Licenses in these zappers so We really yeah, thank you for for saying that we really are each of them bring their own special approach to this Chelsea and Marlene who will talk in a moment Really highlight. I think that the importance of those collaborative relationships Yeah, and if I could say just one more thing about that collaborative relationship play my way as a collaboration And if there's one lesson that isn't captured in this this research. It's that Having our licensees having casinos own own these types of tools to support positive play is is a key ingredient to a successful recipe and enrolling rolling that out MGM is embodying that right now and And and we believe that will absolutely be the case with encore Boston Harbor and in PPC is embodied that over the past five years Excellent excellent Karen anything you want to add your team works closely with mark all around on these efforts No, I'm just so grateful that we have not only mark leading the charge here But you know the team of the council Marlene and Chelsea to do this work. So thank you to them Yeah, great. Okay mark All right, so Next and I think a great segue to our next our next item We have a report from Chelsea Turner director of responsible gaming and Marlene Warner executive director of the mass council on gaming and health to Give us an update on how things are going with game sense program. So I'm just going to turn it right over to to the two of you Good morning Good morning Chelsea. Good morning morning Thank you so much for thank you mark and thank you so much commissioners for having us today We love the opportunity to come in and share a little bit about what we're doing. So let me share my screen and Can can you all see that we can all right terrific? So Just before we begin. I just want to emphasize that this is really a reflection on our second quarter So while we will touch a little bit on key game and play my way because we can't help ourselves When we're talking about the numbers, we're going to really be talking about October November and December and then when we come back to give our Third quarter presentation. We'll be talking about January February and March So today I'm going to start by talking a little bit about the numbers what they mean and you know, where we're at how we're doing Keeping in mind that the numbers don't tell the whole story. It's just part of the story We'll give a little bit about a personnel update we have some new game sense advisors on our staff as well as a new senior game sense advisor We're not going to talk too much about magic moments today. We'll Incorporate that them in a couple of sections of the report We want to save that really for our next presentation when we can bring some of our game sense advisors because they tell those stories far better than we do We'll talk about some of that different activities. We've been doing at the centers A little bit about veterans because we did quite a bit on around veterans and veterans day Some of the trainings we've been doing of course our champion awards communications and pgm So before I show you the little charts. I just wanted to speak very generally about the numbers what I think is really most important is Looking at the demonstrations and exchanges. So those are longer conversations more intensive interactions that our staff are having with casino guests and As I've since I've been here. One of the things I'm trying to look at is not just quarter to quarter but year over year. I think it's a better reflection of how we're doing Because in the gaming gaming industry, things are very cyclical. So looking at January over January is better than looking at January to October. It's totally two different things in some ways in terms of both traffic at the casinos and even the way that we staff. So So the good news is that our interaction numbers are up. Generally speaking across all of our properties. And we're really, really happy about that. The second thing that I've been watching carefully is the VSEs, which are also up significantly year over year. Now that's not necessarily because there's more people that have problem gambling. I think a lot of it actually has to do, I will say, with our communications efforts. And implementing sort of new tools to make VSEs easier for people. So we now do remote VSEs and we do them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. So somebody can do a VSE from their home if they want to, from California if they want to. And then we also have live chat on our website on the game sense websites and live chat is a way to communicate with somebody over the over the internet and they get a live game sense advisor who respond literally within three minutes. And we've had VSEs generated through live chat, which is we just started tracking that but it's pretty impressive. So we're watching that. There's slightly more, some of this stuff is probably familiar to some of you and some of it might not be, but there's tends to be more women that engage with us at the game sense centers for whatever reason, at least a little bit more at particularly PPC and MGM. And then it's a little bit more even at EVH. Not really sure why that is, but we watch that anyways. And then EVH in terms of the patrons themselves tends to be a little bit younger of a crowd, whereas PPC is the oldest. And so we monitor that as well and try to engage, you know, making sure that we're engaging with guests where wherever they're at, whether they're they're elderly or they're younger so trying to find ways to connect with them in their own space. And then the vast majority of interactions and exchanges take place between noon and 10 really between noon and five. You know, we've tried a lot of different techniques over the years to try to get more activity in the later hours that's harder. I think people are just, you know, if they're there at 10 o'clock at night they don't necessarily want to have a conversation about setting a budget, but for whatever reason between noon and five is really popular, followed by probably five to 10 followed by nine to 12. And then play my way enrollments are turning down a little bit but there's at PPC we think that's partly because there's a lot more regulars at PPC so we reaching a little bit more of a saturation place but that's a good thing. And interestingly, the last couple months it's now starting to pick up again so it's something we're watching maybe with all the new materials we've been developing for play my way at for MGM and we're using them at PPC to that will help to invigorate some interest. So this is on core and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this but I wanted you all to have the numbers that's one thing to talk about them and some other thing to see them so again if you look at the demonstration exchanges the green shows that we are up. The red shows that we're a little bit down but overall if you add them together, you can see that we're we're trending in the right direction and then again if you look at the VSE is same thing up month over month. Some GM same thing here really strong numbers at MGM. They are all the actually all the staff and all the properties are doing a really really good job of trying to to keep their numbers strong and high. Sorry about that. And then this is plain rich park again really solid numbers. So across the board, really pleased to see to see us moving this direction. You know, next quarter will be a little bit more apples to apples because in October November November in December of 2020, there was limited hours. So without getting too much into it because we'll share our second or third quarter report next time. We're still going in the right direction, even with the apples to apples comparison of, you know, January being open 24 hours last year and open 24 hours this year and so forth so so all signs are good. Personnel update so here's some new members of our team or some members that have been promoted so the first person I just wanted to mention is Ken Averill. He has been promoted to senior game sense advisor at language park casino. He has over 20, I think he now has 27 years of experience in the gaming industry if you count his experience in game sense. He's worked in, you know, at least a half a dozen casinos and in Vegas. And he has been in supervisory positions before. Both in table games and operations and he even oversaw a sports book. So one of the great things about Ken is if sports betting is authorized he's going to be a tremendous asset to our team. We also have five new game sense advisors with this said I should say that the total number of our staff has remained flat so people you know there's turnover and people move on. Ellen and Vivian joined us in the spring. Ellen has many years of table games experience in particular from particularly in Connecticut casinos toward for a little while for the gaming commission as a gaming agent. And is back. She just loves being on the gaming floor and kind of missed that so we are thrilled to have her. She's at MGM she also speaks just a little bit of Spanish she would not say she's fluent. But she can get by sometimes with a conversation and that's helpful particularly in the western mass area. Vivian also joined us in the spring. She most recently came from a casino believe it or not and set side pan and had been out there for many years she has some amazing stories if you could ever get the chance to talk to her about all the things she did with particularly weather in the shutdowns that they had at casinos, but she is fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin. She's a people person. She has some of the highest numbers when it comes interactions and she's only been with us since the spring. Mark is one of our newest mark and Jason joined us in the fall. Mark is at PPC he is fluent. I don't know why I said MGM that's a typo he's at PPC but he is fluent in Portuguese. He has a bachelor's degree from UMass. He worked at the travelers for quite a while and has done a lot of trainings. So we think he's going to be a really nice asset. And then Jason, he has a bachelor's from Johnson and Wales he actually has a culinary arts background and work in butler services for many many years, lots of customer service experience very dynamic and outgoing. And he's doing one of our overnight chefs. We have two people that do the overnight chef.ebh and he also joined us in the fall and then our most recent hire is a woman named Ashley. She has been actually working in customer service in the cage area at PPC for four or five years. The thing I'll say about her she knows how to do an interview we do a pretty intensive interview process, three rounds of interviews and she knocked it out of the park every time so she does her research she's excited and enthusiastic. And that's just the kind of energy we need at PPC so it's a little bit about our newer staff. We hope to be able to introduce you in person. We would normally have some of our game sense advisors join us for the presentation will certainly do that for the next quarter report but just because of P game and play my way rolling out. We're, we're a little stretched then right now, but happy about that. It's a good busy. All right, so some of the newer activities that we did last quarter. We did activities on Halloween, breast cancer awareness. We did a full activity thing on different sports upsets veterans day Thanksgiving, the holidays, toys for tots. We each of the three casinos we partnered with the casinos on collecting toys and promoting collecting toys in those regions. That was a lot of fun. And then we've done a lot on game sense and just RG trivia in general. And I'll say about the act that we continue to do is we try to keep the information fresh current and relevant. So that there's always something new when you're walking by the game sense center. Additionally, we learned through the pandemic, how to use technology a little bit better so you know here you can see in the picture. Doing one of our holiday quizzes on the monitor from a distance and one is kind of just more visually appealing and exciting. We've also learned how to do hyperlinks make things more dynamic. So it's been a lot of fun just sort of refreshing our library of activities and that that we continue to do on an ongoing basis. This is just a sample of one of the quizzes I always like to throw something fun in here for you all. So this is just one question from our sports upset quiz. Asking which female professional tennis player upset Bobby Riggs in the battle of the sexes. Most of you guys probably know the answer. As Billy Jean King and the while you might know the answer what you might not know is that there was actually a lot of sports betting on that and even Chris Everett predicted that Martin that Bobby Riggs. Bobby Riggs would win and that Billy Jean King would lose so you know the point here is just to you know no matter what the bookmakers predict as you see this the game sense tip, or how good the odds may seem only with money that you can or to lose keep it fun, you know keep gambling as a form of entertainment and that as a way to make money so we're trying to do things every now and again on sports just again trying to educate everybody on on sports betting since we know that there's already sports betting areas inside the casinos that are open. And while we don't have necessarily betting yet in Massachusetts. It's probably a matter of when and not just if so try to have some fun and keep things fun. This time I'm going to turn it over to Marlene to talk a little bit about our efforts on veterans and some other exciting news to share. And good morning everyone I appreciate the opportunity to be here. And we have. We have the great pleasure of being here but I know you would much prefer seeing the game sense advisors, they are really active and engaged out there with PGM have a very robust schedule that we'll talk to you about in a few moments so, so bear with us. So one of the things that we know is that here in the Commonwealth veterans are a priority for a lot of good reasons but, in particular as it relates to them having elevated risk for gambling problems. So the council has spent a lot of time through the game sense program really trying to figure out how can we get the message out in an effective way. One of the ways that that has happened is that we've had a great partnership with the mass access public access television. And so in September, collaborating with the Bedford VA. And you can see here Odessa and Charlie or Dilly who has left the councils now at PPC, but they sit down and and with Charlie being a veteran himself talked about gambling and military service and and what are some of the risks involved in that. That's a show that now is being broadcast all across the Commonwealth on public access. It's a nice way for us to get this message out to a lot of different folks. Following up on that, in October we were able to have an opportunity for for our senior GSA Lynn, and then as well as Charlie to go out and talk to the Springfield Vietnamese Cultural Association and do some work around the South Vietnamese veterans and doing a table event and talking to folks there. In addition, you'll see for November, obviously, around Veterans Day, we were able to do some work with the Council on Aging and Walpole, and run a number of quizzes at the three sites so there's been a number of magic moments that, you know, in this team we're here they go over with you but I think one of the things that we identify is that knowing that they're elevated risk we want to be able to provide education but also provide outreach. Next slide please. So one of the things our team does best and, you know, Chelsea talked about our robust, you know, interview process is we really make sure we have strong trainers on our team. We've been spending a lot of time, you know, and you all are familiar with our three-legged stool in terms of what makes the game sense program work. One of the really important legs is staff. Having the casino staff be well informed and be able to refer appropriately and adequately. So we spent a lot of time making sure that there's robust training and education provided to employees. The ABH who's done the most, I'd say the most trainings because there's been by far the most hiring going on there. In just October, November, December, there were 13 sessions done and new hire orientations that led to 358 employees getting the game sense training. What we love about that is that we've really engaged folks. You can see in this picture that's a Gardo. Josh on our team does a lot of those trainings, but really any of our team members are out there doing those trainings and being able to connect with our staff and making sure that they have the information and then be able to follow up from that and be able to connect with those staff later on. So I'd say there's these one-off trainings, but there's also the opportunity to connect later and re-up that information. Similarly, those same type of trainings are happening at PPC. AID have happened in that second quarter and NGM has been doing them a little bit differently. We've been doing them online, but we are certainly in regular conversation with their team members and hoping that we can reintroduce game sense into their new hire orientation trainings. Next slide. So this is one of the things that we have had as a real priority from the beginning with game sense mental health first aid trainings. It's a curriculum that is national, maybe even international training and curriculum that at first we had Amy doing. And when we put a call out to our team to see if there was any other interest in other people becoming trained, we were so pleased that Aisha and Israel stepped up. We have Aisha who's achieved her certification first around mental health first aid trainer. And what that means for our team and for the casino teams and for the gaming commission teams is that we have a trainer who can come in and now train others. What does good mental health look like? What are some of the concerns that we have? There's a pre-test and a post-test in terms of making sure folks actually achieve some learned information over that time period. We have been spending a lot of time making sure that our team is well prepared to have these type of conversations out on the floor. So we will be reporting more out on that in the coming months. Next slide. So I am going to say to you that I'm not going to do great justice to this again, like there are game sense team who typically go over this, but what I can tell you is that we have had, you know, we've been very impressed. Again, I talked about the three legged stool. The game sense team has spent a lot of time talking to staff, but there's a lot of staff who've really embraced the game sense spirit. And so we just wanted to call out today that there are these outstanding individuals at each of the casinos who've gone above and beyond, whether that be referring customers on a regular basis, whether that be, you know, speaking up within an internal situation about game sense, whether that be just stopping by and wanting to learn more for themselves. I think it takes a village to make sure game sense works and these individuals really have, again, gone above and beyond. So I apologize ahead of time if I've butchered anyone's names, but let me run through these just so they can get their name set in a public way and recognized. So EBH, Jing Apollo for table games, Wilson, Flurenville for slots, Alex Taylor from the beverage department. So congratulations to those three individuals from MGM Jasmine colon from security Elena Ramos from food and beverage and Aldo Hernandez from security. Thank you to the MGM team. And the stars at PPC are Jaleel Evans Carvalho from food and beverage, Denise McGovern from slots and Daniel Giampa from player services. So again, thank you to all of those champions at those three sites. Next slide. So one of the things that helps us and again when you think about three legged stool one of the things we're trying to do is reduce harm out in the community is making sure that we are getting our message out from the casinos out into the public. The press obviously are quite helpful to us around that. Phil Sherwood, who's on vacation this week what why he also couldn't join us today, but he has worked really hand in glove with MGC and through all the transitions. We're so pleased to have Tom and David on your team now to work with, but you know made sure that a lot of messages went out so Statehouse news service, more than 1000 asked to be banned from casinos was the headline. This was around the VSE really talking about remote VSE and talking about hitting that 1000 mark. I think that's been really vital to alerting more people to our services and making sure that they know how to reach out. So we're really thrilled and the Sun Chronicle also picked up that story, as well as WBZ and Channel seven channel 22. So we've been pleased that across many media platforms. The sense and the MGC efforts are really being seen and and and shown, you know having their light shown on them. Next slide please. We've come and talk to you about geofencing live chat it's almost a topic I can't talk enough about because it's been so wildly successful. We have had great great success with making sure that we have targeted digital ads that are going to people that we can really pinpoint that have been in the casino or are currently in the casino, and making sure that we get messages that drive them to some action. So it's you know perfect time we're talking about this as it's Pgam its awareness and action. I think that's one of the things we're trying to do exactly it right we're trying to draw people's awareness to this issue and move them to some action. So these two ads, we're trying to let folks know that there are game supervisors available on 24 seven to you can either go see them at the centers or you can chat with them online. And this is really working and I'm just going to check my notes here that Phil, Phil Sherwood gave me, but we know that in the last six months we had over 200,000 views of ads. And that's for very short money, which is also very remarkable. So really spending the time to use the sophisticated algorithms to get to the right people at the right time. Something that Sherwood has done quite well. Next slide. One of the fantastic things is that you will see when we have run ads that we've also had tremendous impact in terms of live chat. You know I think there's great correlation and every time we run an ad that it's drawing people to to contact us. The other interesting thing is that then we also have great conversion from both people calling our seagull line or people chatting and it's primarily people live chatting to people then deciding to move forward with a VSE. So they make that contact, they typically are not in the casino though sometimes they are, and they're able to then make that decision to either do a remote VSE or walk into the game since center if they are present there, and do voluntary self exclusion. So we're so pleased with that connection. Next slide. The other thing that live chat allows us to do is is have conversations that maybe someone's not comfortable having in in in person so as you can see in this example one, Sean, who is based at MGM is having a conversation with someone. And sometimes folks want to just not only reach out because they have a concern. They also want to just, you know, do a little self affirmation or self isolation in terms of wanting to say hey I've worked on this issue I decided it was a good issue and to stop or to slow down. And you can see here I decided was my best interest if I don't return to gambling I've not gambled or smoke since August 24 of 2021. And then Sean's able to reinforce that. That's a great decision I'm so happy for you nice job taking these next steps. Similarly, people who again are asking about how do they take those next steps maybe they're not at the place where example one that individual was but example to they're wanting to know, how do I exclude myself. I'm feeling really struggle, I'm really struggling, they're kind of, you know the cycle addiction they're in that desperation phase and they're ready to take some action. So, right away immediate responses on Chris, I'm here to help you with that, and just making them feel reassured and that they've got a partner in this. So, you've heard about Pgam you know it's underway, I guess we want to just say that there is a tremendous amount going on and we really couldn't do it without our partners. And then at Plain Ridge Park Casino MGM spring fan, and at Encore Boston Harbor, we have great plans to be connecting with the staff, and we've had management be able to secure us spaces in the back of the house. Secure us with videos, give us the opportunity to collaborate in terms of having big prizes for staff that are engaging in quizzes and activities. We're so pleased about that. I think the other thing that I'll say is that all of these folks have worked with, feel sure what on our team and with the MGC team around making sure that we are supporting and backing one another up in social media so we hope to have a really great story to talk to you about as it relates to Pgam. Chelsea anything else you want to add in here as it relates to Pgam. You know just wanted to echo the thanks to the big shout out to the Gaming Commission for all their help, of course, and then the three properties for all their donations of gift cards and for both patron facing and back of the house facing lots of, lots of creative things. I guess if I could just do a couple quick shout outs, you know at PPC they're doing a calendar tip of the day again they're doing a scavenger hunt that Game Sense is part of on St. Patrick's Day. They really ramp up the quizzes there. At Encore they, you know, they were, they put all of our, each week there's a different quiz for patrons and they, they are advertising that quiz to patrons in the weekly flyer that they send out to their staff. And I can tell you that right now our numbers in terms of folks taking the quizzes is already higher in terms of comparing it to last year, the trend is really, really good so we're doing something right we made the quizzes a little bit shorter, we put table tents up in the cafeterias, you know thanks with the, with the help of the casinos. So it's just been a really, really nice effort, you know at MGM we're really focused more on play my way right now. And it's so excited to roll that out at the end of the month but let's go to the next slide. Sorry. Oh, well this is a, so this is, I'll just take this one Marlene so this is just like a sampling of all the different things that we're doing. So it's essentially the same property or property. And even though the calendars only show a part of the week we do do do things every single day during the month of March so it's just how I could fit the fit them on the screen to be honest but we're doing a lot of training on remote BSE we're doing pre shift meetings. We have coordinated with the marketing departments at all three properties on both digital signage inside the casinos front of the house and back of the house as well as social media efforts thanks to, you know Sherwood and the staff at each of the properties. You know the gaming commission took the lead on the proclamation and the press releases. And again I won't go into everything but you can see there's just a lot going on. And there's a lot going on with the slide on purpose because it's very reflective and symbolic of what we're doing. Go ahead Marlene. So the only other thing we want to kind of say about this is that, you know, researched and Mark said it and I, you know, I don't know how honestly we could run the game sense program without the research agenda and you know the legislature had great foresight in in terms of making sure that there was a research piece to this as well as the the gaming commission having the ability to have an onsite center. But these three items come out of really important research that has happened, and making sure that we know what we're talking about when we're on the floor right so we're just not make you know I know you all know I hope the public realizes how much time and effort has gone into making sure that we are advocating for and really expressing positive play elements to the public and again we've talked about this before but we know one of the things about testing positive play in here in Massachusetts is that we still have a ways to go to make sure that people are pre committing to to their gambling time and money spent, as well as making sure that they have strong gambling literacy. And again game sense is all about both those elements so that's a huge piece in terms of this. The lower risk gambling guidelines, I think have been introduced to you before and re clear worked hard on those in Canada, but making sure that we are, you know, helping the public understand helping patrons to really understand what that looks like, if you're only going to gamble four times a month, how do you kind of budget for that in your plans, making sure that you're not doing more than two types of gambling that includes two types of table games. And making sure you're not spending more than 1% of your household income on a monthly basis. While those sound like probably pretty easy things for some people to conceive of, it's sometimes hard to help people break that down so that's one of the things that we're really using when we're talking to patrons, and then obviously stigma and magic are at the base of foundation of everything we're doing. Next slide. I wouldn't be more excited about my way as I think you all are spent a long time coming. We're really psyched for it. I think it's going to again connect back to the pre commitment piece with positive play among other things. What the Council is doing is making sure that MGM is ready. And I think that we are, you know, we have the benefit of having done this at PPC. And we're trying to work really hard with in partnership and collaboration in cooperation with MGM to make sure that their staff are ready. And I think that questions happen when when this is first launched and we want to make sure folks are ready to answer those questions to have those sometimes really personal conversations with people around it being a budgeting tool but how they assess what is the right budget for themselves. We're also obviously here to make sure that the awareness is there whether that be through geofencing and targeting, creating, you know, giveaways and making sure people have the right information. We're also going to talk about the research project that's happening around this so I know Mark's going to talk more about play with my way down the road. In this meeting, but I think that we are really psyched about play my way coming in this being a really effective tool to get us that much further to patrons having the right information in the right mindset when they're gambling. So with that, I am going to say thank you for your time and your energy and, again, happy problem the only one this month and we'll take any questions if you have any commissioners. Excellent presentation. We do miss hearing from the game sense advisors but Chelsea and and Marlene it was very generous presentation today and of course so professional thank you and and pass along. We do honor in this month we honor everything that the advisors are doing commissioners commissioner Cameron yes. You know this is always the feel good right this presentation every time we do it. I'm smiling, and there was so much positive information here I love the affirmations of people, you know, talking about what they've been able to accomplish and the game sense advisor jumping in and really encouraging them. The experience of your new game sense advisors amazing. You know what you're able to do with mental health and language and just the different skill sets is really amazing right. And of course you all speak about the collaboration. So that was hard at the beginning right we weren't sure if they would get on board but, but they all did. And now this is an example of the second one coming online. And it looks interesting this I noticed is a few things different than the plane rich so I think it's your team is always evolving always. This work pretty well but we can do it a little better. So, you know, and just all the events you do. I just, you know, just really, really, really impressed and so proud of the work that all of you do, and you can hear it and all of your voices starts with Mark right you so passionate talk about this. And then, and then we get it to you know Marlene Chelsea boom, we always hear it from the game sense advisors but it was really nice that you, you went through their credentials and not just a face, how they really add value so I'm just really, really continue to be impressed and want to thank all of you for the work you do and I know there's nothing like this anywhere else I just I know that. So, Massachusetts is fortunate. And the collaboration with the licensees is just tremendous so just continue to keep up the good work. Okay, thank you very, very much. Thank you Commissioner. Commissioner Brian Commissioner Hill thank you Commissioner Cameron. And of course I know that this is a little bit of a bittersweet presentation because it is really our favorite and Commissioner Cameron will be watching from a different perspective next month, or our next quarter I should say right, Gail. And in Marlene and Chelsea, if you have any words, please share to. Yeah, I will I was just going to say it actually was occurring to me I can tear up thinking about it. Commissioner Cameron has been such a supporter of ours from day one, open to it, you know interested in it has has just been fantastic and and always, you know always has this positivity to share at our reports but I'd say, whenever we had a question. To exactly figure out how to get, get around an issue or, or address an issue. She was there with a solution and always just really a calm demeanor really relaxed and able to tackle things head on and. Yes, it's been, you know, we are so pleased with our new commissioners but it has been very, very sad to be saying goodbye to some of the originals in fact I saw it. Now, Cannabis Commissioner Stevens yesterday and I was saying to him I'm going to miss senior game set socks so in the same way, whenever we did a game sense update in the same similar fashion. Gail, we really will miss you and we wish you all the best as you leave but you've made quite an impression and we want to thank you so much for that. Thank you for the kind words I actually you're the one that has made the impression I'm just, I get to be the, you know, just cheering you on, very proud of the work and I will miss all of you but I know the work will continue. A great example of how it will and how it's evolving so it just tremendous, all of you. Big thanks. Thank you. Commissioner Hill. I think Commissioner O'Brien wanted to say something first. Okay, Commissioner O'Brien. I didn't want to, I actually don't want to say anything now I'd like to just let the conversation that Marlon and Gail had just rest other than to say that I agree with the sentiments expressed by both of them. Commissioner Hill. Another great presentation I love listening to these. The chair and I have been touring a couple of the facilities over the last couple of months and we get to meet your staff. And they're so energetic every time we see him and they have such great information that they give us when we go and see them. But I just want to touch upon one issue that you did bring up in your presentation, which is dealing with our veterans. You know, the issues that they face when they're coming back from conflict and I'm still in contact with a lot of my veteran service officers that I dealt with for years and I'm still hearing the stories of some of the veterans who are coming back and what they're going through. I would just congratulate you on reaching out, you know, to that community and being able to go on TV and get the word out that there's help for them and the outreach that you're doing is just fabulous and I can't wait to see what you have to say in the next quarterly report when it comes to our veterans because they certainly are in need of some assistance and any way they can get it is going to be a good thing. I just want to give a quick shout out and congratulations to our champion awardees. They sound like they were awesome. So, as one commissioner I want to just give them a big shout out of a thank you and a great job to them, and to you as well. Thank you. Yeah, and we also are excited to share more about the work that we're doing with veterans I think we've got great infrastructure here in the Commonwealth and you know, we are happy to continue to work with the VSOs as well as the secretary and and proceed on with that so thank you for that. Can I follow up with that please. Did I understand correctly that the video is being shown is there a link that we could share to, or is that something that's really in your. No, I think I think don't 100% hold me to this but I think we should be able to get it to you with no problem, because I know that I'd like to share it. Commissioner Hill you might have some folks who'd be interested in my my other fellow commissioners so to the extent we can help on spreading that that would be great and just really want to watch it. In a real accessible way. The other thing it sounds as though Mr Sherwood is really using technology. And I would say that, you know, when we talk about improvements a year ago or two years ago, I know you had been thinking about using it and when I, if I heard correctly was 200,000 hits, which is, it's something that's remarkable to me and you know I don't know demonstrating my age but like that for very, I mean I'm talking $250 to $300. We can put and we can do an ad campaign that reaches all these people in and the fact that it's so specifically targeted and it's not unlike you go into a restaurant or you go into a shop or you go and then all of a sudden you're getting ads for these things that you were around. It's the same idea it's just we're using it we're using it for good right we're selling help, instead of products and so. Yeah, I think it's remarkable what he's been able to do to really get the message out to the right people and really pinpoint it. I think that you presented, I don't think I'm making it up in my imagination you presented this as something that he planned to create. And today you're reporting how that it was implemented and how effective. So great work. Good use of technology. I think when it was a great opportunity to give tribute to Commissioner Cameron today. This is, as she noted always a special special report. I'm so glad we postponed it for this month. It's a great kick off the Pgam and it really allowed us the opportunity to enjoy and not feel rushed. So thank you again from last month where we had to roll it over into this, this month so very appreciative it's allowed us to enjoy it without the pressure of time. Mark. So what else to say I think they do such amazing work our game sense advisors game sense team on so many levels, you know, we can talk about there's no single single solution there's no panacea here. The idea that I think that was on on display today just how many different levels that our game sense advisors are working. It was, you talked about, but I think is really important is mental health first aid. Mental health first aid is specifically developed for lay people, not mental health clinicians, not social workers but, but for people that interact with the public to give them enough information to be able to recognize and help and get people to the right to the right resources. And that's that's us saying we're talking about player health we're not talking about problem gambling we're not even it's not just responsible game it's not problem gambling we're talking about the health of the players at our casinos and when needed, they can they can draw upon that knowledge and skill set. And that that ties into the statutory language. Right. I mean, you know when you, when you see, right. This is very interesting and again a tribute. Look at former representative hell that mental health language was inserted and to see that it's being implemented this this way. Thanks Mark for reminding us I know, Commissioner Cameron remarked on it but I have to tell you I'm not familiar with that. That kind of training at all so I don't know if we can follow up with that at some point and learn a little bit more about you know really what what is offered it's very. It's a nationally recognized evidence based best practice that is has been widely rolled out and a number of settings around, at least around the US but I've been really impressed with it for years now. And the idea that we're rolling it out with our game sense advisors and getting them, you know, to be trained trained trainers is so is so amazing. Anybody want to follow up on that because that is that is really a new, new development for us. So maybe my name we can have a little bit of our own mini training as a, as a mission. Okay, absolutely. Okay, excellent. I just wanted to just say thanks and congratulations and best wishes to Commissioner Cameron, but thanks to all the commissioners and and mark and and long Marie Claire. All your comments. We take them back and we share them with our staff and it means a lot to them to have your support. They're proud of what they do, but they know they get to do it because of everything that you've done so. When you guys stop by you make their day, when you, when they get to come and present before you and share some of their stories. It means a lot to them. And I just want you to know that we really, really appreciate it so thanks. Thank you. So mark, Marlene and Chelsea, as always thank you so great to see you I wish it were in real life still getting closer. This is conclude your full report mark. It doesn't will be back with you a little bit later to give you an update on. Okay, so. So my watch just did something weird, but I have 1124 we're just a little bit ahead of crystals very well calculated schedule. Should we take a break before we turn to item number five and I think you've segmented it really nicely crystal so we take a break now do we take our shorter break now or longer break. Commissioner Brian, Commissioner Hill, Commissioner Cameron. Okay with a shorter break. I am to the little early for lunch. Okay so we get a snack and and have a short break so why don't we do that will put us back to a little bit ahead of schedule crystal so what if I think all of our guests for the next presentation are available. Todd and on the red a. So why don't we reconvene at 1135 that sound right 10 minutes or do you want 15. 1140 1135 as minutes, we look as minutes are going by as we calculate how many minutes we need. We get to tell say, why would you say 1140. 1140 it is Dave thank you for putting up our screen I will not leave the meeting. Make sure to push the right button. Thank you everyone. Hi crystal. I was going to say are you still on. I am in the long list. Well I hear you. So we're good. Okay, great. Yeah, well double check my, I think my videos are usually fine so about all. So, there's my video. Let's see. I see you. All right. Great. I think I'm good. Okay. Thanks for all your help. No problem. Apologize for Jed's bow tie. I just. We see and hear you too. Just want to apologize for his bow tie. Don't hold that against us. We don't discriminate against a tire here. We like his bow tie. There you go. Thank you. Official approval. Yeah. That's the difference. I wouldn't wear it if I couldn't tie it. You still on. Okay. Dave, if you can hear me, we can take down the screen now. We're getting folks back. Please. Thank you. All good. Oh, good. Thank you so much. Good. We'll do it. Mr. Roll call. Commissioner Cameron. I'm here. Commissioner O'Brien. I am here. In commissioner. So we're just reconvening after a short break. And we're moving on to item number five on our agenda. Director Lilios. And I guess. Even enforcement council. Heather hall will be joining you. Thank you. That's right. Hi. Good morning, chair. Good morning commissioners. And I'm actually going to turn it right over to. To Heather. She's been. Working with the IB investigation. So on this part of the retransaction for the spring field property. She's been in communication with the licensee and representatives from beachy and working with general council. Grossman. So Heather. Go ahead and take it away. Thanks, Loretta. Good morning. Madam chair and good morning commissioners. As you know, we are here to discuss the beachy MGM. Retransaction. We have representatives who will each E and MGM. We're here today. And they'll be able to answer any questions that the commissioners may have. They will be providing a description of the transaction. And they will also be seeking the commission's approval. And they will also be seeking the commission's approval. For the trust document that is associated with this transaction. So with respect to the IDB. The IDB currently in the process of investigating the interim suitability of this transaction. And along those lines, I would just like to. Acknowledge some of the contacts that we've had. And the responsiveness and cooperation. Attorney's Elena Kiel. Pat Medamba. John Alvino. Mike Fabius. And I also would like to thank everybody who's here today. We'll be presenting. With that. I'm going to turn it over to Todd. Morning, Todd. Thanks, Heather. Good morning, Madam chair commissioners. Prior to the presentation from the petitioners. And as you can see, they're mostly on the screen. I think there are a few others. On the call as well. I thought it would be helpful to offer a quick overview of the law related to transfers of interest of the sort of being proposed here. Of course, this proposed transfer involves a REIT or real estate investment trust. And it's similar in nature. To the two previous transactions that the commissioners. You'll recall that chapter 23 K expressly allows for transfers of interest and discusses it in a number of areas. The commission has supplemented those statutory provisions with a regulatory framework that outlines a process for the review and approval of transfers of interest. That's in section 116. A point 08 through 10 of our regulations. And in essence, I submit to you that the commission's review process is designed to primarily do two things. One is to ensure that the commission has an opportunity to determine whether the transfer will result in any new qualifiers. And if so, to make sure that they submit to our, RFA one suitability process. Such that an appropriate investigation can be conducted. And if so, I would encourage you to do that. And the second thing that the process is designed to do is to determine whether the transfer will result in any change of control over the gaming license. Such that the quality of the operation or any license conditions, including things like the host and surrounding community. Agreements or other commitments will be affected in any way. Where the transaction. Here. Hold on one second. Before you involves a read. It's unlikely that any evidence of any change of control will emerge. But that is an important factor that you'll need to consider ultimately. In weighing. What is before you. The commission is not being called upon today to review this process. And I think that the commission is not being called upon today to review this process. The commission is not being called upon today to review this proposed transaction for interim authorization or final approval. Those requests will come before you on future dates. The matter was brought before you today as Heather mentioned for two specific reasons. The first is just to introduce the parties to you. And to get an overview of the proposed transaction. And that's what the petitioners will do momentarily. And second is for the commission to review the proposed trust instrument for approval. That's the primary focus of our review here today. And I just like to go through a few principles for your consideration in doing that. And to put the review of that trust in context, there are several provisions of the transfer of interest law that are worth highlighting and I'll just touch on them quickly. The law provides that no person shall transfer a gaming license gaming establishment or associated structure without notification to the IEB, which has been done and approval by majority of the commission. The commission shall require anyone with a financial interest in a gaming establishment to be qualified for licensure, i.e. deemed suitable by meeting the well-known criteria set out sections 12 and 16 of chapter 23K. This is important because this is why the transferies are considered qualifiers and not vendors. That question comes up with some frequency. So it's important to make note of that. This transfer is also subject to section 129.01 of our regulations, which looks at whether, as I mentioned, the transfer will result in a change of control over the gaming license. If there will be any such change, the transferie is essentially required to agree to assume all existing obligations of the existing licensee. A change of control is defined in our regulations essentially to mean any interest which directly or indirectly results in a person obtaining greater than 50% ownership, interest in a gaming licensee, or which results in a significant change to the management or operation of the licensee. In the present case, the parties have asserted that neither of those will be true and that there will not be any impact on the control of the gaming license or operation of the gaming establishment. Whenever a person contracts to transfer any property relating to an ongoing gaming establishment, as is being done here, under circumstances which require that the transferie be deemed suitable, the contract shall not specify a closing or settlement date which is earlier than 121 days after the submission of the RFA-1 application. So that is a point of interest that has to be looked at. This provision is intended to allow the IEB and the commission to investigate, at least preliminarily, and rule on the suitability of the transferie. The RFA-1 application, as you'll recall, has to be accompanied by a fully executed and approved trust agreement, and that's what we're here today to take a look at. The trust is a vehicle that's designed to effectuate the clean separation of a transferie that is deemed unsuitable, if that is to happen, and separate them from the interest in the gaming license, or in this case from the gaming establishment in the event that they are deemed unsuitable, if that should happen to become necessary. The necessary elements of a trust are set out in our regulations, it's in 116.10. In this case, I can represent to you that I have reviewed the trust myself, and it appears as though it meets all of the regulatory requirements. I would be happy to run through those with you if that would be helpful, we could do it now or later on once you've heard from the petitioners, but the trust is in the packet, and there are some points you may care to take a look at just to make sure they're in alignment with the regulations. After today's review, I'm sorry Madam Chair, were you... So I just wanted to process, is this the time to go through the trust or will we be doing that later if there are any questions? I just... I think it may be helpful to hear from the petitioners first and we can go through the trust. They may have something to say about it as well, and we can maybe run through any questions you may have. Thanks. So after today, just to kind of tee up where we're going from here, the next step in the process would be to render a decision on the interim authorization of the applicant. If the commission grants interim authorization, you'll recall that the closing or settlement of the deal may occur prior to the final suitability determination being made. This interim authorization process, which is set out in Chapter 23K as well as our regulations, was included in recognition of the fact that a full suitability investigation may understandably take some time to complete, so as not to keep the deal in a holding pattern of sorts. This process is designed to allow the transaction to close with essentially only a preliminary suitability determination and overall assessment being made while the full investigation is being completed. In this case, you'll recall that the commission previously granted interim authorization for the transfer of the subject property from the gaming licensee to MGM growth properties, which is a different one. And I know the petitioners will describe a little bit about the two transactions that are ongoing simultaneously. The commission may at any time after the grant of interim authorization, order all interests that are subject to this transfer to be transferred into the trust. If there is determined that there's reasonable cause to believe that the proposed transferee, in this case, Beachy, the new trust, may be found unsuitable. If a prospective transfer fails or refuses to timely transfer the interest into the trust upon direction from the commission, the transferee shall automatically be deemed unsuitable. They shall be awarded a negative determination of suitability. That's kind of an overview of up to this part of the process and the trust and what have you. I think if, unless you'd like to hear more about it, we can reserve the considerations that will go into your final determination until that's back before you. There are certainly some other provisions to take note of. But for now, that covers the trust, the interim authorization process, and some of the high level considerations. So Madam Chair and commissioners, if you have any questions, of course, happy to field those now. Otherwise, we can turn this over to the petitioners. Commissioners, any questions for Todd at this point? Okay. Everyone's saying no. I have just one question. Maybe Mr. Nozome, Mr. Albanos, you can help me or Mr. Kim, our folks who are in the room, BG and MGM, I don't have their names and it just is a little bit awkward. I'm sorry. If I may, Madam Chair, that was my first order of business to introduce you to. Excellent. Thank you. Then I've asked the right question. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Madam Chair and commissioners, my name is John Elbano. I represent Vici properties, ink and its affiliates in connection with the request for interim authorization that Mr. Grossman was talking about. I first just say thank you for taking the time with us today to address the request we have for approval of the trust instrument. And let me introduce who's here from Vici today. And then Mr. Nozome can introduce his, his clients. We have here today on behalf of Vici, Samantha sex Gallagher, who is the executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of Vici properties. We also have Elena Otero Kyle, who is associate general counsel of Vici properties. We also have Michael Fabius, who is counsel to Vici properties from the ballard spar law firm. We also have present of our proposed successor trustee, Carl Sadasanti, who is known to certainly many people at the commission from the time he served as general counsel to Penn national gaming. We were happy to be able to coax him out of retirement to the commission. We also agreed to assume this position subject to the approval of the commission. Of course, Carl's able to stay with us until one o'clock today, but of course is available afterwards. If there are any further questions and Jed, when we turn it over to you. Thanks, John. Good morning, chair. Good morning members of the commission. I'm going to start with a question for you. The commission is the vice president of the northern governorial, the northern national and MGM growth properties. Part of our team today that you have before us is pat madamba, senior vice president in legal counsel of MGM resorts international. Laura Norton senior vice president in legal counsel, MGM resorts international. And we also have Gus Kim vice president legal counsel of the northeast group, I think I see Mr. Fabio and then Ms. Otero Keele and then is that Pat? It is. Oh, good. Thank you so much. I think last time we did this, it was really hard. Thank you for joining. And then I don't see Carl. Perhaps he's on the phone. I am here, Madam Chair. Oh, there. Hello. Nice to almost see you. It's been a while. Very nice to chat with you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. Commissures. Oh, there we are. Nice to see you, Carl. And welcome back from retirement, I guess. I suspect you've been very busy since we last saw you. Very nice to chat. I've been moderately busy. That sounds perfect. Yeah. Okay. So, Commissures, I think we can, we have everybody on the screen, then we can get started. Thank you. And I see Samantha and Laura. Thank you so much. Who's next? Good morning. I'm Chair Jezstein, members of the commission. Patrick Medamba, Senior Vice President of the Council for MGM Reserves International. In October of last year, you approved the acquisition of the Springfield Real Estate assets by a subsidiary of MGM growth properties. This transaction, I look at it as essentially a sequel to that transaction, but a much larger transaction, because we will be selling to Vici MGM growth properties, which is our publicly traded REIT. It is approximately a $17.2 billion transaction, which includes approximately the assumption of $5.7 billion in debt. It's a stock-for-stock exchange between our public REIT shareholders and the Vici shareholders, and it's a cash purchase of MGM Resorts International's interest in the MGM growth properties string of subsidiaries for about $4.4 billion. It's actually easier in the debt. We provided a deck. That deck is also public. There's nothing confidential in the deck. So if you take a look at the structure chart on page three of the deck, it's much easier to explain the transaction. If you'll recall from October, the REIT family of subsidiaries, it operates to an operating partnership, which is the MGM growth property operating partnership, LP, it's a limited partnership, and the public through MGM growth properties owns indirectly about 58% of that limited partnership, and the remaining 42% is owned by a series of subsidiaries of MGM. Those subsidiaries have limited partnership units, and it's those limited partnership units that will be purchased by Vici for cash for $4.4 billion. The public shareholders hold shares through MGM growth properties, so we'll have a share exchange. The MGM growth property shareholders will be exchanged for Vici shares. So I will be, since I'm a shareholder, a small shareholder, about .000 something percent, I will be a proud Vici shareholder as well when this transaction closes, and we continue to expect that the transaction will close before subject to your approval in the first half of this year. I call this transaction the big slide, and I do that for a reason. On page three, you have an appalled peach, I guess that's a peach shading, it's peachy, is the MGM growth properties, family of subsidiaries, all the way at the bottom is MGM Springfield redevelopment, which became a subsidiary of MGM growth properties last October, and it owns the real estate related assets related to Springfield. I call it the big slide because the transaction, we're simply going to take that chain of subsidiaries that you see in the peach shading there on page three, and we're simply sliding it straight over under the Vici's. So it'll become essentially a new vertical of Vici with all of those entities remaining in place with the exception of MGM growth properties LLC, which is the public traded company, that company will be merged into a subsidiary of Vici to create the new vertical, but beyond MGM growth properties, the remainder of the subsidiaries will continue to exist, which is why I call it the big slide, we're simply moving over a chain that's currently indirectly under MGM resorts international, and we're sliding it under Vici. Thank you Pat, and our thanks to the commission and the staff for the opportunity to appear today. In connection with the closing of the transaction, we anticipate amending and restating the existing masterlies between MGM and MGP, there are certain limited terms that will be amended in connection with this amendment and restatement, and we've set those out on page five of the materials previously provided to the commission. I want to highlight two items in particular that are not changing. The first is the tenant control MGM, as now will continue to control the operations of the property. We've highlighted two provisions of the lease that illustrate this point we think most effectively, but the concept is woven throughout the master lease and will continue to be so as it's amended and restated. The second point that I want to emphasize is the CAFEx requirements. Capital expenditure requirements will remain the same under the amended and restated lease, and we are sure that MGM will continue to meet those obligations and exceed them as the commission had voted. I just want to add that the existing master lease for all practical purposes is staying in place with some minor amendments. That's frankly an easier way to look at it. We're not getting essentially a brand new lease, we're getting a lease that with some minor amendments to adjust for the fact that currently MGM controls its rate and we'll no longer have that control. So really the changes with the exception of a few economics really simply reflect the fact that it's not going to be an insider that controls MGM for properties. That's a really good point Pat, and we do want to emphasize to the commission that the parties to the lease are not changing even following the closing of the merger. Our landlord remains the same. We simply send the check within down the street in Las Vegas from one building to another, we send it to New York City. But beyond the changing, the address for the check, our landlord, the MGM less or LLC remains the same. That's right. So although the parties to the lease aren't changing, of course, as Pat outlined, the ultimate ownership of the MGM corporate structure will be changing. It will be sitting with V2 properties, a publicly traded rate post closing. I wanted to take a few moments at this point with commission's permission to introduce V2 properties as an entity. V2 properties is a triple net rate that owns a portfolio of market leaning, hospitality, gaming and entertainment destinations. And we act as passive landlord to various gaming operators. On page six of our presentation, we've set out some of the important data we feel is illustrative of our success and formation. We are and will continue to be a triple net real estate investment trust. A real estate investment trust for those who may not be aware is a type of corporate entity that makes a specific tax election with the IRS and owns income producing real estate and receiving a beneficial tax treatment in exchange, providing by certain restrictions, most applicable here, limitations on operations. We do really want to emphasize the consistent with our obligations to our stacked tax structure, as well as our obligations to our other licenses in our other jurisdictions. We will continue to be a passive landowner here with our tenant being responsible for all operations, including payment of all expenses relating to the property. Our next slide, page seven, highlights the jurisdictions in which we currently own property, which, again, is on a passive basis. And this is pro forma for the proposed closing of the acquisition of MGP. At this point, I'd like to offer the commissioners an opportunity to ask any questions regarding the two properties. But if there are no questions, I would like to turn it over to John Alvino for a summary of the trust. Hi, commissioners. Commissioner Brian, I just had one question. I'm looking at the letter from Attorney Albano, and I'm looking at your list of properties. I'm just looking for clarity on the pen properties that you own, that PPC is not one of them. I take it from the list that I'm looking at, correct? Yes, Commissioner, I'm very pleased to confirm that to you. Okay. And I guess a broader question I have for you, and maybe Todd, if you wanted to chime in or Attorney Albano, is there any concern or risk in terms of you having interest in multiple licensees in terms of being the landlord for multiple licensees and pastures? I defer to General Counsel Grossman if he has additional information to add, but we do not have concerns on that point. Todd? If that were to occur, we would certainly have to look at that. At the moment, it doesn't strike me as an issue, but it could become one if they were to attempt to acquire PPC for example. Right. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Hiller, Commissioner Cameron questions. Thank you. Mr. Albano. Good morning. So let me address what's in slide eight. It summarizes the key provisions of the proposed trust. This is an amendment to the trust that the commission approved back in 2021. So the idea here was to keep almost everything as is and only change what was necessary to reflect the fact that the transaction is approved. Vici would have acquired the entity identified as the beneficiary of the trust. M.G.P. Lessor. So the key provisions of the trust remain the same and Mr. Grossman sort of already has referenced them. The provisions about transferring in and out of the trust. As we mentioned, the amount of traffic that the trust has to provide for the trust as this required. The truck, the trust has to contain those provisions under the regulations. And. As with the trust's original trust approved last year, the amended trust provides. That in what we respectively say, suitability determination, that property goes back to a blue tarp or it's designee, just as in the original trust, so that the process in place ensures continuity of gaming operations and ownership by a suitable qualifier. So those provisions are all the same. If there are both Mr. Fabius and I are happy to answer any more specific questions you have about the trust, but that's really the concept we tried to and did, keep what was there and alternate only to reflect the fact that this transaction was happening, but the material terms all stayed the same. So on the trust document, I had, I hope just a minor question. I don't know if other commissioners have one. I guess we didn't really see a red line version. And honestly, I didn't pull back the last trust agreement to do that myself, but in terms of section five A, because of course I looked at where the commission is noted. I just wanna see if there's a little bit of clarity that could be offered. At the very end of the set of that clause, if you were to read it out loud, Mr. Abano are all the way through, provided that the trustee shall not sell transfer or otherwise dispose of the property prior to a final suitability determination by the commission without the prior approval of the commission. I'm wondering if there's a word missing there. Wait, it can't be sold prior. Is it and without, and it can't be sold without the prior approval. So it's two steps you're saying that we have. Does there need to be an and in between? I think what it's saying there, Madam Chair, so they can't do anything with it prior to a final suitability determination unless there was prior approval of the commission. That's the way I read it anyway. And don't we have to have a, do we have to have an affirmative determination of suitability? So if you think what they're trying to, what we're trying to get at there is once that property is in the trust. Yeah. It can't do anything with it unless you tell the trustee to. That's really what we're trying to get at. We'll take a harder, you could take another look at that. I believe it's the, I don't have a red line either, but I've got the original trust here. I guess, yeah. I guess what I'm just wondering, I want to make clear that we understand what you're going to expect of us. And Commissioner O'Brien, I don't know if I'm just missing it, but do you, or Commissioner Hill or Commissioner Cameron, but it is powering trustee. I think we understand the concept. I just wanted to make sure that the trust language was right. Madam Chair, this is attorney Fabius if it is helpful. That proviso in the middle of paragraph five is the intention is that if the springing trust is in this unlikely event that the real estate sits in this trust for pending final resolution, that the real estate basically stays there until directed by the commission to do something with that real estate. As written, the trustee has full authority to act as the owner of the real estate, which in the absence of a restriction would imply the authority to sell the real estate, which would not serve the function of the trust because that real estate, at the end of the resolution of the suitability issue, that real estate should land with either Vici or with Bluetar depending on the resolution of the suitability issues. Our intention was to preserve the function of the trust by limiting the attorney's authority to do something else with the trust, obviously subject to any approval of the commission to do what you'd be appropriate. I think that's a really clear summary of what we understood from, luckily we did this kind of recently, so we're well versed in it. I guess I just wondered about that language. Shall not sell, transfer, otherwise dispose the property. We know that those are Carl's marching orders. Prior to a final, do we actually have to make an affirmative suitability determination, Heather, or do we only have to come, do they have to come back to us if there's a question about suitability? Thank you, Chair. The first step of the process is to make an interim suitability determination. That is what we are currently investigating. Once that has been determined, assuming the commission does make a finding, approving that there is interim suitability, we would then continue the investigation for a final suitability approval at a later date. So you would seek that out. With respect to the commission's final approval of the suitability of the transaction. The final review, and just to add to that, if I may, is not just the suitability. It's also a finding that there's no change of control, that the trust is in place, that there's all kinds of other things along those lines, but suitability is a big part of it for sure. So do we need the word and between those two items in order for the land to be released by the trust to Vichy and the property? Is it both? Is it two things that we have to find suitability and you have to get approval? That's what I'm, I'm just wondering if there's a word missing. I think there would only be a need, and I will defer to Mike Fabius to correct me if I'm wrong. I think there would only be a need for the commission approval in that circumstance if there was a problem. Mike, am I interpreting it correctly? May I just add that under the regulations, if there's a final suitability, positive final suitability determination, the trust goes away. So if there's a- Oh, okay, that's helpful. So it will be gone in a non-issue. The Vichy owned entity would be the owner and the trust becomes inoperative. Oh, that's helpful. For them, Chair, I can add to Attorney Armando's comment. In terms of the mechanics at the resolution of any suitability issue and approval, clause five, I, that inset paragraph directs what happens to the property in the event of a final positive determination. Clause five, a tool of the lies, directs what happens to the property in the event of a negative determination. Those two clauses govern the transfer of the property one way or the other. And the proviso that you're looking at is only intended to keep the real estate in the trust until either five I or five two is operative. Yeah. If I'm the only one struggling with that clause, I'm fine. I understand what is expected. Commissioner O'Brien, are you all set? No, I'm all set. I was taking it there wasn't sort of an automatic statutory operation. The fact that it's in here, document setting it out, I think it also solves any question that you raised. Okay. Commissioner, the only other question I have, and this is because I'm remembering Pat, our last discussion, there's the just, this is such a nerdy lawyer thing. Sorry, I try to be a retired lawyer, but is it really state of New Jersey that you'll be executing or is it in Atlanta County? I see the others are marked up for other areas, but I just wondered if that was for the notices down at the bottom. Please, where were you signed in? I'll be really there. I said, oh, I wonder if this is a carry over from an old form or something. So you'll really be there. Excellent, thank you. That's where my office is. Yeah, so I remember you saying last time, oh, maybe it was a little bit of a throwback from the New Jersey form. Okay, so I'm all set. Any questions on the trust itself, given Todd's overview and the few things I asked, commissioners, because we would have to affirmatively approve that. It's just the right time to do that, Todd, you think. Yes, I think so. If you're comfortable with the contents of the trust and the vote to approve it, they can then execute it and submit it and then that will be resolved in advance of the interim authorization discussion. So yeah, I think this is the right time. Commissions, if you have, sorry, Commissioner O'Brien. I'm happy to make a motion unless other questions. Madam Chair, I move that the commission find that the amended and restated Springfield nominee trust discussed here today and appearing in the commissioners packet will upon execution comply with the requirements set out in 205 CMR 116.106. Second. Any further questions or edits? Again, we're fortunate to have gone through this process with Director Lillio recently and Heather and Todd. Okay, we'll take a little call vote. Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. When I vote yes, four zero. Todd, thank you. Thank you to all on that component. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much everyone. Thank you. So in terms of next steps for today. There's nothing further to review relative to this today. The next thing to come before you will be a review for interim authorization. We can probably take up the timing of that at an agenda setting meeting in the near future unless. Do we have a date contemplated for that? Maybe Director Lillios and Ms. Howell. We have discussed the goal of having it during the week of April 11th, not necessarily on Monday, April 11th because that is actually opening day for racing. But we haven't a prior agenda setting. We've discussed the goal of the week of April 11th which we can identify that as the next agenda setting. Yeah, we can't interrupt opening day of racing. So you'll work with the parties for the next phase and we wish everyone the best. This is a complicated deal that I know ultimately will serve the interests of MGM and the interests of MGM spring field file. So we look forward to the next phase and you're continuing assistance to help us be well educated to make the right decisions. So thank you. Okay. And commissioners, you have no more further questions for our guests. I wanna make sure you're all set, Brad, I mean, Gail. Okay, thank you so much. Nice to see everyone again. Thank you. I think we've really appreciate your staff's work work to move the transaction along. It's sincerely appreciated as was the tentative offer of the April 11th date that week, very much appreciated. Thank you. We will work closely to figure out a good date that week. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So I'm just looking at our schedule, everyone. 12, 20. We're really about a good half an hour ahead of schedule, right? Which is nice. And that is a credit to all of our colleagues for being so prepared and being able to educate us so well. So thank you to everyone. With that said, Todd, is your team prepared? I see Judy, is your team prepared to go ahead a little ahead of schedule? I think Judy's ready to go. So if the commissioners are ready, we can turn it right over to Judy to make the presentation. Okay. And Judy, if you need to share any documents, feel free, otherwise we'll use our own packets. Fabulous. Good afternoon, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, commissioners. As part of the commission's regulatory review program implemented by Executive Director Wells and Ms. Howard, the Legal Department in coordination with Mr. Cain, Mr. Carpenter, and Director Band in the IEB has brought forward two amendments on regulations for your review and approval today. The first is 205 CMR section 138, or sorry, 205 CMR 138 section 26, particularly subsection four, including key maintenance and inventory. Director Band has shared with us the recommendation that these audits should occur more often. And the IEB is confident that this increase in audits will be beneficial for the licensee as it promotes increased safety and security of the gaming establishment and the subsequent recording of any defects or issues to the commission and the relevant departments. So in sum, we'd like these inventories to occur every three months, as opposed to every 12 months. If helpful, I'm happy to walk through these changes of the regulation and the included small business impact statement, or I can pause here for questions. Commissures, do you want Judy to walk through the changes in the regs? We also have Bruce and Burke here. Do you wanna ask any questions about the additional auditing advantages here? I would like to see her go through that if you don't mind. I think that's helpful, thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Hill. I don't have the page. I think it might be, do you wanna share the document or we could look at our own? I think I've got it on page 52. That's correct. So this portion starts at page 50. I have it starting at page 56 in the commissioner's packet in the modified version. Okay. Starting with the cover page in a short summary of the proposed action on the bottom of page 56, but I'm also happy to screen share, whichever commissioners are comfortable with. Screen share? Yeah, I would appreciate this. You bet. Thank you. Yeah, it's hard to do both, so great, thank you. All right, let me know if you're able to see what I'm seeing. Could you make it a tad bigger please, Judy? Absolutely, yeah. Thank you. Maybe that's much better for me with my glasses and. All right, so the summary of the proposed action I explained previously is at the bottom of page 56. Again, section four will increase the physical inventory of keys to be performed by the licensee once yearly to every three months starting at the, as soon as these replications are promulgated through the process. Second page of the cover, I'm just gonna, if that's okay, scroll down to the relevant small business impact statement. So just briefly touching on this before getting to the regulation, as a general matter, we do not anticipate any sort of impact to a small business. However, I did write that if a small business is a vendor within the gaming establishment, the impact to them could be slight. Anytime you increase the inventory, you run the risk of finding more defects that need to be repaired. And so I just wanted to note within the small business impact statement that if a vendor within the gaming establishment does need to have their keys repaired or replaced more often, there could be a slight impact, but we don't expect or anticipate anything major or marginal. Next, moving on to our draft. I've included the entire regulation here for your review, but we are actually only amending section four on the second page. So if you'll let me just scroll just one more time. So under subsection four, we are amending letter D. Physical inventories of all keys and locking devices will occur at least once every three months, changing it simply from 12. Any questions on that, commissioners? I also have director banned available as well. If you could take down the screen, please, Judy, that'd be great. Thank you. I have a question, Burke and Bruce. Was this part of the regulatory review process where you recognized maybe this was a better practice? Yes, and this was also a recommendation of the outside audit team, Edie Bailey, during their year pre-audit that we added to every three months as well. So all three casinos are currently doing them every three months anyway. So it should be no imposition to the three properties. It's so clearly a change in practice that it's nice to know the genesis and appreciate that. Yes, and if there is a mistake in the inventory, it's certainly much easier to go back a few months than it is 12 months. Really good point. Any questions? All right. I think maybe we will vote on each individual reg vote after the reviewing. So do I have a motion? Madam Chair, I'm happy to move that the commission approved the small business impact statement and the amendment to 205, CMR 138 as included in the commissioner's packet and authorizes staff to take the steps necessary to file the required documentation with the secretary of the Commonwealth and to proceed with the regulation promulgation process. Second. Any questions? That it's okay. Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. And I vote yes. Four zero. Thank you, Judy. Yes. Want to move on to the next one? Yes, please. Next again, we have a regulation brought forward again by the IEV as a part of the regulatory review program. This next regulation is 205, CMR 147. First, we'd like to update the language to address instances when a patron's wager above the established table maximum and also how a dealer can effectively acknowledge that bet and respond to the wager while also keeping the game running effectively. It's important to note that these changes will not alter the rules of any of the table games that we have at our licensees, gaming establishments, but instead they overall improve the efficiency of the table's operation and a dealer's ability to acknowledge a patron's bet while keeping the game moving. More significantly, it removes the imposition of physically touching a patron's chips, which we know they don't really necessarily care for and it allows the dealer to modify and adjust a wager without touching those chips that is above the table maximum. Again, I'm happy to walk through the regulation and provide a more detailed explanation and I also have a sterile book and Bruce available as well. Yeah, I'd be curious, Bruce and Burke, you guys, if you can just walk me through practically how that works. When I first read it, I thought, why aren't we letting them bet over the maximum? But now I'm hearing this is more of what you do when they go beyond the rules of the game. So how would it work effectively without touching the chips? Yeah, if you could give an example, that'd be great. Burke? Yes, good morning. Good afternoon, everyone. How are you? Practically, this situation can arise when a set of cards become, it becomes a hot table, for example. They're dealing rather crisply. Patients are grabbing their chips or stacking them up and they could be on a little bit of a run. So sometimes a patron may grab black chips, $200 ones, some purple chips, $500 ones, and just grab them together and stick them on the bedding square. So this process here will allow the dealer to simply point to the bed, acknowledge it with the floor person, pay or take to the table maximum. There could be nine, say it's a $1,000 game. There could be $950 on the bed. There could be $1,250 on the bed. What will happen at the conclusion of that round, if they lost, they will break down the chips and only get, say it's $1,250. They will only take 1,000, push back to $250. And if it's only $950, of course, that they lost, they're gonna take the whole amount. So players get superstitious. If the cards are hot, if the table's flowing, they don't want you to break down those chips in the bedding square before the cards come out routinely and touch your chips, restack them, you have verified edge that $1,000 or less, for example. And is that how it's done now, Parker? That they would be going to touch the chips to make sure they basically carve out the over bed or what? Yeah. Well, what happens now, and we have Stroll on here too, who's talked with, this is mainly some things that have happened at Encore. What happens now is that they will take the bet if it's over or they will pay the bet if it's over and they'll remind the player, hey, remember, this is a $1,000 game, maximum bet, be cognizant of what you're betting. Yeah, this is a common practice, Eileen, in the industry, I mean, everywhere in the country, and we're just trying to make it for it's a legal operational way here in this jurisdiction. And so I understand, are they betting over the max and being allowed to do it? Not it, go ahead, Stroll, you're the one that has dealt the game before, you're muted right now, yeah. So Eileen, what happens now in our rules to the game on 147, it states that if a player wagers over the table max, and the amount is there, the casino is paying that patron over the table max because they accepted wager, rather than breaking it down and touching it and being superstitious, this addition now just allows the acknowledgement of the amount that the casino wants the patient to play and without having to be superstitious, touch the tips or break it down in any way, shape, or form. So now the regulation is just going to be clarified so that the dealer can then allow the amount of money to play and then figure it out after the hand is determined. But that way both parties still understand, they know what is, the amount is being played so that it's like a contract, they know before the cards are finished, if you're over the max, we're only gonna pay you up to the max. That's what it's clarifying. And we don't, I'm sorry. I was just gonna say, and we don't see any risk in terms of people, like you can say it all you want, but if I say I didn't hear it. Oh, it's, once the dealer says it, he's in confirmation of the floor person, that all these patrons are aware of this, it's a common practice. The patron wants you to do that person, this is more for the patrons because they don't want the dealer touching their money. That's what this is about. There's nothing else, there's nothing, there's no other way to write it then in terms of making sure that they acknowledge that they heard, it's just... Yes, Judith, Carrie, Bert, Bruce and I went through this for quite some time to trying to get the words very specific to say exactly what we needed to say. Can I, I may be missing this, so forgive me. And it's not unusual for me to have to go over this a few times, but if they're betting, is it that if it's an over, just Commissioner O'Brien has said, if they win, I understand that there's some kind of an agreement going on, what if they lose? Does the house get the full amount that was bet? So the way, from what I've been told, because I am not at every instance there, but what I've been told is what is happening at Encore is without these stipulations, if they allow someone and then they don't run it down, the reg states, if you accept the wager, you will pay it as is. That's what it states right now. And so they don't make so. Meaning they get the win and fall on whatever they bet. So in Burke's situation, if he bet 12.50, he's going to receive 12.50, but what has been happening is Encore has been paying the customer 12.50, but if the bet loses, they only take a thousand. So it's been a disadvantage to Encore. They've been heeding on their customer service and then stating to them, reminding them, the limit is only a thousand. And then they probably would say, we have to break down your money in the future so that you're not over the table, Max. Yeah. That's really helpful. So this is going to clarify that. And Judy, I'm going to let you explain it. Oh, sorry, Eileen. I was going to ask if she could explain. Just thinking about, is the reg written to protect the consumer in terms of Max, bet and loss? Like is there any risk in terms of our obligation to protect the player? That their ability to lose more than that is now going to be in the reg? So the protection is for both. And in doing so, we're clarifying when the casino makes the statement to the customer, it's helping the customer, but it's clarifying that they are not. When that dealer states pay or take to the table, Max, there can be no more taken from the player and the player cannot lose if there is more on there, right? We have made the set determination to the player. There is no surveillance microphones on the casino floor. So we have to go by what the dealer verbalizes with their floor person in the area, right? And this is just making sure that all parties understand what is going to be paid. It's now perfectly clear as opposed to stating if they've made a mistake, the mistake has to stay. It's now being more finite if I can make the determination that they understand what is going to happen to their wager, whether there's more or less there, it's just already done as a determination. So the practice before had been advantage to the player and you're saying that this reg is basically doing advantage and risk equally. The practice before was the state that you couldn't tell it. If the person didn't tell afterwards, it would, before the process was the dealer would say, oh, I don't know how much is here and you go out and you'd start doing it. And if the dealer was afraid of doing that to a customer, they just dealt to it. And then the customer would get or lose whatever they saw. So it was actually, and to that point, Encore was at a loss for the mistake, for the fear of the dealer, right? Or not, I don't want to say fear, but we know of gambling, people get upset and the superstitions are real. They don't want their bets touched. This is what is being addressed. And I know it's a hard concept to see the interaction, but it happens quite often with all experienced gamblers that wager in this way, that they do like them saying, just pay or take to the table max. Those specific words are being used to protect every party involved in this trend. I guess so my reaction when I read this at first is, then why do we even have them in the max if all it takes is a verbal statement to basically go around it? Exactly, but this is an instant, if I can tell you that this is an instant that happens once in three months, I mean, it's a rarity, right? But as Greg said, it's an excitement. I just wanted to make sure we weren't creating an exception that swallowed the rule, you know? No, I totally understand what you're saying. And what we're doing here is just for the rare exception of allowing the flow of the game and the cards to, I mean, if you think blackjack is superstitious, craps is even far worse. You cannot stop the game. They flip out and that's why you hear that all the time on craps and they'll start saying it or they'll go out to them and they'll literally throw their money off of their wagers and then they get into arguments. So yes, it's superstition of gamblers. And like I say, it's in every jurisdiction, you'll hear this. So... Could, would it be helpful? It would be helpful to me, just as we did last time to actually walk through the reg language and maybe Judy even read it out loud so that we get it in our heads. But I think we understand the concept now. Well, I have, Judy has become an expert or a shelf now. I've learned so much. Bruce, I missed that. I'm so sorry. Can you just say it again? Judy has become an expert or shelf now with you. Well, if I were in the office right now, I'd walk down and say, Judy, explain it to me. So here we are. Just allow me to screen share and then I will happily walk you through it, Madam Chair. Okay, excellent. Thank you. All right, I am on page 67 of the meeting packet and just let me know if you need me to resize or zoom anything. A little bit bigger, please. Sure, sure. Thanks. Let's see if I can go. This is excellent work. Okay. So again, we're essentially updating the language underneath portion three that allows our licensees to have that discretion to permit a player to wager below the established minimum or above the established maximum at a gaming table. And essentially we've created these two avenues under this section to address what happened. So, like Sterl and Bruce have said, these things happen rarely but we do want to address and provide some detail when these things do happen. So we've gone ahead and modified section three and deleted section four. I'll touch on that in a bit to adequately address what's done when a dealer allows a patron to bet above or below. So say for example, a dealer receives a wager below the minimum or above the maximum. They can effectively acknowledge the wager and make an announcement. This is the pay or take language that Bruce and Sterl used previously, that the wager will only be paid out or collected up to the table maximum, essentially limiting the wager. So no matter how much is there in that betting and wagering pod out, they're saying pay or take. And that means that the patrons wager will only be paid out or lost up to the established maximum wager or minimum wager. So if they put down 1250, this allows the dealer to say pay or take. And then essentially if the table limit is only 1,000, they'll only have their wager collected up to that 1,000 or paid out up to that 1,000 in accordance with the table minimum or maximum wager. And then section B, excuse me, essentially protects the dealer, unless they protect, but say for example, if the dealer doesn't give that pay or take language or that announcement to a patron, it essentially does what sections were previously did. The dealer doesn't acknowledge the wager or make that announcement. And the patrons wager will be paid out or collected notwithstanding the established table maximum. So if they put down that large stack of chips, that's 1250, the licensee in their discretion can collect or pay out up to that 1250. And I'll pause here if anybody has any other questions. If I may on section B, Judith. Yeah, sure. So what section B is doing is what Eileen was worried about. So this, if the dealer didn't recognize it when the cards came out or the dice were thrown and didn't say anything, the customer has no idea could have just not seen that the table max was 1,000. And he is assuming he's going to get paid the 1250 that he put down. This is saying that if the dealer didn't acknowledge and tell that customer, hey, we're only gonna pay 1,000, they have to follow the rules that they were written before, which is paying it in its entirety up to what the patron bet or taken. So in that way, he would also lose the 1250 if he lost. And that's what this, that's what B is saying. If the dealer fails to recognize that the maximum is exceeded, it will be paid and taken as is, is what it's saying. I guess the trouble I'm having with that, Sterl, is if the failure is on the dealer, why is the risk to the patron being upheld? Because the patron would lose all of the, if let's just say it's not even purposeful, what if it's inadvertent? Let's say they've been 1,200 and it's 1,000 and they don't get the dealer's message, right? Commissioner O'Brien saying, isn't that kind of a consumer protection issue if I can put words in your mouth? Yeah, I mean, that's sort of how I'm looking at it right now. And I understand the other version is well, if they bet too high, the dealer doesn't have to pay that much if he missed it. Let's just say the dealer, he or she misses the, I mean, I guess maybe that's what they're concerned about, right? Eileen that, you know, always see too high of a bet, but shouldn't it be the default would be for the consumer? Unless it's really marked visibly, so first off the table has a maximum bet there with a sign. Yeah. So when they get to the game, just like on the rules of the game, and as we've heard from judges even in this Commonwealth, putting every single rule of a game on Blackjack is, can't fit on the layout, but it is the maximum and minimum, and it's clearly stated on the sign. So this is just a service to the patron to allow them to bet what they wish, but then saying up to or including. The reg before this change is stated that currently if a patron goes above the table max and it's allowed to play, it is taken in its entirety. We're not, we're changing the reg to acknowledge that if that happens, the dealer is acknowledging that this person's only going to bet that thousand. It's not like we're changing it to have them lose, we're clarifying. And before the way it's written, the reg states that if somebody put 1,200, they're paid 1,200 or they lose 1,200 without any acknowledgement from the dealer. So the dealer would then in turn have to take the, run down the money, take the 200 off, stack it back up and then have it play out. I'm understanding what you're saying, but I'm sorry if I'm not being clearer on how this is protection, at least in my eyes for everyone so that they don't. The thing is, is if the dealer doesn't see it, the dealer didn't see it, the customer didn't see it. And let's say that they both did it, that's why we have to pay and take it as is because if the dealer made that error, he's going to just take it. So why have this person at a disadvantage when he is won and then break it down and say, oh, I'm only paying you a thousand? No, it plays as is because the dealer, a lot of times will just take the money. Do you see that's where that protection is coming from my league? Like if this is- Yeah, I know, I guess so I'm thinking it's sort of a statement that's perfunctory going to be said before each thing or is this appointed, watch me. I'm only doing the mid max. No, this is commonplace to talk, all dealers are taught. If you- So they say this, this is just, this is sort of every time. Yeah, this is every time. Ideally, this is being reiterated every time. Yeah. We're losing, I'm losing it a little bit on the dialogue. So Eileen, if you could finish your question and then- No, I was just saying, so this is not, I guess when I first read this it was more, I thought it was a more one-on-one. You know, me pointedly looking at you, Cathy and saying, you know, reminder, mid max is this and that's how we're going to do this. This seems more like this is a broad stroke to the table before the play or the role or what are the deal and it applies to anybody who may fall within outside the mid max. Anybody, anybody and then, and as I said, the dealers will, anything close will say it just to say it to make sure to cover that. You know, if they're, if they're, if they're, we all make mistakes, right? So if this is to cover the mistakes and that's why there's an A to the B for that mistake but as it is, it's just a pure mistake. So the best way I can say it and maybe I'm reiterating what everybody understands is that the announcement that is contemplated in 3A is made every game. That a wager looks or appears to be close. Yes. When it, when it looks like it's a big wager that could be over. So it's not every game. No, so let's say normally, like, let's say the table max is a thousand. It's a $25 game. You're seeing 25, 50, 100, $200 wagers. We all can tell that, you know, that's not close to the table max. So nothing is said, but then as Burke said, it gets hot. This person likes to stack their chips, don't touch my money, it gets high, high. It looks all fun. That's when they say pay or take the table max. Yeah. And then the default is if somehow he didn't, or she didn't see that and it was over a thousand and that was the limit and the patron loses, he loses the entire bet. And if the patron wins, patron gets the game. The entire, gets the entire wager. Yeah. And then there's also Eileen on the felt, I believe I'm hearing that there's also additional instruction as to what the max is. The sign, yes. That's usually an electronic sign, Madam Chair. It's, yeah, it's electronic. And sometimes is it on the felt too? Of course, I love it being right on the little box. Because it's in max depending what time of day and what the business is like. Oh, okay. I get it. So that's why Brad, you're pointing out it's electronic. Yeah. It changes frequently. It changes frequently. So only certain games are static. Yeah. All right. It's important to remember that the patrons that are getting up near a table maximum, they're pretty experienced. Yes. Betters, they understand what happens. They understand in a discussion that what's being said. And there's been instances, for example, what if a $500 chip got stuck in between a bunch of black chips and no one saw it, right? Afterwards, a patron could file a complaint against the casino. They would talk to the shift manager. They would make arrangements with it. You can't do that every day, but they would work with the patron if he's a good customer and talk to him about the problem. The experience of the gamblers that are up near the table maximum, they understand what's going on. It doesn't happen that much. We're just trying to find language. And as we were talking with Kerry and Judith, we were having a lot of fun talking about how to explain co-mingled chips, what to do with this and trying to get the proper words. Barber pole chips, for that matter. Well, yeah, yeah, that's all. You're pulling at a barber pole and it's just impossible to see what that total is. We're just trying to clarify it. The train dealer has the eye. They make this language. It's not for every game. It's only when it nears the trouble. I get this. The language, to Judy's credit, with all of your help, it's clear. Well written. It's definitely a team effort, Madam Chair. Brad, your clarify was really helpful. I don't see everyone. Do you have any questions? Commissioner Cameron or Commissioner Hill for Judy? I do know, but this was very helpful to understand it better. Yeah, there have been some questions that I've had earlier on some other matters that sort of raise this consumer protection issue. And I think, Commissioner O'Brien, you may have been aware of that too. So it is something for us to keep our eye on. But what I'm hearing from Bruce is that this is very much a standard practice and from Sterl and Burke. So. That's correct, Madam Chair. And then finally, it's just worth noting that some non-material edits have been made to 147.07 sections two and five, respectively. So they can adequately reflect the changes that we've made to section three and the deletion of section four. So if you're looking at page 67 of the commissioner's pocket, you'll note that section five has now been relabeled to become section four. And then the mention of section four within section two has been taken away. But it's all pretty straightforward. Yeah, questions for Judy and the team now really helpful. Commissioner O'Brien, thank you for framing it. Okay. You need a motion from us. Commissioner, if you don't have any further questions, I'll take a motion. I'll make the motion. Thanks. I move that the commission approve the small business impact statement and the amendments to 205 CMR 147 as included in the commissioner's packet and authorize the staff to take the steps necessary. To file the documentation with the secretary of the commonwealth and to proceed with the regulation promunication process. Commissures, do you, oh, thank you. Commissures, do you want to make any edits, any concerns? Okay. Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. And I vote yes. If there's any hesitation on this discussion, I think commissioner O'Brien, you're noting our concern about consumer protections. I think as we go forward, yeah, that that's a conversation that, I think there should be sort of an overarching analysis on the right review too, in terms of the rules of the game, in terms of how it impacts that obligation we have. Yeah. So, you know, we're voting it today and I think what I'm hearing, and it's a very fair point, even if it's a practice across the nation, we can sometimes be leaders in change. And so looking at these rules and regulations through that lens is important. And so if we need to revisit, we'll revisit. As need be, commissioner O'Brien, are you satisfied with that? Yeah, yes, I am. Thanks. Okay, excellent, thank you. Thanks very much, commissioners. Thank you. I'm sorry, did I miss that? I'm sorry. I said thank you very much, commissioners. Thank you, Judy. Very, very well done. And I am only trying to imagine the tutorial that you had. It was extensive. Yeah, well, welcome. This is the official welcome. Once you start hearing Barbara Paul Stack, you know that you're in it to win it. Great, thank you. Todd, is that it for the legal division for right now? Yes, Madam Chair, that's all we have. Okay, so we had scheduled a break now for lunch before the rest of the afternoon. It's one o'clock, does that still make sense? Does that work for those who follow to be a little ahead? I'm seeing lunch is a good idea. Yeah. Did you enjoy that for 30 minutes though? It looked like it was only 20 and that's a little tight. Right, before we were gonna take the longer one, we took the shorter one before, so now we'll have a longer one. Do you want a full half hour? Yeah, I think that'd be, yeah. One to one 30, stretch our legs a bit. I'm getting pain that I'm supposed to be standing and breathing and all kinds of things, so. All right, let's go do that then. We'll reconvene at one 30. Everyone appreciate all the good work and congratulations, Judy, on getting us through that regulation. Appreciate it. Okay, thank you. We'll see you at one 30. Thanks, Dave, for the screensaver. So I think, Dave, we can bring the screen down when that works for you. Thanks so much. No problem. Thanks, Brad, for the helpful tip on the gaming. I knew that too. And I like that commissioner Cameron probably, even after 10 years, you're still learning. Right? Always, always, which makes it interesting. It does make it interesting, right? Okay. I think we can get started, commissioners. I'll do a roll call. Commissioner Cameron. I am here. Commissioner Bryan. I am here. Commissioner Hill. Present. Okay. Thanks. Before we turn to little copies still here, before we turn to item number seven, Karen does have an update on her administrative update report that she provided earlier to us. I think that was under 3D. Karen. Yes. So I just wanted to let the commissioners know, I was in contact with Jackie Perlman regarding the event on the 17th. They're not going to be having over 1,000 people at that event. So for now, there's nothing for the commission. I think to really act upon it this time, we are going to have for the conversation is about events going forward. But for right now, it's not really right for any kind of commission action. So we just stand by and I'll keep you posted about other further events. Excellent. Thanks. Okay. So I think we can continue on a really diverse and full agenda today, right? Now we're going to get an update from Mark. And good afternoon, Scott. It's great to see you. Chair, it's nice to see you as well. Great. Good afternoon, everybody. Can you hear me? I'm here. You can. Okay. And we can see you too. I've been having technical difficulties. So I don't want to assume anything. So we're going to give you an update about the implementation of play my way at MGM today. You'll be hearing from Marie Claire Fleurs-Peugeot who will be talking about the evaluation of the play my way long band who will talk about communications. And Scott Hellwig is going to represent the technical aspect of it. Who isn't represented here is MGM and her games since teen, though they are both incredibly involved in the rollout of play my way at MGM. So it's not that they're not involved and that's not why they're here. It's just that there's a lot going on. And so we're just going to take some. So with that, Marie Claire, do you want to pull up the slides for us, please? Thank you. Sorry. Okay, great. So I just, you know, as always, I just want to spend a couple minutes providing a brief overview and reminder of what we're trying to accomplish here. So Marie Claire, you want to go to... I was having trouble with driving the slides. So I asked Marie Claire to do it for me. So what is play my way? It's a budgeting tool designed to provide slot machine players and slot machines, specifically helpful information in order to inform their play. It's really about informed player choice. Give people the information they need so that they can make the decision about when to gamble and when it's time to stop. It's set up to provide daily, weekly, monthly budget, one or three options. It's completely voluntary. It's intended that patrons can enroll right there at the slot machine where they can go to the Game Sense Information Center, where they can get access and help from a Game Sense advisor and enroll from a Game Sense kiosk. It's at Claim Ridge Park Casino and has been for several years and we're getting ready to roll it out at NGM and on. Next slide. Two goals. One is to sustain recreational gambling by establishing feasible parameters. The second is to eliminate regret arising from loss of control. And what you'll notice here is that really, we have two target groups here. It's recreational gamblers, keeping gambling recreational, keeping it fun. And I would say at-risk gamblers. One of the key elements of at-risk gambling is loss of control or regret. While problem gamblers aren't necessarily our target audience, it's recreational and at-risk gamblers who we primarily want to target. Problem gambling is an incredibly important issue for us, but we want to make sure that we have other options available to meet those needs. Next slide. So believe it or not, Play My Way launched at Claim Ridge Park Casino back in 2016. So now it's been several years. It was launched as a pilot project in Commissioner Cameron. You may remember that discussion very well when that was decided. After a couple of years of Play My Way at Claim Ridge Park Casino, and including an evaluation of the program, the commission voted in 2017 to extend Play My Way cooperatively, not through regulation, to MGM and to Encore Boston Harbor. And it should be noted that both of those licenses were willing and ready partners to do this cooperatively. The idea was that it was going to be launched in September of 2020. However, COVID combined with some technical issues brings us to today, where we are now prepared to launch Play My Way at MGM. It says the week of March 28th, we anticipate a soft launch on the 28th and the official announcement launch on March 31st. Encore Boston Harbor is still on track to launch in September of this year. Next slide. So now for just a quick update about where we are at MGM specifically. I'm gonna be repetitive here, but please bear with me, because I would like to point out some of the differences in the system at Play My Way at Park Casino versus what you will see at MGM in it on. So as I said, it's, well, first off, it's intended and must be combined with persons who hold reward cards. And so at MGM, it's MGM Rewards, My Play, and the, I think it's still the red card at Encore Boston Harbor, but that's how the play is tracked. And fortunately, most players at our casinos hold those player cards. This system is completely voluntary, as I said before, and it tracks it on a daily, weekly, or monthly. A difference between MGM and Encore is that, whereas PPC, we can deliver a notification starting at 50% of the established budget at MGM and Encore, it will be 75% and then every 25% after that. The main rationale is that we receive feedback that beginning at 50% players were receiving too many notifications and that that wasn't a desirable feature. So we will track that and we'll continue to monitor that. Another key feature or change is that notifications can be enabled or disabled. And so there's a toggle button that I'll point out to you in the next slide that where players can turn off the notifications coming up, but they can still track their budget by clicking on the play my way icon on the slot machine or at a key ask. So the system does not stop individuals from gambling beyond their budget and this is intended to be informed player choice. And so a decision made very early on was that rather than having a hard stop, this is a soft stop. It provides a notification and allows people to continue to gamble beyond their established budget. And you can enroll, unenroll, set your budget, change your budget, check your spending all from the slot machine or from a key ask. When you make a change, when you unenroll, when you enroll, it takes effect immediately. And the slide that pictures on the right were providing screenshots from what, this is what it looks like when you're at a slot machine or when you see it on a game since key ask. It's, I know it's kind of hard to envision, so we look forward to having, showing you actually on the machine soon, but these are screenshots from the machine. Next slide. Budget settings, so these are the budget setting screens that you see right here. And again, you can see that it's a daily, weekly, monthly. The second picture there is when you click on the set button, it will pull up the screen that allows you to easily set it. And then you'll see that the budget is active. One of the key things that I really like about Play My Way, it's not difficult. You don't need an instruction manual to do it. It's incredibly intuitive and it's quick. There's very few clicks between initiating an enrollment and when you're actually enrolled. And while we wanna focus on training, the idea is that we wanna keep it as simple as possible too. And you can see the toggle button where there's from the first picture, there's an alert. You can turn that toggle on or off and that will enable or disable the alert messages. Next slide. So tracking your budget. So say for example, you don't wanna receive the alert but you wanna continue to track your spend. You can pull this screen up at any time and you can see what your actual spend is. And so you can see that for this individual, their budget is $100 for the daily and their actual spend is $1. You can also see the green buttons down at the bottom where you can easily adjust your budgets for an enroll from the program. Next slide. And these are the types of notifications that you receive assuming that you do want to receive those notifications. You see there's an approaching at 75%. There's a reached screen where you hit the budget that you set and an exceeded screen. Next slide. These are the unenrollment screens. So if you want to unenroll and at Plain Ridge Park Casino, I believe we're right around, I think it's around 14 or 15% of individuals who have enrolled, it's not for them, they wish to unenroll. We want just a little bit of information when an individual chooses to unenroll from the program. And hopefully this will help us continue to improve and enhance the program down the line as well. Next slide. So we also, let's see, I missed that there's a green button down at the bottom that allows you to access information about game sense too. So this is, it's an interesting series of slides or screens that you can kind of scroll through, but it really does tie play my way to the game sense program. Go ahead. And that is where we are. I'm going to turn it over to Scott for the, to give you a technical update followed by Lon who will provide you with information about our communication plan and Marie Claire. So Scott, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you. Great. Thanks, Mark. Good afternoon, Madam Chair and fellow commissioners. Nice to see everybody today. So I'm not going to go ahead and read right off the slide. I do have a couple of other notes that I'll go ahead and go over here. And then obviously again there, if you have some questions, I'll be here to answer them for you. So, you know, we have been working with IGT, MGM and Encore Boston Harbor and their technical corporate teams to develop Play My Way for launch in MGM and then eventually awkward properties later this year in Massachusetts. So as Mark said, we did experience some technical defects during testing in September. And during the last few months, those defects have been corrected by the IGT team. Those corrections then were tested in parallel and in the MGC Gaming Lab and in concert with MGM and IGT, the teams to ensure all function in audio Play My Way works as expected. Once that was completed, IGT then submitted the components associated with Play My Way to MGC certified independent testing lab, GLI for certification. The MGC has received those certifications with all components associated passing certification as well. So with that, we will continue to assess and periodically perform tests to ensure that the continued compliance is there for the advantage Play My Way module that will be at MGM and Encore invention. And as always, you're welcome to request demonstrations in the MGC Gaming Lab by request and you know, we'll be more than happy to give you a nice little demo of the software and show you around and kind of see what the players are looking at. Unfortunately ours is gonna be a little bit smaller because it's on the smaller TFT screens but what Mark is showing you is like what they call the service screen which will pop up actually on the game itself. So it's a little bit easier for the players to see and MGM has a mix of both of these types of screens at their property. So those screenshots are pretty similar but the layout is a little different between the two. And that's really it for the technical side of it. I'll go ahead and let Mark and his team continue one with going over Play My Way. And just so they installed Play My Way at MGM in a test environment earlier this week when they're Tuesday of this week. So if you're out at MGM, there's a way to test it. In fact, Long and I will be out there tomorrow to kind of take it through the paces in their environment as well. Okay, let's turn it over to Long for the communication update. Good afternoon, Madam Chair and commissioners. So today I really just wanted to sort of talk about the communication objectives. So we were tasked to roll out Play My Way. So some of the objectives that we collaboratively developed with our community stakeholders, the Mass Council and also the MGM. We really wanted to one of the objectives is to introduce Play My Way at MGM. And then the other one that we thought was very important was to educate the public on purpose and the benefits of Play My Way and how to handle the essence of Play My Way. And then the three other objectives that we put there was to promote Play My Way as innovative and voluntary. And I think that's a very, very important. He word is the voluntary pre-commitment budgeting tool at GameSense. And we want to increase awareness of the Mass Gaming Commission and MGM's commitment to responsible gaming with the brand and its program and update Play My Way branding by incorporating positive play, messaging in marketing and materials. And so now I'm gonna go to the next slide where we will talk about the strategy. So that's sort of our overreaching objectives. So some of the strategies to obtain the objective or to reach the objective, we sort of developed one to introduce Play My Way with the MGM rewards player. There is a highly targeted branding and marketing initiatives. So one thing that MGM is doing, and I will go more into details on the next one more of the actual tactics or some of the things but we're working on ways to target these highly targeted branding and marketing initiatives. The other one, we were really one of the strategies to educate MGM's casino employees about the availability and the functionality of the play management system. This one, it's a way to promote and also to educate the patrons as well because they will interact with the casino employees. The other strategy was to increase general awareness of Play My Way but developing and executing a strategic advertising campaign, targeting, visiting patrons, employees and various stakeholders. And then last, our strategy was to highlight the availability of this tool and our commitment, Mass Gaming Commissions Commitment to innovative responsible gaming strategies. And then I'm gonna get to the fun part, the tactics. What are we doing? How do we implement this next slide, please? Thank you. So with the collaboration with Mass Council on Gaming and Health and MGM Springfield, we're developing a series of marketing materials to introduce Play My Way to MGM Springfield with the MGM Rewards patrons. So some of the collateral includes email blasts, retractable banners, digital signage at MGM Springfield Geo-Targeted Campaign. So like I was alluding earlier, some of the strategies that we're doing for MGM is doing a staggering marketing approach where this week they're gonna do a social blast and then next week they would do an email and then right about the week of the launch, we're gonna do a digital display to let patrons know that Play My Way is launching or has launched. So it's just more building that excitement and sort of building the awareness. And then the geo-fencing as the Mass Council on Gaming, we're looking at different approaches on the cell phones where patrons are coming in and out and sort of having different campaigns depending on if they're coming onto the casino or if they're leaving the casino. And so different messaging sort of let them know Play My Way is available. So either if they're there or if they're gonna return. And then the other tactics we're doing is educating MGM casino employees about the availability and functionality. So we're developing the Mass Council on Gaming and Health has developed a really nice one page reminder to educate the employees what Play My Way is. We're just giving them a refresher and just letting them know because there's a lot of promotions happening but we want the employees to be aware of what Play My Way is. Then lastly, we're gonna do increase general awareness through a strategic advertising campaign which includes festive environment at Game Sense Information Center, distribute press releases and also distribute media advisory on lunch week and day. So those are some of the approaches that the tactics we're doing to reach our objectives. Thank you. And then I think I'm gonna turn it over to Marie Clark who's just gonna talk about the evaluation plan. If I could just chime in and just make a few points back in communication. So one of the lessons learned at PPC when we rolled it out was just how important the Game Sense advisors were as champions on the gaming floor to promote this as a responsible gaming tool. And so that was a lesson that we really tried to carry forward to MGM. Another piece of it is ownership of our licensees whether it's PPC or MGM or Encore in really taking this and running with it. And I just, I wanna emphasize the importance of both of them that being leads on this. While we are present, we are supporting this and also champions of it. The true success I think happens when it's led by those two entities. They will drive enrollments. They will drive the enthusiasm for it on the gaming floor all day, every day. And so it's really turning to them to allow them to run with it. Okay, that's what I wanted to tell them. Thank you. Marie Clark. Yes. Good afternoon, my dear commissioners. Now I'm gonna talk about a research study that is led by Dr. Michael Wall and his team at Carl's University in Canada. This is a study that is funded by the ICRG, the International Center for Responsible Gamling. And the goal for this study is to evaluate play my way and to build some evidence on pre-commitment oriented play management tools like play my way. And so for this, they'll be measuring the uptake, the selection of mandatory versus voluntary limit adherence options. And they'll also be measuring behavior change before and after introducing play my way at MGM. And for this, they'll be conducting the study in three phases. The first phase, they'll be recruiting 600 MGM patrons who play electronic gaming machines regularly. And they'll invite them via the MGM rewards program email to conduct some survey prior to the launch of play my way. And actually this took place in the last two weeks. And just last Friday, they actually hit the quota of 600 participants, which is great. The second phase, they'll be conducting another survey three months after launch of play my way. And the third phase will be six months after the launch. And I know that the team at Carl's University has been working closely with Daniel Miller and the MGM communications team. And they've been very happy and grateful for all the quick and efficient support that they've been providing for this research project. So this is pretty much a timeline overview of the three phases of the project. So like I mentioned, the first phase just happened at the end of February. And the survey questions included some demographic questions, some questions about the player behavior, what type of limits they're setting and to overall assess positive play. And then the second and third phases, the second phase will be at the end of June, third phase at the end of September. And the questions will be assessing change in gambling severity, limit setting behavior and overall perceptions of play my way. So overall the findings of this study will be very helpful to demonstrate the effectiveness of a tool like play my way in changing gambling behavior. And that's it. Is there anything else that the team wanted to mention? I don't think so. I actually see that Daniel Miller is on as well as Garrett Farns, who's with MGM International and from the corporate level has been supportive of this initiative. So thank you both Daniel and Garrett for your support. Hi, Daniel. Thank you so much. Thank you. If we could have the whole group, excellent presentation. I'm sure we have questions, commissioners. Commissioner O'Brien, are you leaning in? No, I wasn't. I'm just sort of taken aback by, I know all the work that's gone into this and I know it's been sort of delayed for various reasons. So I knew it was a lot of work but I did not fully appreciate until this exactly all the details that went into getting this up and running. So congratulations. I know it was a lot of hard work to get here. Thank you, commissioner. It's interesting. I mean, it's been, when you've worked on a project for several years as this entire team has really committed to that, you kind of lose track of it. And it really is sort of a pinch me we're almost there sort of moment to see this live at MGM, to see that we're extending the use of this responsible gaming tool. After this long effort is really special. So yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah. You guys should be very proud of yourselves. Commissioner Cameron. Yeah, again, excellent presentation. Nice to see it rolling out again. I noted earlier the improved product, right? There were lessons learned and you are incorporating that into this new plan which I think is great. I remember the communications plan last time and this one looks like it's improved because again, you know how important it is that the licensee is embraced and be part of it as well as our game sense advisors who really did champion it the last time, right? I just wondered, Marie Claire, the evaluation plan, is that a little bit different than what we did the first time at PPC? Mark, do you want to take on this one? Yeah, Mark, I'm sorry. You weren't here with the first one. Sorry. So it is different. And I would like to point, the fact that this is the first time that we've had research funded, MGC research funded by something other than our gaming licensees through the Public Health Trust Fund. This is a fantastic step to have the International Center for Responsible Gaming stepping in and providing this type of evaluation. I would say that there is some similarities between the two evaluations, just in terms of, you know, we're wanting, it's both qualitative and quantitative. So I think that we will be able to compare the two surveys but there are also a few differences in that shape. Well, great work. Congratulations to the whole team. And it's exciting to roll it out, right? It is. Commissioner Hill? Oh, just a great job, great presentation. And as I've been coming in the last few weeks and a few months, they have been feverishly working on this program in their little cubicles. And it's great to see it finally come to fruition. Excuse me, fruition. Congratulations. And I do look forward, Scott, to going into the lab and taking a look and seeing how it works. Because I think that would be kind of neat to do. All right, just let me know. I do want to do a special shout out to Scott and Katrina that the rollout at MGM, our IT has been there every step of the way, driving to make sure that it's meeting those technical aspects. And the delay that we had last fall when we were supposed to launch, I think technical issues happened having the technical expertise to really isolate what the issue is, make sure that it's resolved so that when we launch on March 31st, we're confident that it works the way it does. It's supposed to. It's really, it's great. So thank you, Scott. And Katrina isn't here, but I thank her as well. Thank you, Mark, appreciate that. I think Scott's proved to be quite the utility player here on this front. So thank you so much. And Mark, you should be so incredibly proud of your team with Marie Claire and Long. Just, it's all coming together and gelling so nicely. It's a pleasure to hear from both of you. Mark, forgive me, because I'm realizing I'm just, my memory's probably not serving me well. Have I ever been, has there been a report from Playing My Way at PPC as to the percentage of players? It would have to be anonymized data, of course, that override their budget. Do you have that? We do have information about that in one of the evaluations that was done early, early on. Early on. There is a significant percentage of individuals who exceed their budget. And I think it's, got to put it into context a little bit and think about what the objectives of the program are. We want everybody to stick with the budget that they have. When you set a budget in the cool state of mind before you sit down to a gambling session, your goal is that you want to end there and stop when your budget is met. There are times where people are going to gamble beyond their budget, but are we giving them a notification? Are we notifying them at an important juncture that you've reached your budget or you've reached 125% of your budget or more and it gives somebody a moment to pause. What's really difficult, I think, in an evaluation and perhaps we'll see this in the current evaluation is without playing my way, would they have gone even further in exceeding your budget? Is it still a useful tool that is informing people's gambling behavior? Which to me is the overall goal not of playing my way, but of game sense too. Are we giving people a moment to pause to really think about their gambling behavior and where they want to go with it? Well, and that's really, really helpful. And we have, I guess I'm not hearing from any kind of a percentage. You know, is it? Yeah, I can track that down. I was just wondering, is it 80% or is it 20%? And so, and I think the Marie Claire, I just, I'm one thrilled over the funding mark, but I just think it's just really an exciting opportunity for you to be able to be involved with that research. I mean, it's a whole team, but Marie Claire will be looking forward to the translation of it. And I guess if there's any kind of lessons we can learn or innovations that could come out that still serve what you were saying, purpose of mark that, you know, these need to be individual choices, right? But I wonder if there's even another tool. I understand the notifications can get turned off. So we lose that tool, right? And, you know, just there might be another tool we're not even thinking of, right? That won't happen. I absolutely agree. I think play my way is a good tool. It really is that allowing people to set a budget. It's innovative, it hasn't been done. Is there other directions that we can go? Are there other tools? I know there are. And I think that as this technology develops, as we learn more, we need to just, you know, be diligent about listening to that, seeing what's happening elsewhere in the world, see where our research and evaluations and utilization and feedback is taking us with this and how we can continue to expand it. And then the final, and we don't have to go on on this, but have you ever, have we received feedback from patrons wishing that they couldn't have overridden their budget, you know, like, yeah, and that's what I figured. So, you know, of course we respect the choice and not the mandate, but I just wonder, so I'm looking forward to the, I'm really looking forward to the research that comes out of this and so excited. I don't want to, in any way, take away from what's been accomplished in the rollout. Daniel, we are eager for this and we thank MGM for all that it's done to partner on this front and all the work that went internally to get this done. It's really exciting, really exciting. And I know Encore will benefit from this experience, just like you, you know, MGM benefit from PPC. We're lucky in Massachusetts to have it limited to three right now. Very great licensees. So, yeah, good luck March 31st. Daniel, if I don't, we don't see you, you know, again, gonna hear from the folks shortly, but just congratulations on all the work that's been done. Thank you. Long, thank you. I'm missing seeing you. Likewise, can we, all right, Chair, for a minute. Yeah, my closest buddy. Office buddy. Okay, March, is that the end of our presentation from you today? That's it, that's all you get. Well, you know what? This was all part of the plan though. This is a big month for responsible gaming and play my way with Scott and Katrina and the IP team's help in all of your group. March 31st will end with a great product. So congratulations. Thank you. Thank you to the commission. So now we move on to item number eight. Crystal. And Crystal, thank you. She's been, of course, really nimble as our agenda continued to be evolving for today. So thanks. Never a problem. I will be really brief. I have an important update for us as our work continues. We will be allowed to continue to meet remotely as the open meeting law has been extended allowing a state and municipal entities to meet remotely through July 15th of 2022. Those are through the chapter 22 of acts of 2022 if you're looking for that reference anywhere. And in addition, just a quick note, the state house has also officially reopened as of February 22nd. So we have that ability now where we haven't in the last two years. But that's it. Really quick update for you guys, but an important one. Important one. It's July 15th. 15th. July 15th, yes. 2022. Yep. Two more months. Yeah, two more months. And it'll be interesting to watch this to decide how our lawmakers think about the ease of these virtual tools versus of course the benefits of being in person. So I think there's a lot for them to think about. Thanks. Thanks for that update. Any questions for Crystal on anything else that she and Commissioner Hill and Todd have been monitoring? Okay. We'll keep track of that for maybe the 14th. A more full sum report if there's any big developments. Okay. Short and easy. That means returning now to, what is your name? I was so embarrassed the other day when I couldn't come up with Joe's name. All I could think of was Chief Delaney. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Madam Chair and commissioners. So first up really our only agenda item today for this meeting is MGM Springfield's fourth quarter report. We've got Daniel Miller, Arlen Carballo and Beth Ward from MGM Springfield. I think Gus Kim is also on, but I will turn it over to Dan to start MGM's presentation. Thank you, Joe. Good afternoon, Lady Chair and fellow commissioners. Thank you for inviting us back to deliver another quarterly report to you for the end of 2021. Let me just share my screen here so you can see our first slide. And then hopefully I can also, and I think I need to swap that over for you. Everybody see that clear link? Perfect. Okay. As usual, I will hand pretty swiftly over to Arlen as our executive director of finance to discuss our revenues and lottery slides. Take it away, Arlen. All right, thank you, Dan, and good afternoon, everyone. Can everyone hear me okay? I always have issues with the mic. We can. You're nodding. Awesome, okay. So I'll go ahead and get started for the fourth quarter, for October, our gaming revenues were 21.4 million, total taxes of 5.4 million. For November, gaming revenue was 21.7 million with total taxes of 5.4 million. For December, we rounded up with 22.2 million in gaming revenue and 5.6 million in gaming taxes. And in the quarter at 65.3 million in gaming revenue and 16.3 in gaming taxes, making it the strongest quarter for the year. Moving on to our lottery sales, total sales for the quarter were 335,217 dollars, which was equivalent to a 61% increase over 2020 Q4 lottery sales. Any questions on our numbers? Dan, back to you. Look, Dan, you're muted there. Yeah, you're muted. What a shame. I said some beautiful things. I really did. We could read your lips. Thank you. So yes, delivering a compliance slide for the miners who had sadly either gained access, gained or drank on the casino floor. Overall, you can see the change from, kind of going from Q3 into Q4. I know the numbers obviously have exceeded there from a gaining access perspective. The two things though that I conditioned that to, one is starting in November, we started most of our festive and family orientations with the ice rink and family items out on our plaza. The other part as well is with our operation of the mass mutual center, a lot more ice hockey games over there, family oriented programming, that just increased the number of people that were coming through our facility that were bringing children with them. And then as you can see at the bottom when we talk about the length of time on average that they were on the floor, the length or the longest time, the 18 and a half minutes seems long I would say, but I think that's because in total there aren't that many incidents. And so when you go from the hour and five down to practically zero or three or four seconds, it gets stuck in that group in the middle there. We had a few incidents where it was a child ran in from our plaza under the railing onto the floor, but then was gathered by their parents and security spoke to them very quickly. And then as you can see on the far right, we've got the number of parties that were prevented from gaining access that either showed up at our podium with fake or fraudulent IDs or identification that wasn't even theirs. And then speaking to the two incidents, the one that was drinking alcohol, this was not served to the party by anybody employed by in Jim Springfield. A person of age bought the drink past it to them. And then the two that gained, sadly we did allow them through the security checkpoint. And in those particular cases, those security officers were retrained and did receive a discipline based on that. Any questions on the slide? I think it makes sense to have the questions now with the slides in front of us. Commissioners, I can't see you all, but I just, well, if you want to just interject, if you have any questions for Daniel. I'm hearing none. I just missed your explanation. I'm sorry, with respect to the minor intercepted consuming alcohol, was it their own alcohol? Is that what you said, Daniel? No, a person of age bought a drink, but then passed it to the person that was underage. I see. We didn't serve directly to them. I see, but they weren't on the gaming floor. No, they were, sadly. They had made it through into the gaming floor and the, like I'd say, the person of age had gotten the drink and then passed it over to the person who I believe was 19 or 20 at the time. So they were an adult, but obviously not over the age of 21, so. So, okay. And the ones who were admitted for the minors intercepted on gaming and the retraining, were they just allowed in without being IDed or were they fraudulent IDs? One of each. One sadly wasn't checked and one was a fraudulent ID. That wasn't correctly handled. The second one, they were two incidents. The second one, I will at least say that immediately after security, we're there within, I believe it was two minutes and got the person off the floor within four. So although we had made the mistake of allowing them on, the reaction was very quick and then removed them, so. Thank you. Any other questions for Daniel? I do appreciate MGM's family friendly activities that we went out. Commissioner Hill and I, and we saw the skating rink. You know, we know about the bowling alley and the movies and that's the resort that we know that the lawmakers envisioned. It does present challenges. And I suspect Daniel, you'll be thinking about how to get these numbers down for the next quarterly report. Totally true. I think the only other thing that I'll pull from this because the most relevant quarter to compare it to would have been the same in 2019 and those numbers were a lot higher. So when we compare across those, these are only about a fifth of what they were in that year. So we definitely trended in the correct direction, but of course we can always attempt to do better without a doubt. Yeah, yeah. Okay, well, again, I do like those attractions. So just as a bigger challenge for this particular resort. Right. Thank you, Daniel. Very welcome. I'll hand back to Arlen for our operating and then local spend. Hey, Dan. For our total operating spend, we had $9.3 million identified in biddable spend. I know that's 7% or 0.6 million went to diverse suppliers. We have been working with NGN, no, G-N-E-M-S-D-C which is the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council to help us source more diverse spend. We've been doing it regularly as well as working with CWE, the Center for Women and Enterprise to also help us source more diverse vendors to bring these members up. And then for the, any questions? Do we have questions on the spend, missioners? That would be. Arlen, that's a tough slide, right? Is it a real change from the pre-pandemic? No, it hasn't been too much of a change. There has been a slight deficit. I think the challenge is now that on top of, really trying to bring this numbers up, meeting, we're doing everything we can, is we're also having us to play change for problem and challenges that everyone else is facing to just add to the layer, but we're not giving up, we're very focused on it. We're continuously meeting with suppliers. We have them come on property sometimes and we're looking for bids. We have regular meetings. We just had someone graduate from our mentorship diversity program. We're looking to start a new program and we have two to three local vendors will be submitting to our MGI mentorship program which also has extended, I believe, from six months to eight months. We just had the graduation Monday where I was able to attend. So we are all working together on this, not just us, but our corporate leadership as well. Thank you. And then for our total biddable spent was 12.4 million for the quarter. On that, 6.1 million or 49% was to suppliers within the Commonwealth and 38.5 or 4.8 million went to Western Massachusetts suppliers. Any questions? I'll start. Thank you. So this time I want to thank my pardon as I'm gonna play the part of Jason Randall for our employment numbers. He couldn't be here this afternoon, but for good reason, because he's actually conducting and attending a mass hiring event that we're having on site today. So that's why he couldn't be here. Looking at the first slide as we do regularly, you'll see the total up there of 1,189 employees total. As we go down, you can see that over that quarter period was an increase of 65 additional employees that we brought onto the payroll. Next. And then on this slide where we usually provide our separate minimum requirements of diverse employees, we understand obviously that there's a slight dip on the minority and the women numbers. And I can't give you an exact reason as to why that number went the way that it was. What we have looked into though, and that we're still more proud of is during the quarter and throughout the year, that 48% of our promotions within MGM Springfield were female employees. And I was actually gonna deliver, if you'll beg my indulgence, a little personal item on that, which was when I started within MGM Springfield, I was the risk manager. And I hired a young lady named Jasmine Rung as my coordinator. When I moved over to compliance, she became the risk manager. So she got one promotion. And then in the middle of last year, she actually was given the opportunity to become a director of risk management. Sadly, that meant that we lost her because she went back to Las Vegas. But the final thing that I'll throw out there is that when I hired her, she was a local Springfield resident. She was a female of color and she was a veteran. So I hit every single one of the requirements. And then she has continued to be a success story that I'm very proud to have been party to. And she's just one of many, clearly that we have here at Indian Springfield. I have one more slide, but after that slide I'll be handing over to Beth Ward, who as well, on previous occasions, we introduced her as our manager of community affairs. She is now director of community affairs as well. So there is definitely room for growth in moving up the chain. Here are some of the additional events that we've had to increase the idea of hiring, not obviously just regular frontline jobs, but also for people that look into leadership once they've completed their college journeys. And the final photograph there, the UMass leadership class tour and panel, I was party to that as well, got to deliver speech to those attendees. And they all seemed very eager to jump into the world of hospitality. It's what they're majoring in and obviously what they wanna do long-term. So any questions on any of those slides before I hand off to Beth? Are we sure there's any comments, if not questions? I had one, Madam Chair. You talked about at the very beginning your employment numbers, and I did notice a steady increase. Is that continuing? I mean, I know this is last quarter, but is that continuing as we speak, that steady increase of adding employees? It is commission at Cameron, clearly to speak to the fact that we've got a mass hiring then going on as we speak. And then because we really do want to try and expand on the amenities that we have available, we're running a, it's either weekly or five-weekly, and she best will correct me on this, hiring event for food and beverage outlets. We really do want to make this, the fully integrated resort that it opened as initially and come back blazing. And possibly if you do that, that could help you increase your number with women, correct? Yes, hopefully, yes. And you mentioned that you weren't able to identify why the numbers dipped or remain somewhat lower than you want them to be, need them to be. So I just wondered if you are, exit interviews with folks who leave or their childcare problems, are there, what the issues are? So I just wondered if there's work that could be done to kind of identify the reasons and see if there's anything you can do to assist with those numbers if you identify a specific issue. I'm understood. I'll get back with HR on that. I mean, clearly, although I said I'm playing the part of Jason Randall today, I don't do in very much justice, but we'll get back to you and let you know. No, no worries. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Good report. I like the story about the young woman, young woman who is now in Las Vegas. So that's a, that is a really good story. So thanks. Nevada's gain and Nevada's gain, right? Gail, but Commonwealth's loss. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good story, Daniel. All right, Ms. Ward, take it away. Hello, everyone. Just checking to make sure you can see and hear me. Okay. Okay. Very good. Okay. I know I haven't had issues before, but this will be my one time. And thanks, Daniel, for that shout out. Very excited over my tenure so far to have received a recent promotion. So, and keeping, you know, the female representation here is near and dear to my heart. So you can be sure that I will be very much involved in that as well. So I get the fun part, as I always do, to talk about some of the fun things happening on property. And that includes community outreach. Madam Chair, you had mentioned coming out to the skating rink and what a wonderful, really great moment, community moment down there, which provided a perfect backdrop for our Toys for Tots drive. So once again, we partnered with Western Mass News, a local news affiliate here for a weeks long drive to help the Marines here, local Marines, in their quest this year. They received a record amount of requests for help from local families. We are also very proud that we partnered with the folks on site at Game Sense to make what we think was a record breaking and fantastic drive this year. We were able to fulfill two semi tractor trailer fulls of toys for local children in need, helping their Christmas a little bit brighter. That's over 24 pallets of toys. Those were collected through back of house with our team members and through our guests who were just so incredibly generous this year. And we thank them so much. We do have a lot more. I'm so excited to talk about for our next meeting. And that includes a canine send off, our security canine who is now retiring in Florida. So I have more on that. So just something to look forward to. Let's go on to our special events slide if we could. As I talked about last time, poker reopening in October, we have an update on that. We have gone from 13 tables to 14 tables. So we're excited about that as our poker enthusiasts. So we continue to reevaluate that. We know that, you know, people love their poker room and we are so happy that we were able to be the first ones to reopen that in the state. Also Bright Nights Ball, that was something we were very excited to be able to host once again, along with the spirit of Springfield. It is, if you live in Western Mass, you know that the Bright Nights Ball is the biggest event of the year, biggest charitable event of the year. Once again, we were proud to host and partner with the spirit of Springfield on that. Again, going back to that winter wonderland on the Plaza, and I'll tell you, it really, this sounds cheesy, but gave me goosebumps. And I know it did of everyone here. It's just such a, if I could coin the phrase or use the phrase, hallmark moment. We had the skating rink. And man, what a really great partnership with the community who, the response was so fantastic. Families were out all the time utilizing that, which was great to see we had the big tree lighting event, which Santa was here and cheerleaders from the Patriots were here, so that was a great time. We were very excited to be able to offer that and see everybody back again in full force. If we wanna move on now to the development update, just a couple of things on this. Very excited about the Mass Mutual Center garage that is scheduled for demolition in June. That is a $40 million investment by the state. So that is going to really transform that area by the Mass Mutual Center. And just so excited to see that happen and get that underway. Also want to mention the 31 Elm Street project. That is right behind me, whereas I look over it every day. Also, there's some progress to report on that. Of course, MGM is excited to be part of that project. Community partner both in support financially with a $16 million contribution and as a neighbor who was just thrilled to see that area come to life. I spoke with Tim Sheehan this morning who wanted me to send his well wishes. He says hello to the Fontaine brothers, that local contractor who has been chosen to transform this building. I have seen them in there. They are busily working inside to shore up the interior and the perimeter is now being, fences are being put on around the area. So that's exciting. We are psyched to see that beautiful building again be transformed. Also wanted to mention, Madam Tru, you had mentioned top golf and the bowling and we are excited to say just a little teaser that because of some of our hiring events and the response that we've had recently from the community, we are able to activate those for group reservations only and I will have more on that coming up next time we meet. So a lot of things happening, a lot of exciting things happening and honestly can't wait for to share Q1 with you next time, but just very proud of where we've come so far. Any questions? Any questions, commissioners? Can I ask Beth, do you know the timeline on the garage? On the garage? I really don't know. Yeah, they're scheduled for demolition in June and soup can not say I believe it's about 23 months. Gus, you might- Are you able to hear me? Yes, Gus, we can hear you. Again, like Beth, I have troubles with my IT system. Madam Chair, the project as it stands and I think it's an aggressive timeline by MCCA is about an 18 month development. They hope to break ground or not break ground to start demolishing the existing structure sometime in June when the Springfield Thunderbirds our local hockey team finishes his playoff run and hopefully with the championship. So the expected timeframe is about from June one to about 18 months. They are hopeful that everything will be done by the time the hockey season starts up again in 2024. I think that's a little aggressive, but that's the timeline as it stands right now, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thanks, that's great project too. As another field trip, Commissioner Hill, at some point will have to take you to C31L and we've only seen it from the outside. So that's just an exciting project. I think Commissioner Cameron has a deposit on one of the condos, if I remember correctly. That's correct, Madam Chair. The mayor challenged me to that actually. It's a great building though and they're beautiful views, really a nice building. Yeah, I think you kind of picked the one that everybody would want. Of course, overlooking the park. On the end unit, all the windows, of course. Yeah, yeah, so again, another tour, which we look forward to. Commissioner, is there any questions? And I think that, Daniel, does that complete the report? I don't want to, I thought that was the last one. I actually have a few more slides that are in. Okay, go ahead. So we'll just move on to those. There we go, yes, yes. To clear out, you know, so Q4, we had the Free Music Fridays that we had so successfully outside moved inside. They were inside of our Aria Ballroom. And then, as I mentioned earlier, within the More Family Oriented Programming, you had the Thunderbirds local hockey team playing quite frequently and winning quite frequently over at Mass Mutual Center as well. And then we had a Cirque du Soleil style show, a holiday spectacular. Brian Regan, the comedian, was on site. And the Rock of Ages Band, that was actually our New Year's Eve event. Although we had a few around the property, that was the biggest one going on, again, up in the ballroom and welcoming in the new year, obviously, to the sounds of Classic Rock. So, oh, I'm sorry, it jumped past them. Oh, so, you know, we always talk about the Armory as well, that has continued to be our raw comedy club inside that facility. When Beth actually mentioned Bright Nights, the initial opening ceremony and reception was also hosted inside the Armory. So we are starting to program that a little bit more, varied as well, which is nice. And then the Commonwealth, I know sort of mid-year last year, you were a little concerned with it just having slot machines in it, would it return as the type of lounge that we intended it to be? And of course, it did return. And now we have dueling pianos in there and local artists that are duets and country singers. And I've been on a few occasions and seen the different styles of music that we have inside there. And then lastly, coming up, you can see some of the program we have mainly at Symphony Hall. I think there was a moment there, Chair Lady that you said you were a fan of John Mulaney. Big fan. At Mass Mutual Center. So yeah, so we really are trying to ramp up all of the entertainment that we like to consider ourselves to be top tier at now that we can spread our wings. So, and final slide, you guys have obviously seen this slide before. Although I'm glad to say this time around we are looking so on track. I don't want to jinx anything, but right now the two pieces of information that are on the slide, we will begin our social media campaign tomorrow about play my way coming. And we're all looking very much towards that hard go live on March 31st. So round out PGAN and just, this is our way of celebrating PGAN is through play my way. And that is. Thank you. And to that last point, if you weren't part of the meeting earlier, Daniel and team at MGM, we all recognize that PGAN takes really the village and we're very fortunate to have the collaboration and cooperative efforts from the three licensees that we regulate on all of those efforts. So, and play my way is going to be a great indicator exactly that. So thank you. Questions for this team, commissioners. Thank you for letting us interject during the presentation, Daniel, that worked out well. Not at all. Thank you. Keep it flowing. So Joe, I think that completes this part, but we do need to go into executive session if everybody agrees to do so. Yeah, so we need to, the separate invitation was sent for the executive session. So Dan, you and your team will have to log off this and then boot onto the next one. We just need a little process before we need to vote. So I'm going to interject on that. But before we go and leave this virtual room, commissioners, anything else? I don't know if we'll see all of the MGM at the next session if we vote in. Thank you so much. So I'll do my part, which requires me to read something into the record, Joe. So the commission anticipates that it will meet in executive session in accordance with GL, Chapter 30A, Section 21A7, to comply with GL, Chapter 23K 21A7 for the specific purpose of reviewing capital expenditures describing 205CMR 139.09 and any corresponding materials submitted relative to MGM Springfield as discussion of this matter in public would frustrate the purpose of the statute and associated legal authorities. This matter is further governed by 205CMR 139.02 as the information at issue is covered by a non-disclosure agreement. We'll need a motion on that. Just as a reminder, to those attending the public session of the commission meeting will not reconvene at the consideration of any executive session. So do we have a motion or discussion on it? Any questions? Joe, that's open meeting law. You have to actually, I had to actually read the word. So thank you. I'm happy to move that we enter into executive session for the reasons just stated by the chair. Second. Excellent, thank you. Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. And I vote yes for zero. Todd, we got it done. All right, so Joe, your point is that we need to now go to our other invitation to get to the next virtual room. Correct. Thanks for that reminder to the MPC team. Thank you. We'll see you there. Thanks everybody from the team for today's very, very productive meeting. Thank you.