eans is is the compliance program that the company has just a paper program right just policies and procedures or is it one that is implemented reviewed revised in an effective manner so a program that is a living program that keeps pace with the changing dynamics of the company and in that context is it working in practice as the company's operations might change as the risks profile length change is the program being fed back with that information to mature and sustain itself so to that end to the core areas that you know we'd like to see progress from the company as the compliance program matures is of its governance over hrcp so just as the board and executive management team govern itself in other areas of the business that same level of discipline and attention to be given to these issues at the highest levels of the company is something that will be important we'll also want to see continuous improvement on its policies and procedures based on lessons learned as the company moves continues to live with the program and we'll talk about these areas throughout the rest of the presentation but really the bottom line on governance is that although the company has developed significant processes and procedures the remain areas were increased we'll say formality discipline and transparency are necessary and we'll talk about that later in the presentation as to continuous improvement we know that there are already certain departments and you would have seen this in the report that are monitoring the program so we'll talk about what internal audit is doing we'll be happy to report on what we've seen corporate security doing that are engaged in activities to ensure that the company is actively registering risk and monitoring and mitigating it but we'll be looking to see other ways where the company can obtain and engage with data that it gets from its hrcp and use that information to continue to build upon the program so those are our overall observations we're going to turn now to each of the specific hallmarks that are under review and i'll turn it now to anselton who's going to talk to you about culture of compliance and conduct at the top and thank you alejandra and it's nice to see you commissioners so as alejandra said i'm going to cover culture of compliance and then proper authority as well culture of compliance and conduct at the top is perhaps the most difficult of the hallmarks of an effective compliance program to establish enhance and also measure since the commencement of the monitorship two and a half years ago we have seen management take certain specific actions designed to increase the culture of compliance at the company and message to employees that the company is really committed to its hrcp some of these actions were in response to our recommendations and others were self-initiated by the company which we were very pleased to see and encourage the company to continue to do for example the chief global compliance officer incorporated a personal statement about the company's commitment to compliance into his part of new hire orientation and the company created and delivered additional hrcp related trainings to employees which katherine will go over in greater detail in a few minutes in response to our recommendation the company has developed communications plans focused on hrcp for both boston and las vegas properties these plans include a speak up campaign with posters and signage throughout employee areas of the properties what is referred to as back-of-house messages from property leadership about various hrcp related topics and spotlights on substantive elements of the hrcp including certain policies and procedures for example the company highlighted the personal relationships policy this past valentine's day which was a very cute and creative way to get employees to think about that topic the next step that we would really like to see on the communications plans is for the company to think about them in a very strategic way and by that we mean thinking about the plans as one and ongoing effort to continue to embed the hrcp principles into the day-to-day operations in a way that makes the policies relevant to employees and two as a way to incorporate into communications the learnings from data drawn from different areas of the hrcp to address any weaknesses and enhance the effectiveness of the hrcp overall the company has recently provided training to compliance committee members and certain leadership and hrcp focused employees on massachusetts specific hrcp related laws and regulations which was a gap we had previously identified and recommended that they fill and we have an open recommendation now that the massachusetts specific training also be provided to the board alex if you could please move to slide nine a key message that we want to see the company internalize is that changing culture really requires more than just the implementation of our recommendations it requires the buy-in and sustained commitment across all levels and areas of the business and the company for that message to really filter down throughout various employee groups it's not only important for employees to see and hear messages coming from the company they need to perceive that those messages are authentic and sincere to that end during our focus groups we spent a lot of time talking with employees and discussing the culture that they feel at the company we observe through those focus groups that a majority of employees in both lost boston and los vegas reported that they believe the company lives by its values of honesty integrity and excellence we were surprised to see however that the percentage of employees responding positively to our written survey questions did not change much in the two years of our monitor ship and where the company has taken these proactive steps and that where there was a change it appeared to be an incremental positive change and there are a slew of potential explanations for that the largest of which is probably covid and the shutdown potentially changes in management but we're comforted that where there has been a change it has been a positive trend and that the company is taking specific actions that we know and recommend to convey its culture and commitment to hrcp interestingly in the focus groups we did hear many individual positive statements from employees and the employees as we'll note later expressed familiarity with certain policies and messages related to the company's hrcp which was excellent in los vegas we continue to hear from employees who had been with the company for years that they have noticed a significant difference in the company's approach to its hrcp in the last five years as well going forward we want to see the company continue to drive company culture forward and to do so in a sustainable and thoughtful way including trying to reach employees through actions and not just words and including specific efforts to reach the employees who may in fact be the hardest to reach and who haven't expressed that same familiarity with the company's commitment to its hrcp alex if you could please move to the next slide we'll cover proper authority oversight and independence so in the baseline assessment we observed a lack of clarity in the roles and responsibilities of legal compliance and hr with respect to the hrcp which can create gaps in the oversight of the program overall it can result in a lack of a feeling of ownership from any particular function over certain responsibilities and it can threaten the independence of certain key functions to exercise their roles as part of the hrcp thus one of our main recommendations previously was that the company complete a self-assessment of its hrcp-facing roles so that the company could clearly delineate various roles and responsibilities of those functions the company has now completed that self-assessment in short they have reported back to us that after that assessment legal is responsible for the development and refinement of the company's hrcp with guidance and input from hr the chief global compliance officer and the compliance department hr has responsibility for the implementation of all aspects of the hrcp with the assistance of the legal department on an as needed basis and compliance is responsible for ensuring that the company adheres to the hrcp through the monitoring of cases reported to the compliance committee or through the hotline as well as general adherence to company policies the company can leverage each of the roles to grow and mature the program with maximal efficiency and effectiveness with each function taking ownership of specific aspects of the program but continuing to work in concert with each other to inform and feed into the operation of the program as a whole and we will of course in this upcoming phases be monitoring and testing how each function begins to really take ownership of its specific role within the hrcp we're pleased to report that the company has satisfied the other prior recommendations of this hallmark on proper authority oversight and independence including the appointment of a new member of the compliance committee who has substantive and substantial experience in hr the company made that appointment last summer and we are already seeing positive effects from it including more robust and forward-looking discussions at the compliance committee in the meetings that we were able to attend similarly the company completed an evaluation of resourcing of encore boston harbors hrcp related functions including legal in hr and is in the process of making staffing adjustments in hr in the next phase of the monitor ship we are going to specifically focus on the roles and responsibilities of the compliance function in the company's hrcp as we've reported previously there were significant changes in compliance at the company with the departure of the previous chief global compliance officer in september of 2020 a few month gap and then the hiring of a new chief global compliance officer in 2021 we want to ensure that throughout the the compliance function is monitoring the company's hrcp so that the process is sustainable and also evolving as it should be and in the next phase is we are also going to be reviewing and testing the staffing and structural changes recently made to the hr function at encore boston harbour and now i'll turn it over to nicole to cover policies and procedures unless there are questions commissioners do you want to just take a pause to ask any questions here does that make sense alahandra i know that um there's a lot to digest absolutely um please do we welcome a couple welcome questions at any time right this might just be a good time commissioner brian i don't have any at this time i'm taking um notes about particularly the compliance committee in terms of um and i'm sure you'll speak to it later but in terms of the assessment of the is it being done earnestly and in good faith and does it actually work in practice um i have more questions prospectively on that than questions about substance of what's been presented so far i'm all set madam chair to move forward at this time okay thank you um thanks and good afternoon i'm co happy to be here so this brings us to policies and procedures the company has made significant progress on its policies universe and has satisfied seven out of the 11 monitor team recommendations and the baseline assessment in phase two report in doing so the company has made both structural and substantive changes to its policy landscape the company has developed enhanced and implemented core hrcp policies including the preventing harassment and discrimination personal relationships personal presentation employee patronization company policy review and code of conduct policies these are important developments that will help serve as the foundation for the company's ongoing efforts as and discussed previously the company also implemented and continued communication of these policies through a communication strategy one goal of these communications should be to demonstrate to employees that wins hrcp is not just a paper program but a system of principles and values that the company lives and expect expects its employees to live as well our onsite testing showed that the company's efforts to communicate its core policies are working for example large percentages of the company's employee base reported in our anonymous surveys that they had reviewed the company's employee interaction with guests and other third party's policy and also the preventing harassment and discrimination policy going forward we'll expect the company will satisfy all outstanding recommendations which includes some further substantive policy changes and take further steps to communicate updated policies to employees alex go to the next slide please thank you now we have third party relationships in the baseline assessment we identified patron misconduct as the company's highest risk factor for sexual harassment and discrimination we are pleased to see the company make meaningful progress in this area having satisfied most prior recommendations in addition to enhancements made to its employee interaction with guest policy the company also implemented tailored training and communication initiatives to creatively address certain risks to employees from patrons and develop a plan to track and monitor data collected from offending patrons for example the company utilized banners and displays on napkin holders emphasizing its speak-up campaign throughout the back of house it also issued we shifts to communicate expectations that employees report offending conducts by patrons going forward we expect that the company will implement all outstanding recommendations and we will test communications on core components of the employee interaction with guest policy the sustainability of the training program and employee perceptions of the company's stance on patron misconduct we will also be testing the company's implementations of procedures established in the policy for avoiding conflicts of interest particularly as it applies to third parties and with that i will hand it over to kathryn who will discuss training good afternoon commissioners so in training and guidance during the last period we've seen that the company has continued to implement training on its updated preventing harassment and discrimination policy they've also developed and implemented an online training on its updated employee interaction with guests and other third parties policy and as others have focused on the company has also continued to leverage existing communication channels in order to regularly reinforce messaging from training we received and reviewed a large sampling of we shift messages from the company and those generally include some specific messaging around the core hrcp policies as alahandra mentioned up top the company has also worked to creatively develop other ways to test and reinforce messages from training these include training corners which appear in we shift policies compliance pop-up events and monthly features of key hrcp policies the training corners generally appear in kind of the bottom right corner of the we shift messages and include things like quizzes on policies on the company's reporting channels on the preventing harassment and discrimination policy or other kind of core hrcp policies the pop-up event alahandra went through up top was another example of kind of a new creative channel for testing and reinforcing messaging and the presence of senior leadership at those events was good to see and I think it's helpful in this space and this year the company featured the personal relationships policy as one of its monthly compliance policy highlights and what that meant in practice was that there were digital and printed displays regarding the policy and other communications regarding the policy to reinforce messaging that said several recommendations remain either partially satisfied or completely outstanding in particular we've not seen evidence yet of targeted trainings for managers or supervisors on topics like the intake and routing of complaints including discrimination and harassment complaints the use of social media as a potential platform for harassment and these trainings are really key to establishing consistency and managerial supervisory support if you have the consistency and the support on that side when the employees are set up to effectively deal with issues like patron misbehavior which is other other folks have said is something that we're focused on while we have seen a training that was provided to er personnel on the investigations policy and we understand the company does have a plan to to roll out additional policies we've yet to see kind of a written schedule for those policies or description of those those trainings that are upcoming and a plan is really important for sustainability and for and having to build a schedule facilitates the company and thinking holistically and strategically about its training needs and not just plugging in trainings on more of an ad hoc basis and this kind of holistic view is in keeping with the doj's guidance um over the last days we were excited to see the company on board a new svp of dni and we heard about the diversity and inclusion strategy and related activities and we look forward to assessing the implementation of the strategy including as it pertains to training going forward as we've noticed uh noted in the past uh training in the space is something that employees are looking for um we have not seen an updated security manual but we understand that revisions may be underway we would like to see some targeted training on dealing with harassment and discrimination for folks in the security functions since they're often the first people on the scene uh when those issues come up and finally we have seen indications that the company is starting to solicit feedback on the effectiveness of its trainings but we'd like to see there is a cohesive approach to testing and measuring the effectiveness of trainings and then incorporating the results of that testing into future trainings if we can go to the next slide so by the end of the next phase of review we hope to see the company implement the remaining recommendations that i just discussed will be assessing the effectiveness of the company's diversity and inclusion training program including whether it provides specific guidance on transgender and gender identity and how the company leverages its existing communication channels uh and creatively develops new ones as they have over the last phase to regularly reinforce messages from trainings with that i'll turn it over to Preston thank you for the audience and for the time today um i'll talk a little bit about internal reporting and investigation because we heard from myla hundra at the beginning um it is a key area um that's the case and then you monitor stuff like this um and i'm also thinking of our commissioner brian about your your question about sincerity um and i think that we can say based on what we've seen that the company definitely has a sincere approach to improving the way that it investigates the planks um and and the way that it keeps um uh internal reporting channels open um happy to talk more about that if you have any more questions with um specifically to some of the um points that came to mind here and we continue to view the obviously the this being an important area for the company um it's the key to the success of its um HR compliant program um and since our phase two report uh you recall that the company's taken steps to enhance uh it's internal reporting and investigative procedures we call them in phase two uh some of those things were not possible as was faced with so many employers because of constraints caught by the pandemic uh with respect to the improvements that have been made now in this phase phase three the company has rolled down a new reporting platform um launched um including focused communications uh regarding the importance of uh because you're heard from my colleague erby and speak up our campaign and just generally scoop me up um it's also updated its investigations policies and frankly it's done a real rewrite of its policy uh not just uh considering on the edge but it's uh quite comprehensive as you heard from some others uh on our team we are able to directly connect with employees uh through our surveys and focus groups um and and as you as you know from our prior discussions about the importance of focus groups that is really an key for us right to gauge um how the company is doing in in this area um so you're doing more than just looking at the outcome of the investigation you're hearing from employees about whether they even feel free to raise that or whether they feel you know the right steps were were taken investigations um um although um we we've heard positive feedback from employees um on the perception of the of of their ability to speak up and that speak up culture um we also conducted as you've seen an over put survey results that indicated that the company and the team are just going to have work to do in this area that's particularly the case in boston compared to uh to the total phase um a review of the investigation's files and conversations with personnel involved in investigations are confirmed um again that the the company is enhancing right its policies um the policy fulfills one of the core recommendations from our baseline assessment not in particular uh to provide substantive guidance on investigative steps including document collection um it provides direction for assessment of witness credibility in a community um really um counsels against and over reliance on finding robbery uh also one of the things that we addressed in the corner phase one was the sometimes over reliance on um um on coming to a lack of a conclusion when one witness um accused another of doing something wrong they ran into the he say she said the company is focused on that and it's written a policy um that really counts against it and it is clear to us from having spoken with the investigation's personnel that they're way beyond that issue uh we also note that over the last phase of the review the company's experience comes to this on the downside there's so many employers have significant turnover in its hr function at the boston property despite no staffing um levels over the course of the review period the property was able to continue to move on its investigations program forward and to address allegations of containment um and the property continues to add personnel to the and the er councilable and will continue to assess the appropriate distance of resource dedicated to the hr function we know however that the turnover can be um create a risk um in moving an investigation program forward and i think the company we think the company is focused on as the company turns to implementing its enhanced reporting and investigation framework we've made a certain follow-up recommendations um those include um increasing communications for senior management at the corporate and property levels in support of this week of culture one of the things that was pronounced through the surveys that we did is that that trust seems to be um the trust seems to be decreasing but also um employees hearing from senior management um about the importance of the policy seems to be decreasing we also recommend communicating to employees regarding the availability of multilingual reporting options and you know that the company is aware of me for that but it was something that we continued to hear through the surveys that we did if we can go to the next slide please now going forward what we do what we plan to do to address this is as you see here um we will continue to test the effectiveness of this week of our communication campaigns um we'll observe the continued implementation of new investigation policies and test the effectiveness of investigations trainings um it's one thing to have a policy it's another thing put it in place and the group that company is focused on doing that the right way um we will test the efficacy of multilingual reporting channels and we'll do that in a number of ways um most most notably through focus groups I will test employee awareness of satisfaction um awareness of the satisfaction with ER availability recall that this was an issue that was raised in the past phase two obviously operations were effective uh were focused on both making sure that ER is doing an available resource for employees again to raise their hand um to uh for internal reporting um the um we will also conduct interviews and direct obedience with HR and be our personnel involved in the investigation process and review a sample of investigation file again to this point about sincerity um we have felt welcome um in those discussions and we feel that the company is sincere in embracing us and wanting to talk about the process with us and um in the exchange of of information about what they're doing to improve the process um and we we look forward to that continuing um lastly we'll test the effectiveness of the company's training personnel response for investigations here of course you can imagine the more turnover there is a degree of there need there is for training um in making sure that people are bringing in are aware of the policy in conducting investigations as the company intends we'll also of course regularly speak with those personnel as well are there any questions that y'all have very great we'll now turn to insanity just great thanks Preston um so on incentives and discipline only one of the pending recommendations was fully satisfied over the last phase of review but we're happy to see the company more recently reinvigorate um its efforts in this space so the company has updated its progressive discipline and performance policy now provides guidance on a holistic evaluation of the circumstances and it clarifies roles responsibilities and authority with respect to the disciplinary process but discipline is only half the equation we also look at incentives and incentivizing compliance is a key hallmark of a successful compliance program so the company has updated its employee of the month program so that it explicitly integrates standards of behavior related to hrcp compliance we'll be looking for the company in the coming phase to communicate that update to its employees um for the duration of this monitor ship the company has not operated a company wide performance management program when we submitted the baseline assessment the company was in the process of designing and implementing such a program and it would have applied to employees across the organization the senior level employee who was driving that initiative left the company in august 2020 and the company declined to pursue the program further at that time but in this last phase of review we've been happy to see the company reconsider that prior position and we understand that uh the program is in process once again to develop a unified performance management system with an initial rollout expected later this year so the company now finds itself at a turning point for performance management the doj has highlighted the importance of providing positive incentives to drive compliance including things like personal personnel promotions rewards and bonuses um for improving and developing a client's compliance program or demonstrating ethical leadership the doj has noted that some companies have made compliance a significant metric for management bonuses or have made working on compliance a means of career advancement so for that reason we continue to view a formal performance management program that includes compliance-based metrics as central to the success of the HRCP so by the next phase of the review we're expecting the company to incentivize compliance by communicating the updated standards of behavior uh that I mentioned that are incorporated into the employee of the month program and also developing a plan for this unified performance management system so over the next phase of review we'll be test this testing the consistency of discipline in the harassment and discrimination space by reviewing discipline imposed in those matters we'll be testing the effectiveness of the employee of the month program and incentivizing compliance by reviewing the process by which employees are nominated and looking at who is selected and reviewing the development and rollout of the performance management program uh and with that I'll turn it to Alejandra thank you thank you Catherine um so and now we're going to move on to the the last sections of our analysis which really do go to the heart of the theme that you've seen here right which is that maturing of the program sustaining of the program and overall corporate um governance that we want to see over the program so so first of all we move to risk-based reviews right and here we go back to DOJ guidance um and in this space the DOJ considers periodic and ongoing risk-based reviews really to be the starting point for an evaluation of whether a company has a well-designed compliance program um they encourage companies to think about how they've identified and assessed their own risk profile and to the degree to which the program develops appropriate scrutiny and resources to the spectrum of its risks and the reason it's important that this is ongoing and that these risk assessments be periodic is because companies aren't static right businesses aren't static and it's critical that the company assess its changing risk profile and adjusts program as as needed um the EOC also suggests that to effectuate and convey a sense of urgency and commitment um to preventing compliance risks leadership should assess its company's particular risk factors so the company engaging in this exercise is yet another way that it communicates to its employees and to um other stakeholders that it really does care about these issues and this is where I think you know we begin to see the role of the board of directors and the board of the compliance committee provide opportunities for growth in the way that the both both bodies really demonstrate to management their urgency in ensuring that management is taking its responsibility in this space and moving it forward and asking those types of probing questions so that both bodies have available to them information to inform them of the risks that the company might be seeing in this space or decisions that the company is making that could expose the company to two risks in this space so it really is a bottom up and a bottom in a top down approach that we see in this space since the uh the baseline assessment the company has developed and implemented as we've said a risk assessment program that is driven primarily by the annual annual audit cycle we really do think this is it cannot stress what a critical development this is for the company to do this through an independent largely independent function within its group right the reports to the audit committee that reports the compliance committee on these risks it provides a natural um a synergy a natural point of contact between those two bodies and audit to give visibility of transparency where there might be opportunities for um risks to go undetected or perhaps opportunities for better implementation of its program we've also seen uh the security department conduct security risk assessments so physical assessments that go to identifying risk of harassment and discrimination and you know for purposes of kind of protecting the sensitivity of these assessments we're not going to go in too much detail but the the heart of it really is is that the company is keeping in mind not just policy risks but also physical risks that its employees and its guests encounter in the spaces of harassment and discrimination and ensuring that the security measures that it has available to it and the tools that it have available to it are being deployed one to detect security risks or security violations when they happen but equally important if not more important to prevent these um risk of materializing and of course we've seen secret security use those tools to help um reinforce and enhance the investigation of these of these um occurrences as well going forward what we want to see of course is a continuation of the HRCP audits that internal audit is leading and on the security side really encourage the company to document its current processes the security reviews that we're referring to I think are largely developed as a matter of of practice the risk with that is that the individuals driving those practices should they leave the company tomorrow there's a risk that those practices leave with them and in fact we see opportunities for corporate security to develop what it's doing to share information between both properties and how it's developing these processes and develop a more uniform approach to be security-driven risk assessments but we were very pleased to see and frankly the way that we got some of that insight was through sitting through some of these shadow interviews that we conducted of the internal audit risk assessment process so if we move to monitoring and testing um here we have um the company has not satisfied two of its outstanding recommendations and we'll talk about what that is but you know largely again we continue to see some some meaningful progress here um monitoring and testing as you heard throughout this presentation really are essential for the maturing and sustainability of the compliance program and this really goes to that third question that the DOJ asks is you know does the corporation's compliance program work in practice um monitoring testing all aspects of the program is really the only way that the company can ensure that its program is working and so the company's monitoring and testing program is becoming and will continue to be an increased process and an increased focus of our of our future reviews um we began in the baseline review really focusing on how the company monitored its harassment discrimination allegations and investigations and you know it's implemented an annual um it does a large part through the audit department but also we want to encourage them to look at other ways to do it um and we've given some examples in prior reports and we're going to give some examples here right training is an important part of this program and we want to make sure that the company is monitoring and testing the effectiveness of that particular element of its hrcp it's begun to do that um you know we know the company tests completion rates right that's important to understand that its program is working and that it's getting to all the employees that need to have it in addition to train to uh monitoring completion rates we also think it's important for the company to look at other data behind training so the speed with which trainings are completed are some departments for instance are we seeing delays in some departments that we're not seeing in others what is the root cause of those delays it could be a whole potpourri of issues that leads to these delays but it could be technical issues that are affecting some departments or it could be something more serious like perhaps a manager or supervisor in that department not prioritizing um these types of trainings so important for the company to be able to unpack that so that it can address it ensure that its trainings remain effective the company's been moving um we've seen the company deploy some online trainings that provides a fantastic opportunity for the company to ensure that its employees are learning what the company intends them to learn through these trainings so truly are the trainings effective in communicating the company's priorities to employees we've seen the company include in um for instance its interactions with guests policy questions at the end of each of the training modules and you know you probably sat through trainings that do this as well where employee where the trainee is asked to answer questions about what he just learned and if it doesn't answer correctly it can't rely really important to drive knowledge but it would be really um helpful for the company to also monitor whether or not employees have to retake certain modules more frequently than others um whether there are certain questions that seem to be getting repetition um because employees are struggling with them to ensure that maybe the way that the messaging is being communicated can be updated and that in that way it keeps its trainings um developed and focused and you've heard us talk also before about how the company monitors its actual claims on discrimination and allegation and you know the company spends a lot of time looking at the specific complaints that come in and that is commendable the compliance committee spends a lot of time meeting each complaint that comes in we've seen it we've observed the compliance committee look at the reports we've asked we've seen them hone in on specific issues that are of interest to them um that's a very important monitoring exercise but what we've advised what we've recommended the company do is also take a higher level analysis of the complaints and allegations that it is receiving so that it begins to understand trends are we seeing certain types of claims more frequently in some departments of others are we seeing certain number of claims against some individuals more so than others similarly tracking investigation trends how quickly are investigation our allegations being responded to how quickly are investigations being closed out those sorts of monitoring and testing aspects of the program there's an opportunity to develop that as well and we'll of course be looking at how the company continues to do this in the future phases any questions so far before you want to to controls which is the last element and I have one that harkens back to um one of the other areas that the company hasn't complied with which has a thread that's running through some of this one of the driving factors in terms of the decision that resulted in your monitor ship had to do with how management had handled allegations of misconduct and I I'm trying to see if I heard correctly that the company still has not done management specific trainings in terms of how to handle and process and send to the right areas of the company complaints that get sent to management and did I hear that correctly so yes and no I think I can speak I can speak to both sides right so when we talk about management maybe we'll be more precise too and how we discuss it we have not seen the company conduct training of line managers and supervisors focused on how to respond to allegations that come to them they've received general harassment and discrimination training they've been trained that they have an obligation to report but what we hear in focus groups and you heard this in the baseline and we continue to hear it in this phase is that employees have different experiences based on who they're interacting with we've been told some managers and supervisors get it they do a great job they have their vats right others manage other managers and supervisors regrettably are not as responsive or you know revert back to behavior that we've seen that we've heard reported in the past which is well you know that's just the way it is right there's nothing I can do about it for instance if an employee might complain against the behavior of a patron we heard a lot less this time I mean truly a lot less of that but still enough where this really came from employees where they felt it was a matter of training because of the inconsistent the lack of uniformity that they're seeing between managers and supervisors and was there any sort of breakdown was it more or less likely to happen given the area of employment in terms of because that was an issue that we had early on too yes we continue to hear well we heard it primarily with respect to cocktail servers so it's still on the casino floor interestingly we did start to hear from other areas employees from other areas so kitchen staff for example housekeeping staff where or you know employees that deal with in-room dining who might themselves encounter problematic interactions with their parties and we're hearing messages on how to handle that and you know what was interesting to us is when we speak to the when we speak to the heads of those departments because in this phase we actually spoke to management across across all levels there was a disconnect in what department heads thought they were communicating which is consistent with what we expect to hear and what employees themselves were receiving and so you know we think a direct way to address that is really focused training on that level of management supervisor that has that direct one-on-one contact with employees when this is actually happening so that they know how employees are perceiving their reactions what they should be doing you know we're giving employees like cocktail servers the company's giving them very specific tools on how to respond to third parties that level of detail training which again we see some of in the interaction with third parties but I think it needs to go a little bit deeper yeah and I'm concerned about sorry what I'm concerned about is not wanting to see sort of an ongoing lack of empowerment to speak up which is kind of what landed here in the first place in terms of the monitorship so you talk about the sincerity of the company and there's a lot of improvements that they've made this is an area for me that it's disturbing that it's still there to the level that it appears to be so I'm wondering and you can speak to this in terms of going forward to in the next phase. Alondra is it different between Boston and Las Vegas? It's largely the same and you know I would say I think we saw and you know the team can remind me if I'm getting my numbers next but we saw I think more room for improvement in Boston than we saw in Vegas. That's what your report suggested. Can I just have the follow-up question to Commissioner Ryan? In my misunderstanding that the company has established for all employees at least a channel of communication that will go directly because they have a complaint they can they have an ability to do something electronically at the very least right and what I'm hearing is that if they opt to go to a manager or supervisor there's inconsistency there but it is the channel of communication the electronic one is established and have you we found that that's being utilized well? Yes that is being used we continue to see not significant we saw a little bit of a diff of course during the pandemic and the number of reports that were coming in but there just weren't that there weren't that many employees right working and that many opportunities to to have these sorts of issues we do see so in this space we do see the the line being used more importantly we saw greater awareness of employees with respect to that line and what it actually meant so we saw not just a familiarity with it but also an understanding that they can report anonymously and you know we saw a lot of messaging around the line itself and I think we mentioned in the report that you know they have QR codes around the property work or back of the house where the you see the signs and the posters promoting this line and you know a couple of employees said yeah I took the QR code and I have the you know I took a picture of the speak-up line so in that regard it's very good but you know employees still especially if you're on the floor you're going to turn to your manager your supervisor on duty to complain and so to the extent that you know I think we were hearing and this to us just really does remain interesting or notable is that you know when we talk to employees we hear very positive accounts yet in the surveys again we don't see the same degree of improvement reflected in employee perception and again I don't know if that's just a matter of time of letting these things take root right of and that's what we continue to be focused on this on this phase. Can I ask just one more follow-up question and do all employees regardless of their job have access to the tools the electronic? Yes every single employee both and it's online so there's an online portal and there's a phone number that can be used so both. And I haven't in any way I'm equally bothered by Commissioner O'Brien's observation I had noted the same thing and thought I had misunderstood too about the need for that supervisor management training to get to achieve consistency because that really was core to our decision I would say where if it doesn't it's not consistent management at that level it's mixed up for the rest of the time there's just it's got to be clear from manager to the next manager to the right spot if we're using humans and not the electronic. That's right that's right and you know the company addresses it in the general training but you know and I think this is really why we see government guidance in this space trending away from just that one annual training being sufficient and really pushing companies and compliance programs to focus training in very you know that what the DOJ has said is they will but they want to see more frequent shorter trainings that are really specifically designed to address risks that companies identify and you know these can happen in many different ways they can happen in formal training they can happen in coaching sessions I mean and it all ties in right because I also think this ties in to you know Catherine talked to you about incentives and discipline right and about the importance of having a formal evaluation process these types of events right would allow higher level manager or department heads to give feedback and training on you know how how they perceive their teams are addressing these issues on the floor or in their respective departments yeah I guess I would just add to what Alejandra said you know the company's preference to date has been to incorporate training on escalation into the training that everybody gets I think the idea is partially that everybody would hear how things would be escalated and you know in theory we don't have an objection to them incorporating further detail about escalation into those general trainings but we do continue to believe for the reasons Alejandra just stated that that targeted trainings to managers and supervisors on these issues are are the most effective way to address them you know one thing we've always you know the approach that we always take and we encourage the company to take to is identify what touch point does it already have right so what touch points do you already have with managers and supervisors where you can just incorporate this element of training and we've seen you know the company deploy other trainings directed at managers and supervisors folded into that right I mean it's the more organic training and the discussion the more organic hopefully the behavior becomes I think that we confirmed in your last report the board did go through the training too correct the board has gone through training yes the general the general training the general so what I'm hearing is that it just needs to be much more targeted so that the skill of being the manager and supervisor piece is enhanced right that's right that's right that's right and in line frankly with the changes that it made to its its third party it's a employee interaction with guest policy because in that policy they are much more specific the policies much more specific in the expectations giving you know timeframes in which you know the manager supervisor receives a complaint within you know Nicole correctly 24 hours it has to be reported to you know ER so the expectations are there and the company really needs to you know ensure that employees understand them the supervisors and managers understand them and holds them accountable to those to those metrics commissioner brian other other questions on that or madam chairman no not right now thanks which i tell you all set right now i'm all set for right now i'm laughing inside because all our notes seem to be the same i wrote down focus training with management so very highly uh to that and i also um at some point but not today would love to hear more about the speak up campaign how it works how it's implemented things of that sort and then i also wrote down i think cap room is speaking to us about how three out of the eight prior recommendations have only been satisfied so that was a red flag for me to see that moving forward but i think you touched upon that a little further so i'm all set at this point madam chair okay thank you well i think it just stood out because i i feel like we might have missed that the last time around or maybe it's just evolved to the focus groups that you're really now seeing that that is that that there's a gap there so thank you well i think it's that i do think it's that right we highlighted at the beginning and i think we're reemphasizing it again because the benefit of doing this periodically is you know you get to see where things have moved and where things haven't moved and you know commissioner hill i'll just say on the speak up campaign you know beyond what it really it's been physical and also you know just integrated into so very visual and also integrated into different forms of communication but that's where we have seen a trend or we have seen a change a positive change where employees are telling us they really do understand the company wants them to speak out and we hadn't seen that before you know we heard many many more employees tell us that they didn't feel empowered to do it but we're happy to you know it goes as in detail on those questions that you have commissioners that's needed i have one follow-up question i'm related to that but i think related maybe close enough in time to bring it up now in terms of the performance i wish i could read my writing right now management performance management thank you and i look like engagement that didn't make sense performance management that includes the recognition of hrcp compliant behavior who who oversees that performance management program so the program hasn't been rolled out yet and so exact kind of rules and authority i don't think are set for sure currently it'll be from the the svp of hr who sits kind of in a you know role that oversees las vegas and and boston is the person who's kind of spearheading the development of the program but we have yet to kind of see the specifics on how it would be executed so i think she's you know well established to be in a position overseeing it but i'm i'm not sure that the exact layout of authority has been set that's not necessarily the chief global compliance officer right right thank you so if we turn that now to slide 20 alex please which uh takes us to controls environment um and here our review on controls environment initially started really out focusing on ensuring that the company had appropriate controls to prevent the recurrence certain of the risks that were identified in the mgc's decision in order in the i e b's investigation that really meant a focus on policies and procedures governing the types of agreements and you know payments that were identified in the course of that investigation so you know we've made recommendations with respect to the review of settlements with employees related to claims of harassment discrimination we've seen clear guidelines to avoid and the company has implemented those changes we've seen clear guidelines on how to avoid conflicts of interest with the engagement of external counsel to avoid the recurrence of the risks that we saw with respect to mr win where company counsel external counsel were also being engaged by mr win's personal capacity they're blurring the line and creating a conflict of interest that resulted in the misconduct that you identified we also reviewed separation and employment agreements to ensure that confidentiality provisions are appropriately scoped and reported to you in the past that those recommendations have been implemented and review those confidentiality provisions to be appropriate the remaining area was the use of arbitration of compelling arbitration of claims of harassment discrimination in our phase two report we noted that with respect to the ebh um employment agreements they were in fact not carved out we've made recommendations that those um clauses be corrected and brought in line with the las vegas um employment agreement we have had discussions with the company i think that there was some confusion about what exactly we meant because the separation agreements also come into play and they're now clear on what the changes should be and those changes we understand are being for our concerns for being addressed and we'll be able to see that in in short term we also sense phase two the company has developed a formal policy that governs the initiation and review and approval of legal settlements that includes the settlements of claims related to sexual harassment and discrimination important for us those settlements now require dual signature um so you're the four eyes principle right where you have um two different people reviewing and approving those agreements and that is something that we know is certainly audited and something that we will be looking to as well to ensure that um that procedure is implemented so again the only the only of the initial recommendations that remains open is underway to being addressed and that's with respect to the change language in the mandatory arbitration provisions so in as we move away from those initial kind of more tangible if you will risks we do continue to look at the company's environment controls environment around h hrcp its corporate governance around these issues and we're really keenly aware of language and the decision in order where the mgc found quote substantial evidence that the company routinely failed to comply with its own policies um in your decision in order you concluded that those failures struck at the heart of this matter the matter that you were viewing at the time and served as a key contributor to the previously described broad systemic failures so guided by those observations we are paying very close attention to how senior management governs itself um are they properly implementing their own policies have they developed a proper appropriate policies to avoid the breakdown of governance we're looking at the roles the compliance committee and of the board of directors in providing oversight and how management um engages and again governs itself with its policies and procedures during um this phase three our testing revealed opportunities for the company to enhance its controls in this space and particularly with respect to the recruiting and vetting recruiting vetting and onboarding of third party consultants and also senior senior personnel specifically the area that you know arose is the management of potential conflicts of interest at senior levels there's an apparent conflict or an actual potential conflict um and the review and assessment of background investigations and by that I mean you know background investigations of potential candidates and you know it's particularly focused on employee individuals that may be known or familiar to the company and in previous reports we've identified or we've commented really on management's recruitment of candidates for key roles really based on pre-existing relationships and we've cautioned that absent formalized processes that practice could compromise the independence of key roles it could create a perception that there's an inner circle um at the management level in a way that could legitimize individuals so on a micro level and and really on a macro level create this reappearance of you know what was described to us when mr win was um so that kind of founder led mentality of having an inner circle now I want to stress right there's nothing inherently wrong with creating people that you know right I mean that that happens every day there's nothing inherently wrong but we are tasked to evaluate those practices in the context of past issues to ensure that to the extent that that continues to happen as it will that the company understands that greater formality greater discipline is needed to ensure that the risk of reemergence of the culture that existed under mr win which the ngc described as placing loyalty over the best interests of the company doesn't recircuit and you know we think that how companies hire particularly at the highest levels of the company just from a practical and even optical effect um really is critical how you hire is critical to preventing that risk as a whole so we're you know the company really should ensure that it has processes designed to consistently subject all candidates to a full extent of its vetting procedures that it assess each candidate with due objectivity and with appropriate degree of deliberation required for that position that includes not just internally as a management team but also ensuring that for key positions that vetting and deliberation involves the compliance committee and the board of directors absent that and i think there could be an appearance of favoritism um in the most benign you know results um but still harmful to the overall culture um or you know as i said before the creation of an inner circle and in a worst case scenario right you're creating again a circle of loyalty that defers to leadership without probing or questioning and i'm not suggesting this is what's happening it's you know if it goes on monitor um that would give rise again to the risk of you know that um resulting in individual wrongdoing again not suggesting that we're seeing any indication with this leadership team of of that risk but there is a level of you know continued just familiarity and trust as happens in small management groups um particularly in industries that are smaller regional focus um and it's natural to slide maybe outside of a formal more bureaucratic way of governing yourself to one that's more familiar and trusting but that does it does carry inherent risk and you know as we've said to you before and you know certainly said to the company we evaluate the program that's it not the program as implemented by the people who are here today right or the people who are here today themselves it's you know when this monitor this management team that lived through the difficulties of the issues that came before you you know clearly understands the consequences of that when that knowledge leaves is there a program in place that can continue to protect the employees that remain and continue to uphold the policies and procedures and values that the company is trying so hard to to create and you know the company has taken numerous steps as it transitions away from a founder-led culture to develop a more mature program and as it continues on its on this path we want it to be mindful to develop clear processes and controls that apply to the highest level not just at the operational level which is where the focus is right now um you know absent that level of attention to corporate governance the corporate culture that we're seeing built at the bottom may not take root as deeply you know as we as we want as uh in in the company's overall corporate governance structure so going forward we're going to continue to be focusing on these issues you know I mean as Ann said earlier one of these cultural issues tone at the top um are the hardest sometimes but they're important and you know we think that with the company's commitment to get this right that will that will follow. Alejandro um with respect to the additional observations in the where you see there's an opportunity to enhance the approach to batting and to leverage a process for hiring key senior positions were you able to view whether there's it's consistent in terms of the need to enhance the approach for all candidates or is that need to enhance approach to those who they are most familiar with in other words do they use a standard approach requiring more depth in vetting for those folks who are not as familiar to them that they're hiring at that level. So that's a great question um and I don't know that we have enough data points right now madam chair to answer that question fully um what I will say is we have you know the company does have its background investigation policy um and we've seen it applied we've looked at you know background files we've seen it apply across applied across the company that background investigation policy also governs the vetting of more senior people we haven't had the opportunity really to to to pressure test it um but you know I think what we want to see is an appreciation and an understanding that the policy does apply and that full vetting has to occur and it's it's more the deliberation piece right where we may all naturally be more inclined to move more quickly in hiring and onboarding people one because of the criticality of rules and two because you know they may be known um to different extent but just holding the pause button waiting for everything to be completed right ensuring that everyone has all relevant stakeholders are aware of the full scope of the investigation the background investigation file prior to a formal decision being made is important and I will say here um you know employment agreements do say this offer is conditional on clearing a background check right and that is not uncommon for companies to move forward with employment agreements pending background the and this is where the importance of conduct over just words I think is important right yes companies have the ability to hire pending background but it's important for companies to also understand that where there might be issues that warrant deliberation even if in the end it doesn't impact the hiring decision even though I have the contractual right I mean just take take that pause signal to your leadership to other employees that might be watching that this is important that you take it seriously so that when the decision is made to move forward no one questions it because there is clear indication that due deliberation was given I don't know if that answers your question manager that's very very helpful thank you I know that we're getting a little bit short on time and so I'll try not to ask another question for a second and I will I just I do feel that I need to I want to make just one point abundantly clear we haven't seen any hires that are of concern right and I think that is that's an important I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that we're signaling that we have concerns over any individuals that have been hired or engaged it's more about the process and ensuring that it's commensurate with the importance of the role and the depth of the investigation that's needed thank you any other questions on the and I know we're we're stealing time for me so I apologize for that that's not the end though no no no just we have concluding out so now we have walked through all of the we have walked through all of the hallmarks yeah absolutely and I think you know now it's we're two and a half years in right from midway midway through so we think it's important to kind of look back at what we undertook when we first were brought on and we had laid out six goals for this monitor ship one was to ensure that the company has human resources policies procedures and corporate governance structures that are designed to prevent detect and respond to the types of violations that you identify the second is to ensure that human resources compliance program effectively mitigates the risk of sexual harassment and other misconduct that could compromise the welfare safety and security of employees that we ensure that the company maintains a controls environment with respect to engagement and payment of third parties and that the company has an ethical business culture that does two things one encourages speaking up in transparency across all levels of the organization that ensures the uncompromised implementation of its human resources compliance program and that really goes to that last piece of the conversation right it truly has to be an uncompromised implementation and the last two are to ensure that the human resources compliance program and business culture endure beyond the term of our monitor ship so it's that sustainability theme and lastly that it safeguard the public trust right and so we evaluate the company's program against this backdrop I do think it is a positive story we do see the company making sincere progress and now it's you know really the hard part is moving past those tangible implementation that tangible implementation of recommendation and continuing to build a sustainable and mature program to those thank you of course commissioners I'm all sad thank you great report thank you no I don't have anything further like I said I think I flagged the concerns I have going forward and be interested to see what we hear next from you on that did we address the initial you'd raised the earlier question of you know good faith and sincerity did we address that concern right and now it's more you know the the narrower question of particularly when it comes to how employees are hearing or being spoken to in terms of when complaints are raised at the management level of what is being done about what would be done about that okay and I think that the commissioner and I echoed that so thank you commissioner Brian I guess I'll just close then like both missions don't have another question just to one give our appreciation to you Alejandra that seems to monitor in your entire team at million Chevalier and of course Preston Pume sorry sharing your expertise on the investigation side we also I personally want to commend the company for what the positive measures it's taken to work with you this is not an easy condition that we impose it's complex but I've noted that you've praised them Alejandra and and I think I noted when I read the report that you say cultural change doesn't doesn't happen overnight and change will come with all the real intentionality that you've described so again in many ways your report serves as some just excellent guidance for them and I know that you'll continue to test particularly the sustainability of the program so you know I'm appreciative of both your work and the company's good work with the understanding that you've identified some some things that need improvement and you'll continue to monitor that so thank you commissioners are we all set then thank thank you and and just so you know I don't she went on earlier commissioner Skinner is at a conference so she's on the west coast so she she has your report and I think she brought the hard copy with her for some good probably flight reading so thank you give her our best yes yes all right well thank you and we'll continue to look forward to your your your next return report thank you so much thank you again for the trust if we take down this we can at least I'll say goodbye okay great thank you all good to see you all thank you have a good day thank you okay bye probably could have each asked about three thousand more questions and given the length of the report in its depth but um we can save them up too um um now it is 2040 and we have a responsible uh gaming research and responsible gaming and we have racing division do we need a break before we proceed I need about five minutes madam chair okay and that makes good sense so it is 241 what what time would you like to reconvene I should be five minutes is fine with me okay we'll do a 250 I have to round up okay thank you thanks get 250 thank you everyone hi Dave we're all set all good to go hi everyone um so thank you and we're just going to be reconvening public meeting number 378 of the mass gaming commission and I just need to do a quick roll call commissioner brian yes I am back commissioner hill I'm back okay we're all set to go and I'm I'm going to turn it over to um director vandal and just a quick announcement because of the timing of this meeting I don't want to short change anyone um uh mark has agreed to do his research agenda at our next public meeting which is made up and uh this way we can hear from the folks um MGM and play my way mark great um actually thank you madam chair and good afternoon commissioners I'm going to just turn this right over to uh long ban our program manager for responsible gaming hello good afternoon madam chair good afternoon commissioners um I'm going to screen up so I actually have here with me um Amy Cabrera the senior game sensor advisor at mass console on gaming and health and also Daniel Miller at the compliance director at MGM so we're just going to provide some play my way updates uh launch from at MGM um its official launch was uh March 31st but we will talk about activities leading up to the launch and also the soft launch and the launch and and now so with that I'm going to turn over to Amy well Amy are you on mute let's try again good afternoon everybody hello good afternoon Amy how are you very well and I hope you all are too uh been a long time since I've seen some of you um thank you so much for giving us this opportunity this afternoon to talk to you a little bit about the launch of play my way at MGM successful launch I might add uh very exciting um and as you guys know these things take a village and you know they don't just happen on on launch day you know there's a lot of lead up to these things there's a lot of prep nothing good in this world comes easy it comes with hard work so we definitely had a lead up to the to launch day so throughout March for about two and a half weeks in March we really focused at MGM on training MGM staff and strategic departments that have a lot of customer facing that are in the slots a lot that may be asked about play my way so we focused on that and with the help of Dan Miller and the heads of these departments it was a success we trained 171 MGM staff members and these came specifically from certain departments we trained 33 members of the cage department who and that's great because they got an awful lot of questions about play my way and specifically about the uh the food credit the the incentive uh we did 27 members plus another 34 members of the slot department which obviously very strategic they are in the slots they have been helping us sign people up answering questions they also got training specifically on the interface from IGT which was awesome and they also had the luxury of having Jeremy as their leader who has experienced and play my way from PPC and then added on of course with us as the cherry on top so lots of training went to the slots department we did 37 members of food and beverage mostly beverage servers who again are right in the trenches there and 40 members of the security team um and additionally just to add we had six uh MGC agents who on their own came down and wanted to learn about play my way we trained them that was of their own own free will that was not something I had even worked out and I really really appreciate that interest and wanting to know about the program by those guys so a special thank you there and just so you know all of these play my way trainings also you know from the game sense perspective we did a reminder about um the game sense live chat which we reached 500 chats just a while back so that's been very successful as well as the remote BSE option for both play rich park and MGM especially during the off hours when the game sense centers is not active so it worked out perfectly for us that the end of Pgam rolled right into the launch of PMW so it was the perfect place for us to start educating guests it was the perfect opportunity for us to meld these two things together obviously PMW is a pre-commitment tool that speaks to responsible gaming um so it was kind of like that perfect storm of this is awesome we're going to be able to kind of glide right into this so during Pgam at MGM specifically we really focused the last couple weeks for sure on play my way introduction to guests we briefed and spoke to over 1500 guests during Pgam about the upcoming play my way program and got people excited about it take on top of that over two million views that were generated through direct digital advertising and onsite advertising both on the floor and back of house we had everything from bifold cards that explain the program what it was how to sign up we had stuff in the employee dining room on the napkin holders and in placards so we had advertising for this going everywhere and it was definitely a success i'm going to turn it over to long correct thank you yes thank you Amy um so i'm going to continue on with the marketing and the communication plan that we did um like Amy talked about um the mass council had some MGM had some but um with NGC we also partnered with KHJ produced some communication so this here is actually the play my way marketing um we had some pull-up banners that were available for the day at the launch and also post awards that we were we had around MGM to to advertise and market to patrons the next slide so before i get into this creative i just wanted to define some terms so geo fencing and retro fencing are both virtual geographic boundary around an area by means of GPS or RFID technology that enabled software to trigger a response in geo fencing the response will be triggered when a mobile device enters the area uh and in this case we set it to be about a quarter mile out of the casino however in retro fencing the response will only be triggered when a mobile device first enters and then leaves the area area so you know with that said you know so the geo fencing um is if you go into an area retro fencing when someone goes in and leaves so with that you know we had different campaign strategies and so these were the campaign strategies for each ads and so here um here are the uh the outcomes of our strategy marketing strategy um first i'd just like to address the low volume of the geo fencing and acknowledge that that this data set is actually from between March 31st to April 21st our marketing strategy is scheduled to run through May 29th so with that our preliminary results indicate that there were more traction for retro ads suggesting that audience is more receptive to play my way message um after leaving the casino however you see that the geo ads had a much higher click rates and you know i i like to define terminology ctr stands for click through rate and how that is calculated it is the number of clicks an ad receives divided by the number of times the ad is shown or the impressions so if you take the clicks and divided by impressions you get the ctr rate um okay and so here uh social carousel so social carousel our asset appears within a social media platform like uh facebook uh feed and looks like an advertisers post there are multiple images like a slideshow that you can scroll through with highlighting different images and optional optionally a different message these are static creatives of the animation that we use in our social carousel campaign um and i will show you what animation looks like so here social story is different it is when someone views the story section on their social media platform like facebook feed the ad appears in between the context content of the stories and the viewers follows on the social media so here the two animation at the social i just want to give you guys a little taste of what the animation looks like so here um and i just want to talk about the data what we found our data indicates that the carousel geo fencing had a greater impressions but the click through rates were greater with story ads this indicating that there were more opportunities for carousel ads but stories had greater engagement um in summary we were very excited with the preliminary results as they were our best in practice indicate that we are targeting the intended audience so with that i'm actually going to turn it over to januel who will talk about the actual launch thank you long good afternoon lady chair and commissioners so um going through the the idea of a soft launch that that was something that both our own corporate it department uh wanted to uh roll this through from a technical perspective and the iub were very very supportive of it too uh you know clearly this is a new program nobody had used it before didn't want to take any chances that it could have any kind of adverse effects to the the open slot floor uh and of course it didn't the the nice thing was that we went you know the part sorry zone by zone uh throughout those three days and even though at the time throughout marketing we were saying official launch was was march 31st as the slide depicts uh we had uh actually what that would work out to be is we had 264 people enrolled in those three days um i base that off of when you take the 257 at the 12 and then take the five back away from it you're at the 264 total um and anecdotally what what i've heard through plane ridge when they rolled this program out the uptake on the incentives i guess wasn't as successful as it appears to be with us you know here you can see the number of 248 versus 257 people really are you know signing up and using that incentive and and the reason i bring that portion of it up early discussions with mark uh there are sort of three ways that their program like this can be rolled out either it can be mandatory uh you know which may not obviously strike the right tone uh or or it can be entirely voluntary as well and that too may just be a little too laissez faire we're striking the right tone here of an incentive to sign up but then also from our perspective making sure all of our players understand this as a benefit of being an mgm rewards member um that it's just one more tool in the shed that they can use uh to their benefit they can keep play fun when they're here so uh seeing that that incentive uptake and the final point that i'll make on that was our our buy-in to that incentive was matching uh the ngc's contribution so it's five from you five from us uh that obviously we will continue to do going forward uh long if you would like to take the next slide then came march 31st of course and and i was very lucky that i managed to jump on with you very quickly uh and give you uh sort of a bird's eye view of what was going on down on the floor at the time uh mark and long were here in their shirts helping us all out and the the true commitment from them uh and the game sense team can't be overstated uh then obviously the the morning goes through to 1 p.m and we start our media outreach we of course were had words from the local mayor words from the commissioner of health and human services our president chris kelly uh and and then i provided a quick demonstration of how a player can enroll in play my way um there was a slight delay on that part because i had a little user error on my part uh using a wrong card at first but the system was working fine it was entirely me at the time uh it really was just a great day of you know great emotions it started on you can continue and then finally you know to bring us to now and and of course the the most recent stats we can provide is as of yesterday so uh april 27th we had over 1200 people enrolled in the program with a 52 people that have unenrolled but 10 were chosen to re-enroll and and i think that speaks to the versatility of this program as well is that 52 that unenrolled at any point they can choose to re-enroll again in the future um you know there there's no restriction on that they don't get the the incentive more than once um but if anybody sits there and thinks to themselves you know what that program maybe i didn't give it enough of a chance no problem they insert their card and go through the program again uh it really is a a benefit to them that they can then track their play and figure out what their daily weekly monthly budget is and so i i'm really happy that we can say that we already surpassed the thousand enrollees and let's see how this goes from here so back to you all oh no amy i believe i'm gonna unmute myself this time so yeah listen i've been through two play my way launches now i was at plain rich park and now i've been here at mgm um super exciting always exciting to launch these new programs um i've been very impressed by the feedback we've gotten from a lot of players that think this is just even if they're a responsible gamer even if they tell me aim i have a budget hey you're the you're the perfect player we're looking for but they still think this is a fantastic program that can benefit and help so many people um you know we we've talked to so many people about this and as game sense advisors one of the things that we do well and we always try to do is is read the player um and you know how you might roll something out to one person might be different from another so we're learning as we go along kind of what language to use how people are going to be receptive or not receptive um one of the things that seems to work for us is if we say hey listen this is just that little angel on your shoulder this is your little little angel on your shoulder telling you hey are you sure because if you're sure you're sure we're not going to tell you what to do but it's just that little guy telling you sure um that seems to be one that goes over with a lot of people um we've noticed that you know listen if we mentioned the word budget too early in the conversation that can turn some folks off and as we know language is important some folks have trigger words some people don't um you know so depending on you know we're learning as we go kind of how to talk to different types of folks about the benefits of this um we've also learned some some strategic things like it's really good to be out on the slot floor during lunchtime hours especially when the south end market is doing their 50 percent off for 50 plus Monday through Thursday so again kind of learning how these things fit together we actually had people come up to us and say hey I'm going to wait till Monday to sign up because I want to get my free lobster roll right I'm not going to sign up on Saturday I'm not going to but again you know it's it's kind of um you know having that real open relationship with these folks and talking to them and listening and and just kind of knowing you know what hooks we can use what what language is is going to work for them you know it's fun quite truthfully to you know keep evolving because that's what we're always doing is evolving and trying to figure out the best ways to get the best information and the best programs out to people and I my guys I give all the credit in the world too they've been all hands on deck with this to all our partners you know this this reaching you know 1200 already could not have happened without the help of all of them in the next slide we'll show you I'm not even going to try to mention everybody um but again just I'm so blessed to be a part of this doing this good work offering these types of programs you know to the people of Massachusetts and neighboring states that come to visit us and I just really appreciate all of you and we're going to keep it going you know the first month is over this is just the beginning this this this doesn't stop we're going to keep pushing this program the benefits of it and getting people interested and thank you very much Helene and like Amy said thank you Daniel as well um it did take a village and so here's all the folks that we collaborated with IGT KHA um the mass council on gaming and health MGM um and of course game sense and there are other folks that I have to logo but there are a lot of collaborations with that any questions or comments from the commissioner first off long it's good to see you um and Amy it is always the biggest treat to have you put that to us so we are blessed so thank you um you know the fact that you recognize that work is fun that says a lot um and it says a lot uh when we know the commitment you share with everybody who is on that gaming tour so thank you um Daniel are you pleased with putting my way just generally as another tool in your arsenal without a doubt yes um and just seeing the continuous uh growth in the number in role ease um and at least from the statistics that I'm seeing regularly not seeing many unenrollees or at very least that choose to re-enroll um you know so I of course I don't want to speak too early we have only been out out of the gate for 30 days um but no I think thus far uh it's a great uh promotion and let's just see how it continues to climb well you've done a great partner in this so commissioner brian commissioner hill uh great presentation yeah I love Amy's enthusiasm and lawn uh and I it's great to see it not not to say you're not enthusiastic Daniel as well but um it's nice to get off the ground I know this has been a long time coming so it's nice to see it finally all come together commissioner I have a certain style in my accent but it far and does not exceed the way that Amy can do it I just the way that she comes through in the genuine miss a daughter I you know can't compete none of us can right I'm starting to think Amy doesn't care for me I've been out there a couple of times she's not here when I when I get out there and I'm like oh I want to meet Amy face to face but it hasn't happened yet uh you appreciate us Amy but we appreciate you just as much and uh to the whole gang congratulations on the on the kickoff and to the to the whole entire staff I mean this the numbers are great uh they're much much bigger than I thought they'd be at this time so clearly the advertising worked and I love seeing how how it all works on your cell phones now and all the advertising it just I'm an old dog learning new tricks when it comes to all that stuff and it's just amazing how you can reach people and and how once you've reached them they actually you know come in and try playing my way don't worry we're gonna hit a music festival sometime maybe this summer all right here's Ron you though listen the big E will be coming up in the in the fall and I'll be out seeing some rock and roll shows so I'll all right we'll hook it up all right that's great um you know we want to recognize to um mark when you are out there um on March 31st we couldn't be there and we had important work to do including the send off of our former commissioner Del Cameron here but we were our hearts were with all of you out there and I know we want to recognize to the city of Springfield which um to really demonstrated their um excitement and commitment to this new responsible gaming tool for MGM Springfield uh you know all the way to the top for MGM they've been consistent in the support for Massachusetts way of doing responsible gaming we're very proud of that and the fact that you rolled this out it took a bit of work but it rolled it out and with such success in a month's time um you know we're just looking forward to the continuing partnership with you on the on this front Daniel and team and game sense no Amy well next the next um look forward to your next presentation because it just always makes us feel so good it's exciting stuff guys mark madam chair thank you um I wasn't going to try to say anything but I do just want to just one reflection point here so we we started playing my way at Plain Ridge Park casino back in 2016 I want to say 15 or 16 um it was a pilot program we weren't sure how it was going to go um it's been in place there for a number of years now we have over 25,000 people enrolled um at Plain Ridge Park casino alone um the commission made I think a very wise decision to work through an MOU with MGM and Encore Boston Harbor um to implement the program there um that MOU I think was really important because we have a lot to to learn um and there there was great collaboration that happened with IGT with MGM and with with Encore in order to continue to advance the use of technology to promote safe levels of play um we're thrilled to be launched at MGM it felt like it took forever it wasn't but that's just the way it went and at this point um we're we're running with it at MGM but the baton has also been passed to Encore Boston Harbor um we're meeting on a monthly basis with Encore and with IGT um in order to continue to advance advance it there um the partner that um I don't want to overlook is our IT team um Katrina um and Scott before he had left were were essential in making sure that the system met our requirements and our our our expectations of what it of what it should look like um so a really special thanks to to them but also to obviously everybody else that that's been a partner in this bravo we'll look forward to the future reports thank you mom thank you very much anything else commissioners Amy you got a skedaddle where where where about this my dogs miss me and I'm scared of Boston good thank you thank you Daniel thank you everyone thank you okay now last what is it last but not least right racing division um thank you for your patience as we navigated a lengthy and robust agenda this was an amendment to our um we have we have a few items that we anticipated today and then an item that we didn't anticipate so our agenda got a little bit longer but um we're ready to go now Dr. Whitebound so let's get started good afternoon our first item is the capital improvement request um from Lane Ridge um Steve O'Toole is on the call and I'll turn it over to Chad Bork now for that discussion thank you Alex uh good afternoon madam chair and commissioners so each month funds are deposited into a capital improvement trust fund and our licensees are able to use this for uh repair maintenance or improvements to the property where racing activities are are conducted so the the distributions from the fund are made upon the commission's approval of both a request for consideration and then followed by a request for reimbursement and so today's item is the first of that leg which is a request for consideration submitted by Plain Ridge in the amount of $46,600 plus tax and shipping these funds are going to be used to purchase two pieces of equipment that are needed to maintain the the racetrack surface I did review the request and the supporting documents to ensure all the prescribed statutory requirements were met and I consider the the request to be in good order and recommend approval uh with that I'm not sure if Steve has anything to say but I could open it up to him for additional color or or questions good afternoon good afternoon thanks Chad uh this is a piece of equipment which we have bought equipment in the past under the the capital improvement trust fund and uh this Chad noted this is to condition the track and the third party reviewer uh Neil Dixon has also weighed in on it um this particular supplier is a sole source supplier and uh that their expertise is track maintenance equipment and we have also uh when Nikisha was with the licensing division she uh awarded them an exemption for their licensing so they're all they're they're good to go as far as an approved vendor for us okay um commissioner is any questions for Steve I don't have any questions no neither do I great um and I know that Karen you popped in to confirm that um with the chief delaney that this would be uh um considered a capital investment correct yes all right um yes please um so madam chair I moved that the commission approved the expenditure of 46600 made a mistake once earlier today let me show that's right 46600 dollars from the harness horse capital improvement trust fund for the purchase of the track conditioner and track harrow by plainville gaming and redevelopment as described in the materials in the commissioners packet um we have a second second we have to buy it on my new button sorry well I wonder if you were wondering what I was wondering I don't know about the plus tax and shipping is that part of the capital um investors that could be paid for separately because did you say plus tax and shipping I actually did not uh now that you pointed out I made sure the actual dollar amount request was in there um I don't know how to treat that quite frankly yeah dad I don't know if you know the total there better we need to amend that amount in the past um well we we do pay uh even though that the equipment is made in Ohio we do pay master sales tax on that so it would be 6.25 percent but the shipping was an unknown when when it was ordered um and uh you know with the with the way things are going right now they wouldn't give us an exact quote for the shipping normally I would put those numbers in there so that would be part of the expenditure that's okay right Todd right oh there we go now I have to find my button okay um yeah I mean I think it's okay at the end of the year the licensee has to send in financial statements saying they treated this as a capital expenditure in their books so whatever the number turns out to be under accounting practices will be verified at some point or should be verified at some point so in terms of our motion if it's amended to account for the 6.25 sales tax and the shipping is that sufficient for the motion in terms of the monies that are needed right now I think it's certainly sufficient for the motion absolutely whether that counts as a capital expenditure I can't say as a matter of accounting practice but can deal with that down the road down the track right has it been historically has the shipping also been part of the expenditure in the past for the equipment yes yes okay so I can always um once the request for reimbursement um is put in I can talk to Todd about how to put the language in there so as to make sense of the difference between the total number of the requests for consideration versus reimbursement reimbursement okay yes so do you um do you want to amend your your motion I thought I did so including I managed to include the 6.25 sales tax and the yet to be determined shipping okay thank you but I'll second that thank you so much um okay no further edits or questions commissioner bryan hi commissioner hill hi and I vote yes so three zero thank you shipping is not it's not yeah so all right good thank you Steve Alex what do we have next so our next item is the request by Suffolk Downs to have approval of ExpressBet as an account wagering provider as some of the commission might remember in the past ExpressBet was an approved vendor and they were transitioning to the first bet on branding it looked at the beginning of last year it looked like that transition would be complete so Suffolk Downs didn't ask for ExpressBet to be included subsequently Chip found out that there are still some accounts under ExpressBet so we're bringing it back today for approval of the commission and as you can see Chip Tuttle COO of Suffolk is on the call if you have questions good afternoon mr Tuttle how are you uh madam chair commissioners yeah greetings nice to see you today nice to see you any questions for Chip on this sign either Brad nope no questions nope I think we've got it uh dr like that I'll set so do I have a motion I will move that the commission approved Suffolk uh the Suffolk Downs licensees use of ExpressBet LLC as an account wagering service provider second no further questions all right Mr. O'Brien hi Mr. Hill hi I vote yes three zero I'll set there Chip thank you thanks very much commissioners have a good day thank you Alex thank you okay so that takes care of the first two items now I think we're going right into the language parks you know derby day in plans for um for that big day in racing Alex you want to frame it please sure so um Cambridge is asking um for permission to do the um handheld wagering devices the drive-through procedures again on derby day um in 2020 when we were in the um grips of COVID the derby was not raced on the first Saturday in May which it normally is it was run in September instead so in August for the August 27th meeting commission meeting Heinrich came forward and asked the commission to approve this as a way of social distancing as not so many people were allowed into the building at the time because of COVID restrictions and the commission approved it and they also went into an executive session the next day to review the security plans and once that was all squared away the staff work with Heinrich to ensure it was safe and it did work very well that day last year it was handled at the staff level and they did it again now although all the COVID restrictions have been lifted this is one of those items where um you know we all did things a little differently from COVID and some of the things we did during COVID actually worked out very well and people you know are continuing to do them even though they may not need to do it for that particular reason anymore so Heinrich is asking to do it again this year and um I do have uh you know Steve O'Toole is on the line and also Lisa McKinney Can I just interject out of what one point of clarification and maybe Steve O'Toole can put some color on this my understanding Steve uh when I spoke to North uh yesterday when you weren't using the handheld devices it's actually hardwired and it's the actual device okay just want to clarify that thanks that's correct it'll be hardwired just like the machines in the inside the building no okay it's hard for me to imagine Steve so can you just tell me if I'm driving up in my car where do I go to place a bet from the parking lot so it's very convenient now because of the valet situation um we're doing it right at the port of cashier um that's where we did it last year as well at the port of cashier so you drive in where I come down the road and we'll have signage there and a detail officer to direct people to over to the station so where they can place their wagers we did this we did this prior to the gaming commission uh back probably before 2010 we did this a few for a few years it wasn't quite drive through but it was in front of the racing building and it was more walk through um basically because the lines just get so jammed with the you know the casual better asking about you know what's the difference between when when place and show and things like that so it kind of keeps the traffic down from um from the more savvy betters where they get a little frustrated with the long lines so that was the that was the intent back then and I think I I added that in when we first brought it back for the covid reasons um but we did do it prior under the racing commission and um but there'll be to answer your question in short there'll be plenty of signage it'll be a very quick in and out there at the port of cashier and there's one kiosk there yes are there any other kiosk outside the building no we we had we didn't have a clear memory of that so that's the first year we had two they were called walkabouts so they were their wires and we had two I believe we might have put two in service last year as well but this year we're hardwiring one machine the reason one of the reasons we wanted to have two walkabouts because sometimes the internet service the wireless service that they operate on bogs down a little bit now that it's now that it's hardwired in we don't see that as being an issue so the one machine will be able to keep keep up I think last year we got kind of word of this on the other end and so we're pleased to get word of it in advance um kind of indirectly um so um at Catholic to clarify we are gonna out near in the shack there is going to be a walk up teller out there but that is hardwired just like a regular teller line so I think that's what you had two years ago when you did come before us before doing it that was back in the shed yes kiosk is that kiosk not there permanently it's not really there permanently we do use it for um large events and racing and Steve may use it more in the summer when it's nice and warm and people are hanging out on the patio and racing it essentially is there permanently but we use it not only when we have the bigger crowd yeah all of the wiring and all that's always there yeah so we'll we'll monitor is that like in terms of just Bruce take a look at things or how's for the racing for the auto in all of that it is just racing goes through revenue audit our revenue audit team um audits all of their racing um documents and calculates um revenues expenses etc um just every after every racing me so that's how that happens but um Bruce um in the past the IEB has um obviously their concern has been money transport so we have included that you know we're gonna talk when you talk about that and another time yep yep thanks Lisa you're welcome Todd um there's some limitations in the statute about um the device for bedding um that was particularly of interest two years ago with handheld I assume that the kiosk doesn't present the same issues for you it doesn't appear that those issues exist here since it's my understanding I think Steve said this that it's the same kiosk they use inside uh the statute requires that the machine be capable of accurate and speedy determination of awards or dividends to winning patrons and all such awards or dividends shall be calculated by a totalisator machine or like machine period um and it's my understanding that that's what this kiosk does commissioners russia hill no no questions you're good commissary brian not for this format okay i'm good too um so at this stage I um the commission has anticipated that it will need uh to meet an executive session in accordance with gl chapter 30a section 21 a4 to discuss the deployment of security personnel or devices or strategies with respect there to pertaining to accepting horse racing leaders outdoors at plain ridge park casino on may 7th 2022 is of course I'm obligated to to read that into the record but we do need to have a majority vote commissioners do I have a motion I move we go into executive session for the reasons just stated by you on the record my chair thank you um commissioner brian hi commissioner hill hi and I vote yes now this comes the tricky part right I need to first say that the public session of the commission meeting will not reconvene at the conclusion of the executive session so we really will be exiting this virtual format so I wish to thank everyone who want to participate in today's lengthy meeting on robust agenda and it takes as we've already said a few times today a village so thank you to every team member Karen your team has done extraordinary work to get us prepared for today's meeting so thank you and then we have to go to another virtual room I think you all have an invitation to that is everybody set on that okay and we'll we'll enter into that executive session thank you and thank you to um Steve and Lisa for coming today we appreciate it thank you so much thank you thank you