that more can do this. All right, we'll call Commissioner Karen. Good morning everyone, I am here. Commissioner O'Brien. I am here, good morning. Good morning, and Commissioner Hill. Good morning, I am here. Great, I'll set on that. We're gonna get started today is November 4th. It's just after 10 a.m. Commissioner Cameron, it is public meeting number 359. Can you feel me feel old? I know, I always think of you when we announce this number. We'll get started as Commissioner O'Brien, no minutes today. So we'll move straight to the administrative update. Good morning Karen. Good morning everyone, good morning Chair. So for the administrative update, just to start out, I think this has been made public in the media, but just wanted to update the commission that the application for the racing risk application in Sturbridge, pardon me, has been withdrawn. We were prepared to move forward on that, but after a zoning vote in the town of Sturbridge, the applicant decided to withdraw the application and therefore after we received that withdrawal, we canceled the required meetings for that. So we still have the application for the Plainwich Park Casino Racing License. So that will go ahead, but the Sturbridge one is now longer in play. And then the next part for the administrative update, I'm just gonna turn it over to Bruce Bant, who's gonna give you the onsite casino updates. And given sort of the shift in what we've been reporting on, I expect going forward Bruce will take over sort of the recording of what's going on onsite at the casinos, because it seems as if the information is really valuable to the commission about some of the changes or updates that are going on on the floor or the amenities. So we'll keep Bruce going with giving those updates to the commission. So I'll turn it over to Bruce to give that update. Bruce, you're on the, good morning. I believe Loretta isn't going out. Immediately she said she had one update to give. I do, Karen, I have one. I have one quick update, thanks Bruce. And good morning everybody. And you may already know this, it has been in the news, but the city of Springfield did lift its citywide mask mandate on November 1st. So that does apply to the property, although MGM has a policy of its employees continuing to wear masks while onsite. And there is one additional reopening at MGM of an additional floor in the hotel scheduled to open on the 18th of this month, which is a good thing. And the theme of the floor is a wellness theme, mental health, physical health, wellness theme. So seems fitting for the time. So with that, I'll turn it right over to Bruce. All right, my update is pretty short this week. I wanted to report on the poker opening at MGM, which appeared to be a smashing success. They had lines with the wait time of the longest two hours this past weekend. The opening was well received. I think everything went very smoothly and we couldn't have asked for a better opening. The other two properties, things seem to be operating normally like they were prior to the COVID closing. If anybody has any questions, I would be glad to entertain them. Director Ban, one quick talking about the poker. Will I suspect at some point maybe they'll entertain more tables if it's such a success? At the current time, I haven't heard that, Commissioner, but with the demand, if that continues, I could see that happening, yes. Okay, thank you. Questions for Bruce? Bruce, can you estimate how many jobs that brought back? I believe it was 40 at MGM. That's great, really good. Yeah, the questions for Bruce? Okay, so the next item on the agenda is the disin update on our internal reopening of the Boston office. So it has been a successful week so far. We are in day four of having our Boston office reopened. It has been great to see everyone. It's nice to sort of develop that camaraderie in person again, so it's been really great to be able to walk around the office and see people. So thank you to everyone for coming together and just understanding the need to be safe but be together. So I wanna also give a special thanks to Tim Drain who has been running around helping people on the IT front because we are redoing our IT a little bit. We are doing hybrid meetings. We are back in the office and just checking on things. So he's been taking the lead on that. So I wanted to say thank you to Tim. We're gonna continue to refine how we do the hybrid meetings. So both internally with our own personnel and then externally with the public meetings. We're discussing another test of the public meeting before the meeting on the 18th. So I'll coordinate with you commissioners about potentially doing another test with it. And maybe a good idea of the plan is to do that hybrid model on the 18th. So I'll check in with you on that. But otherwise so far so good and I'll keep you updated. Are there any questions about the reopening or any issues that you'd like me to address? Okay. All right, so so far so good. So that's it for the administrative update, Madam Chair. Great, thank you so much. We'll move on then to item number three. Good morning, Dr. Weidner. Good morning. So Steve O'Toole, director of racing for Plain Ridge Park Casino in consultation with the harness horseman's association of New England has come up with two makeup days. If you remember in August, we had a heat wave of extreme heat and canceled August 12th and 13th. So they're looking to replace those days with November 7th and November 14th. That will bring them back up to the 110 days that they had asked for last year for this year. And they were going to be over the 100 days that they needed to simulcast anyway. So everything would be all set that way. And it does require a vote, please. Oh, Madam Chair, yeah, I'm happy to vote. First of all, I'd like to express my appreciation at the collaboration, the horseman and the track, the Plain Ridge Park distro tool. I know they work hard to make sure the dates fit for everybody and they work effectively. So we do appreciate that collaboration. With that, I move that the commission approve Plain Ridge Park Casino's request to reschedule the racing days previously scheduled for August 12th and 13th to November 7th and November 14th. Second. Any questions, comments, okay? Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. I vote yes and thank you, Alex. And thank you, Steve. We appreciate it's safe if the horses comes on this first. So thank you. Thank you. And we're moving on to item number four. Good morning, Chief Delaney. How are you? Good morning. I'm well. So thank you, Madam Chair and commissioners. So first up for you today, we have Encore Boston Harbor's third quarter report. We have with us Jackie Crum and Juliana Catanzariti from Encore to make that presentation. So I will turn it over to Jackie. Thank you. And good morning. It's nice to see everyone again. Another quarter has passed. I'd like to start off our report by introducing our new president, Jenny Holiday, to those of you who have not had the opportunity to meet Jenny. I know that some of you have met her in person or met her online, but Jenny, welcome. Jenny's not new to us, but this is a new position and it's so pleased to have her in this position. So I'll turn it over to Jenny. Well, good morning, everybody. And thank you for having me, Madam Chair, commissioners, all of our participants. Yep, I'm new to the position. As our Madam Chair pointed out, I have been in the job exactly 90 days and about 94 days, I guess I should say. But I've been with Angkor Boston Harbor for two years and in the casino business for 35, I'm embarrassed to say. I like to say I've lived in, let's see, Las Vegas twice, Atlantic City twice, Reno, Lake Tahoe, Memphis, Tennessee, and came to Boston from Detroit, Michigan. So I have a lot of experience in regional markets and it's just been the absolute privilege of the lifetime to come work at this gorgeous property in this beautiful city.  The return of our customers has been fantastic. We've had more customers reactivated who haven't been here since COVID than we had new customers signed up. So it's been really nice and very well received. I think there are a lot of COVID lessons that are gonna stay with us forever. We take a lot of pride in keeping a surgically clean property, but in our post COVID world, that will remain at the top of our list as it relates to our brand and our operations. But everything is going really, really well over here. So I'm thrilled to be here and participate. Thank you. And I think Jenny may have a special announcement. I know that you have been asking us about for a poker update. And so Jenny, I'll turn it over to you for that. Yeah, as all of our poker refugees, as they call themselves, let us know multiple times a week. Everybody misses the live poker operation at Angkor Boston Harbor, as do we. And so we've been working hard and I believe we made a promise that we would make a decision by the end of the year. And today we are announcing that we will be resuming live poker operations. It'll take us about 90 days to get ready. So we're targeting a February 1st start date. The reason for the long lead time is we're gonna open with 12 tables. And so we anticipate that we're going to need a reservation system to manage the guest experience. And so we had a wonderful product that we used before we closed that we have to dust off and get reinstalled to get ready. We will operate the room initially Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. We're gonna start with 10 hour operations and see how that goes. We'll be pulling back or calling back about the same number of dealers as MGM quoted earlier. We're expecting somewhere between 40 and 50 employees will come back. We've placed about 60 of our poker dealers in our regular table games operations. But like most properties, we'll be calling everybody back in seniority order. And we're really looking forward to being able to bring live poker back to the experience here at Angkor Boston. Great. Any questions or announcements? Thank you. And Jenny, congratulations again on your appointment. And it is a pleasure to see you. So I guess we'll return to our regular program. Juliana, would you mind sharing the PowerPoints? And if we just go, there we go. Gaming revenue. So if you could go to the next slide, please. On gaming revenue and taxes, I think the number that is probably most important to everyone here is in the last column, the state taxes collected, which is almost 44 million for the quarter. And while we're very happy with the table games, gross gaming revenue and slots gaming revenue and total GGR, I think that that state tax number is one that's really impressive for this quarter. Go to the next slide. We can look at it from last quarter. And as you recall, we last quarter started for us on July 10th when we came back from COVID. So obviously there's been a significant increase. But even I think if you didn't have that closure for the beginning of the quarter, you'd see the difference. Next slide, please. Our lottery sales continue to increase. We are up over 150,000 from our last quarter, the last Q3 at $777,000. But at the next slide, you can see that there's a change from the previous year of 84.4%. On our workforce, I think we're pleased that we saw in the last quarter an increase in the percentage of women in our workforce. We continue to go up. So in Q1, we were at 42%, Q2, 43, and we've added another 1% in Q3. As we're almost at our target, well, we're working towards our target, I should say, of 50%. We're continuing to demonstrate success in recruiting and retaining minorities and went up from 55% to 56% in total workforce. Massachusetts residents continues to be strong at 89%. And we continue to hold the percentage in our local, host and surrounding communities of 86%. On, we also broke this down as you've requested by manager and above and supervisor and above. And what's interesting there is our numbers, our numbers with respect to veterans are higher than our goal. Our numbers with respect to both women and minorities is something that we need to keep working on at the manager level. When you get to the supervisory level, the numbers of supervisors that are minorities is 57%, which far exceeds our goal. And a woman is 41%, which we'll continue to work on. Okay. Julianne, do you want to talk about the operating spend? Sure, my point is, okay, here we go. Madam Chair, Ms. Chair, it's good morning and thanks to see you all again. So like Jackie said, I'll begin with going through our Q3 discretionary spend figures. Our total discretionary spend for Q3 is that number at the bottom, 17,184,786. Of that amount, 4,394,841 or 26% was spent on vendors that fall into one or more of the three diversity categories, minorities, veterans or women's business enterprises. About 1.7 million was spent with minority business enterprises. 460,000 with veterans and 2.3 million with women's business enterprises. And we continue to try to increase those numbers overall. If we move on to our local discretionary spending, about $1.7 million, as you can see sort of in the middle there was spent in our host community of Everett, 1.9 million in Boston, about 425,000 in Chelsea, 109,000 in Malden and 46,000 in Medford, nearly 690,000 in Somerville. About eight and a half million dollars or 50% of our total discretionary spend was spent in the common as a whole. If I can now direct your attention to compliance, please note that there was a minor correction made to the first column of the chart you see here. So the chart that's contained in your packet is probably slightly different than what's on the screen. We just noticed the error this morning. So I just quickly fixed it prior. The minors who were intercepted gaming were accidentally double counted in that first column. So the numbers here are correct. I think the ones you have are slightly higher. Please also note that we've added that additional vast column to the end at your request that provides a number of minors that are under the age of 18 that were on the gaming floor during given month. I'd also like to point out that all three minors noted in this category were actually accompanied by parents into those two in September, which were actually the only two minors on the gaming floor during the month of September were very small children who accidentally exited Friday through the wrong exit with their parents. They were quickly removed from the floor, I think less than two minutes had passed. Do we have any questions? This is Commissioner O'Brien. I just had a question about the length of time. But when I see sort of three hours 41 minutes, do you have detail on the minor who was on the floor for three hours 41 minutes? I do. So that minor actually he attempted to enter through an entrance was denied entry and sort of forum shops to a different entrance. So he would find one that essentially let him in. So I think he snuck through during a busier time when he was undetected by security. He actually tried to order a drink from a cocktail server who realized that he looked a little bit young asked for the identification. And then when she saw that he was actually underage notified security, who then escorted him on the floor. So when you say they let him in because they were busy, was it not checking ID, not catching my date, what? His ID was. It's not checked, okay. Julianne, I couldn't quite hear your response, I'm sorry. His ID was. It was not checked. It wasn't checked. Can I answer any other questions? No, thank you. On promotions, we're gonna pat ourselves a little bit on the back here. Reddit was named best of no show editor's choice for Chinese dining. And what didn't make it into the presentation because it actually technically probably came this quarter but I'm gonna talk about it anyway and embarrass Jenny just a little bit. The Boston Business Journal named Jenny a woman who awarded Jenny with the Woman Who Mean Business Award. So we're very proud of that. We also received a Global Gaming Award Uncle Boston Harbor did for a 2021 best land-based operator of the year. And Boston Magazine gave us the 2021 Best Luckily Hotel. So we're very proud of those. We can move on to special events and volunteerism. Oh, very pleased to announce that we were able to bring the hotel back into operation seven days a week, 24 hours a day with room service beginning on September 1st. So we fully reopened. And today as I was walking through the hotel and the convention area, there were a bunch of wonderful looking conventioneers wearing their lovely lanyards and we couldn't be happier to see them back in the building. On September 8th, we also opened our sports bar and it's a really cool design. We're looking forward to programming it more as time goes by and as the seasons, as the sports seasons get busier. So we'll be giving you more information about that as we get that going. And Commissioner O'Brien, in an effort to address the importance of keeping miners off the floor and not being served alcohol, we launched a campaign in what we're calling the heart of our house, which is the back of our house. So for our employees. And so this was all over the heart of our house. And we're really trying to emphasize that it's everybody's job to be on the lookout for miners. So not just security, not just the cocktail servers, every single person in this building has an obligation to watch out. And it's been really well received. We've had a lot of enthusiasm around the campaign. So we can provide more information about that if you're interested. And just wanted to highlight something that we're really proud of, which is our Win Employee Foundation Scholarship Program. So this is available to employees for their dependents. And we were able to get, it's a corporate initiative, but we were able to get three employees and two of their dependents scholarships this year. So up to $7,500, I believe, all of them took the full amount for their use. And there's an element of, there's a volunteer element in there as well. And we provide assistance with them so that we are helping them maintain the grade point average that they need to provide and making sure that they're getting the support to really take advantage of this program. And finally, this was one about partners is Camp Harborview. It's an organization that works with more than a thousand young residents to provide them with an opportunity to go to camp on Long Island in the Boston Harbor for kids in grades six through eight. And then they also provide year-round development for students in ninth through 12th grade. And so we were able to send some volunteers over to the island at the end of the summer to help clean up and restore the islands. And that is it. We are open for questions. Yeah, take down the, if everyone's asked that, you can take down the presentation please. Thank you. There you go. Great, thanks. So questions for Jackie, Juliana and Jenny. Today, we have three days. If I may jump in, this is Gail Cameron. First of all, Jackie, thank you for that presentation. The sports bar looks fabulous. Is it already well received? I suspect in the Boston area it is. It has been well received. We've certainly had, we've got a VIP section where people love coming to just watch a game. Different programming that we've started has really helped as well. So we've had some celebrities. Jenny can probably talk more about that. Yeah, we've been having fun with it. The first thing we did, I don't know if any of you might be Patriots fans at all, but if the Patriots win on Sunday, everybody can come in on Monday and get a free slice of pizza from Frank and Nix. The place has just been seated to capacity every Sunday and even on Monday night footballs. Monday night is the night the Patriots get off. So we've had a couple of Patriot players actually come and watch Monday night football with us in the sports bar. So it's already creating a little buzz as a place to maybe bump into one of your favorite athletes. So definitely off to a strong start. Great, thank you. And I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate you as well in your position. I know it's not a first country wide, but for Massachusetts it is the first woman to lead. And I know when we started this commission nine and a half years ago, we were not new to gaming, but it was new for Massachusetts and attending meetings. There were very few women at the helm of casinos as well at the commission level. So if we look at what's happened here in Massachusetts, the makeup of our commission, three women in a leadership position here today presenting just it's something to be proud of and congratulations. Thank you, commissioner. I say Massachusetts gets props because it might not be the first jurisdiction, but Massachusetts did it the fastest. That's a good point. Thanks and congrats. Thank you. Commissioner Hillel. So I just wanted to follow up with commissioner Cameron that sports bar was gonna be my question. And I was gonna ask them to elaborate a little bit about what was happening and you just gave us an answer to that question. Moving forward, I think I heard you say that you have some new programming that might be coming down the road and being the sports fans that we all are on this commission, the Super Bowls coming up soon, the NCAAs are coming up soon.  Can you elaborate a little bit more about what you see in the future for this particular? Obviously, sports betting comes along. It's a very different conversation, but I've heard nothing but good things about this particular facility in this area. People are enjoying it. And to hear that it's packed to capacity is great because I think that's gonna enhance obviously what they're doing when they're there. Yeah, I would add two pieces of color commentary. The first one is another nod to Massachusetts women. I've never seen so many female sports fans inside a sports bar. So I tip my hat every day to the wind design and development team because the space does not feel like the typical overly masculine man cave. It's very gender neutral, if you will. And that was spot on because we have so many female fans here. I think the other thing that we did that was smart, well, the really smart thing we did was hire a young man by the name of Joe Zarbano, who spent his entire career before us with WEEI. So he knows the sports landscape in Boston, inside and out. And our vision together, Joe and I's, is to make that space be second only to an arena experience. So we have amazing AV technologies. And the idea is that we will be interacting with the game and with our patrons and fans in real time so that we can be doing things like score when our team scores and mocking the organ sounds that you hear sometimes in the arena. So we really wanna make it live interactive and relevant for our fans when they come to watch the games here. Well, I can tell you, first of all, congratulations and welcome to Boston. And if you have not experienced sports in Boston, you're gonna get a whole new education. And if you wanna see women in bars come down to the North Shore, because every New England Patriots game, Bruins game, it is packed to the gills with our wives. I was talking to the chairwoman a couple of weeks ago about my wife's and fantasy football that we got her involved in about four or five years ago. We had to stop her because it was so out of control on a Sunday afternoon. So I'm not surprised to hear that. Our women love sports as much as our men do. And in fact, I would argue some like it even more so. So thank you for the update on the sports bar. And then the other piece I just wanted to say thank you for and congratulations is the volunteerism piece. It's so important that you get into the community and let people know that we care about them.  And to see that that you folks are doing that, you know, really brings a big smile to me person, excuse me, person, because I think it's so important that you become part of the community and let people know that you really do care about them. And if you, again, I know you're new to Boston, this is something that we all care about is helping our fellow man and woman and ensuring that we can help where that needs to happen. So thank you for that effort. I appreciate that. And if I could add one thing there too, we do a big monthly meeting about 80 of our executives and two meetings ago, my second one, we were talking about all of the things we wanted to accomplish this year. And so many of the participants were talking about volunteerism because it became remote during COVID and everybody misses that human connection. And with the holidays coming, the vast majority of the feedback was, please create more ways that we can interact in person. So we've developed a whole new task force and we actually moved it out of our community relations team and into HR where we can really rally a larger group of employees to participate. And so you're gonna be seeing a whole new refresh around in-person volunteering and community service from the whole team here. Nice. And then Madam Chair, the last issue and maybe this is a conversation for another day, but I think I heard you say that when you are looking to open the poker room in February, that we would have 12 tables at the beginning of that. And again, me being a newbie as well, could you tell me how many poker tables were there before we had to close down due to COVID and what the expectation would be moving forward? We had 70 tables before. The challenge for us is the area that was the former poker room has now been completely repurposed. So where we're starting is with the last bit of unused real estate. We were currently using it right now to train table games dealers to learn other games. So we'll be moving that out of there and turning that last piece into the poker area. The challenge for us is always about yielding the real estate. We take our obligation to create the highest amount of tax revenue for the Commonwealth as possible very seriously. And so we really manage our real estate by revenue. So we will start with 12 and see how it performs and continue to manage the business in a way that maximizes our contribution to the Commonwealth. Thank you for that update. And I guess I would just, I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes because I remember when it was 70 tables and I remember most of those tables were being used quite frequently. And to see the number drop to 12, actually a red flag kind of went up for me. I understand it. And I think we all understand why and the real estate piece of it and taxes and things of that sort. But I will certainly be looking maybe to see how this does unfold February 1st because that was a big decrease compared to what it was when you first started out with poker. So just adding that conversation for the future. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks, commissioner. Do you have any questions or comments? Just for perspective too, while I hear what commissioner Hill is saying, just for some perspective, I think we're happy to see poker coming back. I think there might have been a question whether it would return at all. So I'm sure that the poker people are very happy. I'm sure they want more space, but I hear what you're saying about, you're reconfiguring given how things have changed. So that was good news. Thank you also for the differentiation in the minor stats. I know I've been asking for a while. It does help put everything in perspective and also for the training that you're doing back of house. I suppose I should throw my perpetual question about childcare and- I was waiting for it. I am right now. I don't know if there's sort of any changes you've had to make to that given what's going on or whether that affects the women's percentages that you're sort of working to get up. The childcare operator has reported that they have availability. So I don't think it's an availability issue right now. Well, to be clear, they had reduced capacity and now they're able to increase capacity a little bit more. So we made it available and we've pushed it out again to all of our employees to see whether that was an issue and we haven't found that any, none of our employees have not been able to get in. And then Jenny, just to say also my own congratulations to you. I know I got to meet you briefly last month. That was nice to meet you in person and I'm jealous of the view. I just realized what behind you is a mirror showing your view out your window, which is much nicer than mine right now. So a second welcome to Boston and I wish you all. Thank you, commissioner. And yes, it is a beautiful big blue day. Just to follow up, I've got to commend Jenny because I know, I think I'm quite confident in saying this publicly is that prior to your promotion to the president's spot, we work closely with Ryan and we're somewhat magical in figuring out what makes Boston and Massachusetts a New England tech. And we've seen those changes reflected through your sensibilities. So while you're new to your position, you're not so new to Boston that you haven't started to figure us out. And for that, it explains your promotion and also the changes that I've seen and you know, since you opened in June, all of us have seen and we did that navigating COVID as well. So I know that you always credit Brian as well but I think you can speak confidently that you understood the tweaks that needed to be done and we continue to see them in action. So congratulations. And if anybody is listening to this, they would be a great day. The boats are still running, correct? Yeah, absolutely. Because it's a pretty nice day out there. I've had to close my shades here in the office it's so bright. I have one question, sort of a follow-up to Commissioner O'Brien's. We haven't heard from you any challenges regarding shortages, supply shortages in terms of staffing, how is that impacting your business? Maybe on a micro level and macro level. Jenny, Jackie and Julia. I can take that one.  And so I don't know if it's strangely or not but the biggest issue has been culinary and food and beverage positions. And so we are actually managing all of our operating hours among our outlets based on our staffing availability. So we would love to have every outlet open seven days a week full hours of operations but we can't do that yet because of the staffing shortages. We have been very lucky on other positions. For example, security officers. We've been able to staff up there. In fact, just this week we reopened our two-way resort entrance from the primary entrances which it's been one way for a year and a half. When we reopened at the hotel we needed 30 housekeepers instantly and we were able to get those positions in and staffed and trained. So we've been really lucky in that we've been able to attract most of the other positions but food and beverage remains the one issue. I think a lot of people are leaving the industry quite frankly because there are jobs standing all day in hot kitchens, the hours aren't necessarily conducive to family. We've already made two salary adjustments to some of the more critical positions to try and improve the attractiveness. Our 401k match which was suspended during COVID was just reactivated and the company was generous enough to actually make it retroactive back to January of this year for employees who were contributing. So those things really helped attract. So we're doing okay but we still have over a hundred vacancies in the food and beverage operations. Well, I'll throw in a personal touch here. My mom was a waitress and her tips that need to college without a dollar of financial aid. And the day I graduated from college she ended her career. So it's a hard job. Everyone be nice to your servers and tip them well and remember it's a hard, hard job. So there's a resettling going on right now in that arena. So I wondered if it was still somewhat plaguing you. Finally, can't cover for you. The impact of that particular organization I just can't be overstated. I'm a little biased. President is a dear friend. But in separate and apart from that I have encountered many people who from the Boston area whose children have gone through and they've been the beneficiaries of that. So thank you for that work. And I bet it was also fun to go out there. So that's all I have for questions. A great report. You know what? It's great for you to highlight the tax revenue at Jackie who's not lost on us. And as you would know probably collectively a three month record among the licensees and we credit all of you for that. In many ways you've emerged as great partners with the public health system, giving your patrons a lot of confidence to see the casinos as an important entertainment option as we come out of this difficult period. So kudos. All right, Joe. Sorry. I just said, thank you very much. There you are. Jackie, you're front and center but your voice seemed to come from right field. Thank you. And thank you, Juliana. And again, Jenny, thank you for coming on. We always are gonna be happy to see you. Thank you for having me. It was fun. And Joe. Thank you. Okay. So next up we have community mitigation fund. We have a couple of reserve applications in front of you. So the first one is the town of Agawam is requesting their $100,000 reserve, community mitigation fund reserve to redesign the intersection of Suffield street, Cooper street and Rowley street. And I am going to just set the stage here by just showing you the location of this and where it is in relation to the casino. You can see the red line around here is the Agawam corporate limits. MGM Springfield is over here on the right hand side. And so when the environmental impact reports were done for MGM Springfield, estimated that about 3% of the traffic would go across this bridge here. And then also that about 6% of the traffic would be going across the river in this location. So you can see there's a fairly large East West kind of movement from the casino. The location that we're looking at is sort of in between this route 57 and route 147, right smack in the middle, right at that location there, that five-way intersection. So we really think that there's, with the traffic that's coming to and from the casino, there's probably a fair amount that cuts down this way and some people may cut up this way and over or the other way around. And it's also this route 75 takes you all the way down into Connecticut. So there's probably some traffic that comes up that way. So we think there's a reasonable expectation that this intersection will see or it does see some fairly significant amount of traffic from the casino. So what they're proposing is to redesign that intersection. They're gonna look at the various alternatives and roadway realignments upgrading traffic signals. And they're also going to look at bicycle and pedestrian accommodations and all of those other things that we really like to see as part of this and trying to get this up to snuff with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and so on. And also the town itself is contributing an additional $25,000 towards this effort. So there's a nice match from the community. So this is exactly the kind of things that we anticipated that reserves would be used for and therefore we recommend its approval. Questions for Joe? Okay. You do need to vote for this right, Mary and Joe? Yes. Yes, thank you. I have a motion. I'll do it. I would move that the commission approved the use of $100,000 of reserve funds by the town of Aguam for the redesign of the intersection at Suffield Street, Cooper Street and Rowley Street, including the study of alternatives and associated project costs as discussed here today and described in the materials in the commissioners packet and further that the commissioners, excuse me, the commission staff be authorized to execute all necessary grant instrument commemorating this award in accordance with 205 CMR 153.04. Second. Any questions or comments? I have one, just follow up, Joe, as I'm reflecting. First, it's 125,000 and they feel confident that will be sufficient funds to get the design work done. Yeah, I think it may not get it to 100% design, but once it gets through, I mean, that's what they have available to them. They could always come back to us for additional monies under the regular community mitigation funds, should they need additional funds? The timing could work out, okay. And then- They haven't gone out and gotten a consultant yet, so putting exact dollar figures on it's a little difficult. And then in those conversations, I'm assuming at a certain point that they might be folks you would have a conversation about the big transfer, big projects that we were gonna seek an hour by for, but this looks like it could be a pretty extensive fix, ultimately. Yes, yep. Okay, all right. Good, thank you. Commissioner Cameron? Aye. Commissioner Bryan? Aye. Commissioner Hill? Aye. And I vote yes, great. Thank you. Where's Sarah? Great, so the next item up is some of the other additional reserves. This is a request from Foxboro and Rentham. So Foxboro and Rentham are surrounding communities to Plain Ridge Park Casino and they have both used much of their reserves already. They each had a little bit left. Rentham has about $10,000 left in their reserves and Foxboro has just a little under 24,000 in their reserves remaining. So with this, back in 2019, Foxboro in conjunction with Plainville and Rentham used $75,000 of its reserves to hire a marketing consultant to prepare a strategic marketing plan for the region which would highlight the connection of the casino with the towns of Foxboro, Plainville and Rentham. And we thought that was a great plan and essentially what this project does is implements phase three of that. And part of that will be, so they're completing phase two right now which is involving the website design and the development and deployment of that. And this would really complete that phase two and roll that out to the community. So again, this is exactly the kind of thing that we look for reserves and we also recommend. Yes, sir. Questions for Joe or Mary? Glad to see them exhausting it, it's good. Yes. Do I have a motion for sure, Brian? Certainly, Madam Chair, I move that the towns of Foxboro and Rentham be authorized to combine the remainder of their reserve funding in the amounts of 10,000 and 23,820 respectively to hire a marketing consultant to complete phase three of the regional destination marketing initiative. As discussed here today and described in the commissioner's packets. Further, the commission staff be authorized to execute all necessary grant instruments commemorating this award in accordance with 205-CMR 153.1. Second. May I throw the questions for Joe or Mary? Comments. Okay, Patricia Cameron. Aye. Patricia O'Brien. Aye. Patricia Hill. Aye. Yes, of course, Sarah. Thank you, Tom. Okay, thank you for you. Thank you, Madam Chair and commissioners. That completes our business for today. Great. Great. I know that our timed agenda suggests a break at this time. Commissioners, do you want to continue or do we need a break now? Continue? I'm fine, I could continue. Okay. I'm happy to continue as well, Madam Chair. Okay. Great. Then I think there Dr. Bulbert is ready for us. So that's great. So I'll turn it over to Director Van Der Linden, please. Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair. Good morning commissioners. It's good to be back in the office. I'm excited to turn it over shortly here to Marie Claire and Dr. Bulbert to talk about the prevention paradox report before I do, I just wanted to spend a moment talking about the research MGC research snapshot that's in your packet today. This snapshot was developed by Marie Claire in collaboration with Dr. Bulbert and also in collaboration with Austin. It has his distinct signature on it as well. Moving forward, we plan to develop an MGC research snapshot for every deliverable that comes before the commission, every research project that is complete. So this is a change, we haven't done this in the past. And it's in direct sort of response to a recommendation in the May 2019 research strategic plan that was adopted by the commission. Obviously May 2019 is a while ago, but we had a pretty long hiatus before we could launch this during some of the COVID shutdown. So one of the specific recommendations in that research strategic plan is to develop the explicit function, expertise and resources to engage in strategic knowledge translation and fully exploit the substantial knowledge being generated by our research program. What do I mean by knowledge translation? So knowledge translation is used to describe the process of putting research findings to practical use. In other words, what are the steps that are needed in order to ensure that research findings are made known to the right people and used to inform relevant policies, programs and services? And I think you all agree that we do have a substantial research program. It is generating incredible information and we want to use this whereas the definition says, exploit this information as much as we possibly can to make the biggest impact that we can. So that's what the research snapshot is about. This is one step that we're working on in order not only to translate this research, but mobilize it and there's much more to come. So with that, I will turn it over to Marie. Claire to kick off this research snapshot and to then turn it over to Dr. Fulver. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Good morning, Madam Chair, commissioners. So today's presentation will focus on our social ad hoc report identifies a priority during fiscal year 2021. And this is on the gambling harms in the prevention paradox in Massachusetts. And these findings are important as they will help inform or where to focus prevention efforts. And so for a bit of context, there's this phenomenon in public health described as the prevention paradox, which is when the majority of cases of harms actually comes from lower risk groups simply because there are so many more people in this group as opposed to higher risk groups. So the paradox is that the more harm in the aggregate is suffered by the lower risk gambling population, even though individually people in the high risk population suffer the greatest amount of harm per individual. And so the goal of this study was to see whether the prevention paradox in relation to gambling harms holds up in the Massachusetts context. And so understanding how gambling harms is attributed in the Massachusetts population will help focus prevention efforts in order to have the largest overall impact and effect. And so we have with us today to present on this study Dr. Rachel Volberg. She is the stigma principle investigator and professor at the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Over to you, Rachel. Thank you, Marie Claire. Thank you, Mark. Good morning, Madam Chair and commissioners. It's a pleasure to be back with you again. I think you've seen quite a bit of us over the last several meetings. I am going to be presenting a number of slides. You'll hear a little bit of repetition from what Marie Claire just discussed, but hopefully it won't be too much of a repeat. And I need to open my slideshow. Where'd you go? There you are. And can someone just confirm that you can see my slides? Yes, we can. Okay, great. Okay. So I think I have to advance down here, yes. So until quite recently, gambling harms have been identified solely with the clinical entity of problem gambling. The assumption underlying this approach is that gambling harm can be minimized by treating individuals with this condition or by preventing them from progressing to this state. In the past decade, however, a broader view of the impacts of gambling has emerged internationally with a shift in focus from problem gambling to gambling related harm. This approach recognizes that there are many more people harmed by gambling than reflected in the rates of problem gambling alone. And similar to public health approaches to alcohol consumption, this emerging perspective on gambling consumption recognizes that gambling has positive impacts on society, including generation of revenues to government, industry employment, and new leisure options for communities. It also recognizes that the majority of people gamble without experiencing any evident harm. So the original prevention paradox, which was developed in 1992, focused attention on the importance of populations as opposed to individuals when developing prevention strategies intended to modify or mitigate determinants of disease. In cases where a large proportion of the population with limited risk actually represents the greater burden of disease, the focus should be on shifting the distribution curve lower to reduce the risk for the entire population. This notion is variously referred to in the research literature as the total consumption model or the single distribution theory. And it's been used internationally to justify measures to restrict alcohol consumption, for example, in order to reduce total consumption and thereby reduce the proportion of heavy drinkers in the population. The paradox in the original prevention paradox is that measures to restrict alcohol consumption may bring large benefits to the community, but can be onerous for individual consumers. Use of the term prevention paradox in relation to gambling focuses a little bit more narrowly on the recognition that a far greater number of individuals experiencing gambling related harm are lowest gamblers because as you've heard, there are far more low risk gamblers than high risk gamblers in the population. And as you've also heard, the paradox is that more aggregate harm is suffered by the low risk gambling population, even though individually people in the high risk gambling, including heavy gamblers, as well as those experiencing gambling problems suffer the greatest amount of harm per individual. Well, gambling harm can be challenging to define and measure significant research has been done to classify the impacts associated with regular or heavy gambling involvement and to develop measures for use in population surveys. This slide presents some features of the emerging international consensus about gambling harms and identifies the major domains of harm. There is growing consensus that gambling behavior or participation is distinct from the experience of gambling harms. There's also consensus that gambling harms are experienced not just by individual gamblers but by members of their families and others in their community. And finally, researchers have identified a number of specific domains of harm, including financial, relationship, emotional, psychological, health, work and school and illegal activities. The main instrument that's been developed to measure gambling harms is the 72 item gambling harms checklist. The checklist has been used in several national surveys but there have been some criticisms of it. In addition to its length, critics have pointed out that it does not adequately assess harm caused to other people since the questions refer only to harms experienced and reported by individuals. Other criticisms are that some items in the checklist are ambiguous and others represent value judgments about gambling such as spending less spending on recreational expenses as eating out or going to the movies in order to gamble. Finally, endorsement of some items in the checklist may portend future harm but do not represent unambiguous current harm in and of themselves. There is another instrument that can be used to measure gambling harm which is the problem and pathological gambling measure which we use in Massachusetts in the Sigma surveys to assess problem gambling. While the PPGM items specifically seek information about harms caused to people apart from the survey responded, it is important to acknowledge that all of the questions rely on self-report and may not accurately reflect the breadth or depth of harms experienced by others besides the gambler or individual respondent in the survey. The purpose of the present study is to examine whether the prevention paradox in relation to gambling harm holds up in the Massachusetts context. The approach replicates to the fullest extent possible the approach taken in a recent study in Finland with which I was involved. In addition to extending our understanding of gambling harm in different cultural and regulatory contexts, this analysis builds on prior work by using Massachusetts population survey data and by employing an instrument that assesses harm to self and others. The analyses in the study are based on the two population surveys that were carried out in Massachusetts in 2013 and 2014 prior to the opening of any casinos. I've provided some information on the slide about some of the differences in the demographics of the respondents in the two surveys. We did make the decision to combine the samples with the intention of creating a sample size sufficient to analyze the relative prevalence of gambling harms among different gambling severity groups in Massachusetts. It's important to note that combining the samples comes with disadvantages as well as advantages. The clearest advantage is the large increase in the sample size available for analysis. The main disadvantage is that we are not able to clearly define the larger population that the sample represents. And we have therefore not weighted this combined sample to the Massachusetts adult population. For this particular study, we selected regular gamblers, namely those who gambled once a month or more often on one or more gambling types. And rather than use the standard PPGM typology, we created a gambling severity score using a subset of the items from the PPGM that assess either impaired control or behavioral dependence. Although there is near complete overlap between the severity score and the PPGM as a whole, we did this in order to maintain as much comparability as possible with the finished study, which used the PPGM to measure problem gambling and the gambling checklist to measure gambling harms. So I'm just gonna put this slide up very quickly. It provides information about the specific items in the PPGM that assess gambling harms in different domains. The main point to this slide is that you can see we had about 20 different harms that we assessed, but that they fell into the domains of financial health, emotional, psychological, family relationships, work, school, and illegal activities that represent the international consensus. So this slide is an overview of the four different analyses that I'm going to present to you. As you can see, we looked first at the relationship between gambling severity and gambling harms. We then looked at the number of individuals in each of the severity groups experiencing one or more harms. Next, we looked at the proportional distribution of severity by number of harms. And finally, we examined the distribution of harms by specific domain. So this figure, the figure on topic, excuse me, illustrates the inverse relationship between gambling severity and gambling harms and how these combine to contribute to the aggregate impact of each group. The panel on the left represents the proportion of individuals in each of the gambling severity groups and demonstrates that prevalence decreases markedly in relation to increasing severity. The panel on the right shows the average number, I'm sorry, average count of harms across all of the domains conditional on membership in each severity group and demonstrates that the number of harms increases markedly in relation to increasing severity. And then the table below presents this information in numeric form, along with the total number of harms and the proportion of harms accounted for by each severity group. And because of the much larger size of the lower severity groups, even the much smaller average number of harms endorsed by members of these groups accounts for just over 70% of the aggregate number of harms across all of the groups. So this next slide is what's called a mosaic plot and mosaic plots are similar to stacked bar charts except the width of each bar is determined by the relative size of the group. And this mosaic plot represents the number of individuals experiencing at least one harm. So that's the dark part. I'm sorry, the relative area of each dark shaded rectangle reflects the probability that a member of the sample will report one or more harms and be a member of a given severity group. You can see that while almost all the individuals in the highest severity group report one or more harms, any particular individual experiencing a gambling harm is far more likely to be in a lower severity group. One limitation of this figure is that it ignores differing degrees of harm since it cannot be assumed that an individual reporting just one harm is necessarily experiencing a meaningfully large degree of harm. This figure presents a somewhat more nuanced view of the distribution of gambling harms across the severity groups. It shows the proportional distribution of severity by the number of harms. The shading of each bar illustrates the proportion of regular gamblers in each gambling severity group reporting an increasing number of harms which range from one over here to 11 plus down here out of a total number of 20 harms that were assessed. In keeping in mind the different scales of these two Y axes for the two panels, the figure demonstrates that the most severe group, this most darkly shaded part of each bar makes up less than a third of gamblers reporting one, two or three harms, but more than 70% of gamblers reporting six or seven harms and 90% or more of gamblers reporting nine or more harms. Finally, this figure illustrates the relative proportion of harms reported separated by harm domain and severity group. This figure shows that financial, health and emotional psychological harms are the most common and more broadly distributed across the gambling severity groups. The prevention paradox is supported for these harm domains since more than 50% of the aggregate number of harms were reported by the lower severity groups. In contrast, illegal harms are not commonly reported and are much more likely to be reported by the highest risk severity group. However, even in the case of these less common harms, the harms are broadly distributed across the different severity groups with the highest severity group accounting for 37% of the illegal harms. Work, school and relationship harms cannot be displayed because our Sigma reporting convention precludes us from publishing results when the cell size is five or less. In the case of these two harm domains, the cell size for the lowest severity group is less than five but I can tell you that the highest severity group accounts for 37% of work, school harms and 32% of relationship harms. Using the lens of the prevention paradox, we investigated whether the majority of harms arose from the highest severity group, namely those displaying control issues and behavioral dependence at the highest level. Overall, we found that the prevention paradox was supported in Massachusetts with just over 70% of all harms arising from the lower severity groups. The large majority of respondents reporting gambling harms reported relatively few harms and these individuals were unlikely to be in the highest risk group. However, the respondents reporting the largest number of harms were most likely to be in the highest severity group. And finally, we found that some harms are more common and more broadly distributed across the population while other harms are less common. But in contrast to the Finnish study, the highest severity group in Massachusetts does not account for 50% or more of the harms in any domain. Thus, our conclusion is that the prevention paradox is supported across all harm domains in Massachusetts. The classic formulation of the prevention paradox suggests that if the aggregate number of harms is higher among individuals with less severe problems, then primary prevention efforts aimed at altering unhealthy or unsafe behaviors across the entire population should be emphasized rather than or in addition to secondary prevention efforts aimed at halting or slowing the progress of the disorder and tertiary prevention efforts aimed at helping people manage long-term or chronic issues among those already experiencing harm problems. The challenge is not to eliminate the latter programs in favor of primary programs, but rather to balance the resources going toward each type of prevention. The evidence that the prevention paradox is indeed occurring in relation to gambling in Massachusetts supports the notion that more resources should go toward primary prevention to forestall the development of gambling harms and somewhat less resources could go to the provision of formal treatment and recovery maintenance services. One facet of problem gambling that was addressed in our cohort study, which I reported on to you about a month ago, but could not be examined here is the temporal dimension of the development of gambling problems and the experience of gambling harms. In our final report on magic, we noted that since the majority of problem gamblers in the later waves of the study were relapsed rather than first-time problem gamblers, Massachusetts may be a jurisdiction where successful treatment of existing problem gamblers is just as important as prevention of problem gambling onset. It's probably too simplistic to look at a single point in time in considering the distribution of gambling harms in the population. Since this approach does not take into account the recurring nature of harms among individuals experiencing gambling problems. I do think that our analysis does support the idea that higher rates of financial and health harms among regular gamblers in Massachusetts suggests the importance of raising awareness about gambling related harm among people who are working with individuals in those realms. So educating community organizations, financial counselors and health professionals and even financial institutions about the extent of gambling harms among regular gamblers seems like it would be a good idea. While the magic results suggest that the focus of prevention and treatment efforts in Massachusetts should be on individuals currently experiencing gambling problems, the prevention paradox results indicate that such efforts must be counterbalanced by ongoing prevention aimed at individuals not yet experiencing problems. In our view, this means that all of the general prevention strategies that were outlined in the final magic report are needed. In addition to these efforts, it might be wise to target heavy gamblers since reducing their gambling involvement is likely to lead to the greatest gains in gambling harm reduction. This is my final slide. It's important to acknowledge some of the limitations to the study and we do that in each of our reports. In this case, some of the limitations are the surveys themselves. The BGPS, the population survey achieved a relatively low response rate. It did not include adults living in group quarters, homeless people or incarcerated people in the sample. The survey was available only in English and Spanish and it was a cross-sectional survey. The main limitation of the online panel survey is the non-representative nature of all online panels. The remaining bullets on this slide identify some additional limitations of the study, but I want to end by addressing the issue of the age of the data. Since this is one of the concerns raised by the Gaming Commission's Research Review Committee, it's possible that the distribution of gambling harms in Massachusetts has changed since the casinos opened and we plan to analyze data from the two surveys that are currently planned or in the field in Massachusetts to determine whether in fact, this has happened. The full report is gonna be posted shortly on our website, the Sigma website, as well as on the Gaming Commission's website and I look forward to answering any questions that you have. Thank you, Chair. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Dr. Volberg, this was interesting. It makes a lot of sense to me that we move in this direction to have an effect on more people. I'm glad you just reminded me that the data was old because my question had to do with if in fact, people because it's self-reporting, right? The information comes from self-reporting if people were willing to disclose that they may have been engaged in sports betting illegally or if the Finnish study, which it's legal obviously and has been for years in Europe or any differences based on sports betting because I do think it's a different, it'll be different than casino gaming and maybe horse racing and some of the results we see will be different as well. So I just wondered if we did have folks that were willing to self-disclose if they were engaged in illegal sports betting or if the numbers were different in Finland because it's legal and that wasn't incorporated into their study. We did include questions about sports betting in the 2013 and 2014 surveys because we know from long experience that that's an important form of gambling that people engage in regardless of whether it's legal or illegal in a particular jurisdiction. So we've always asked questions about sports betting in any of the surveys that I've done. So we do have information about sports betting that was disclosed to us in those surveys. I don't have the numbers at the tip of my fingers or the tip of my tongue, but I don't think, we did not look at the distribution of harms in relation to engagement with specific forms of gambling which could be an interesting thing to do perhaps in our future analysis we could take a look at that. But I don't think that the difference between having sports betting be illegal in Massachusetts at the time of the surveys and being legal in Finland at the time of that survey necessarily had an impact on the difference in the distribution of harms. Yeah, thank you. When you talked about the harms when it comes to school or work, I know personally of a couple of families who their college age boys got into serious trouble with poker, illegal poker, online poker. And really the parents had to pull the kids out of school and start over to new school or maybe even commute in one case because of the problems, that the gambling debt that these kids occurred and just so I just didn't know if those numbers would change when we have more data such as that. We can certainly take a look at the sports betting engagement both in the samples from 2013-2014 but I think it'll also be interesting to look at the 2021-22 data that we'll have by the middle of next year. Sure, great. Thank you, excellent report. Thank you. Krishna Bryan. I did thank you for this. The one question I had really left after Commissioner Cameron's questions was the availability of different languages in terms of the surveys. Is there any effort being put into translating that? I know we had a report recently about the Asian community and how they're impacted in particular. So I didn't know if there was anything to be done in terms of getting more data on that. Yeah, that's been, it's been a challenge for as long as I've been a gambling researcher, which is over 30 years because you have to balance in any large survey effort you have to balance the fact that you want a representative sample of the population with the fact that some groups in the population are quite small and difficult to reach. And so the ability to translate a questionnaire into multiple languages also comes with a cost. And if you're talking about, three to 5% of the population that speaks a particular language that you may want to be able to include in a representative sample, it becomes very expensive and comes at a cost in terms of achieving a large sample size. So my recommendation has always been to do the best we can with recruiting, small demographic groups into our big surveys, but always balanced with efforts of the kind that you heard with Asian cares where there's more qualitative work that's done with those communities to understand those issues because they are somewhat unique and different in each of those communities. So survey research serves certain purposes, but you can't do everything. It's not a tool that meets every need. So the decision to only provide the survey in English and Spanish has been maintained in the follow-up general population survey, but what we've done in order to address sort of the low numbers of Asians and African-Americans as well in the baseline survey is we have stratified the sample so that we're getting out of a sample of 8,000, we're actually getting 1,000 Asians, 1,000 African-Americans and 1,000 Latinx or Hispanic respondents. And then the fourth stratum that we're oversampling for is 18 to 29 year olds. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And the 18 to 29 year old are also difficult to survey, is that why? Yes. The easiest people to respond to a survey are older retired people. So we do have to make extra efforts to engage younger people with surveys and we're doing it very deliberately and with quite some success I have to say based on the numbers I've seen so far. Additional questions from Dr. Wolfer. I have a couple of such observations. Commissioner Hillier-Ralsette, just to follow up on Commissioner O'Brien's question, the Asian CARES project of course was launched last week and very compelling and in sync with some of our own internal policy initiatives that Executive Director Wells is implementing through our equity and inclusion action plan. So as you, and I'm hearing you, that stratification can get you to the data place that you want the best that we can get but then in terms of how you respond to that, I guess I would just encourage Mark and Dr. Wolfer that we continue to make sure that we're culturally competent in terms of being able to analyze the data. So some integrating experts of the research into our research teams continues to be really important. And I know Dr. Wolfer, you know that. That's just again an ongoing challenge. But I heard very clearly the researchers on Asian CARES say, you know, it's not simply cultural, but systemic. So we need to really be cognizant of those systemic issues and not inadvertently contribute to them. Back on your earlier slide, and then I might have misunderstood, but there was one slide that suggested for various solves or solutions is to include financial advising. I'm not so sure if that was more on the most severe or on the less severe. But in any case, I do think that that is something that we should continue to explore. Mark knows that I've mentioned a few times that for those who find themselves in just such dire straits that all we can be providing a lot of mental health interventions and other strategies for dealing with the gambling problem, we can also help to reduce the practical problem of financial despair. So I'm curious next steps as we go through your great research, how we start to think about that solution too. Just reiterating what we've talked about privately, Mark. Great, yeah, absolutely. There's more to follow up. Okay, well, it really is a paradox. Well, while named, I was very interested in learning about that. And then I can't go without acknowledging Marie Claire, the snapshot. My only recommendation would be that we start with that in our packet. Because it kind of went through the long report and then I got to the snapshot and I said, oh, that's what I needed for my thinking cap in my place. That's Anna. So Mark had imagined that translation, Marie Claire, and now it's in effect. So congratulations to you, Mark, and great job, Marie Claire. And I know Dr. Mulder, you've worked really hard. And Austin, so thank you. Anything further? If I may, I think about it in terms of our own responsible gaming efforts as well. And specifically, how do we make sure that game sense play my way, and whatever else is on the horizon remains responsive to this. And when I think about the prevention paradox and even just our existing strategies within game sense, I think it really supports this concept of primary prevention and our approach through primary presentation in game sense. So I really appreciated the report. I appreciate that effort, Rachel. I've been fascinated by the prevention paradox for years. So when this came up as an ad hoc report in our last year's research agenda, I was really excited to see it approved. Mark, do you wanna mention the ad hoc? Is it the right time?  That would be on for next month, next commission meeting. It is on the agenda for the next commission meeting. So commissioners every, actually the last couple of years, we have what's called an ad hoc report included in the contract that we have with UMass for the Sigma project. Sometimes it's a social ad hoc, sometimes economic ad hoc, one or two. And fiscal year 22, so the current fiscal year contract that we have with UMass, we have one social ad hoc report. I like the ad hoc report because it allows us to be much more flexible and nimble with whatever topic is kind of important in the moment. If we weren't able to necessarily anticipate last year when we were building and planning for the research agenda. So on Monday, we had the gaming policy advisory committee that the G-PAC is intended to advise the gaming commission on the annual research agenda. So we presented to the G-PAC five possible ad hoc research topics and opened it up to any additional ideas that the G-PAC had. We got some feedback on that. And the plan is to kind of summarize that feedback and then bring it to you during the next commission meeting to weigh in and we will select the topic of the FY22 social ad hoc report. So Dr. Volberg, stay tuned. Yeah, tune in. I've been tuning in since September, Madam Chair. Of 2013, I think. Yes. Great. Well, this is an excellent report and also presentation. Rachel, it was very accessible and thank you. And again, thank you, Marie Claire. All right, I'll step in, Mark. I'll set, thank you very much, Madam Chair. All right, we'll move on into item number six. Wait, let me check, 1130. We're quite ahead of schedule and we could probably have, I know that for our next item, Amike, I think was available after 1130 crystals. Crystal's hearing, can I have a shout out to her today? I don't know if you want to give me a warning, but we could maybe conclude earlier unless we want to take. I actually, I need to take a short break. Okay. All right. And then we go on to item number six, but maybe we can give a little bit of fair warning to now Executive Director Zuniga. Yeah, I can. Well, yes, I see him. Amike, I'm going to take, this is a time for you to eat. 10 minute break then. Let me just see what time it is. Yeah, so quarter off. Yeah. Is that work for you, Commissioner, Brian? Commissioner, okay. Excellent. Oh, there he is. All right, we're going to see you in about 15 minutes. And then we can listen into Derek's report. Something very familiar to you. Alrighty, thank you. Thanks, everyone. Hi, Derek, can you hear me? I can hear you. Oh, Derek, would you mind if we had Commissioner Zuniga's acknowledgments first? Not at all. It would be my pleasure. That's what I get. Austin, I think we can probably get started. Thank you. So we'll reconvene today's meeting of November 4th with public meeting number 359. I'll do a roll call as we come back from break. Commissioner Cameron. Oh, I am here. Commissioner O'Brien. I am here. Commissioner Hill, who shifted. Actually, Brad, you are on mute, but I can see you're here. Okay, and we're all set then to proceed. And as you may have heard, our Chief Financial and Accounting Officer, Derek Lennon, has ceded his spot to our item number seven on today's agenda so that we can give more of a formal recognition our now former commissioner, Amike Zuniga. I'll just briefly give a few remarks. I know many people are here tuning in for you, Amike. And I wanna congratulate you again on your appointment to the Post Commission. As I've said to you, Amike, certainly the commission, the Post Commission will benefit from you. And we'll draw on your nearly 10 years of experience here at the MGC, working with the benefit of the star players on the MGC executive team, as you work now with a new team to start up a new agency. I'm certain you'll draw, and I've mentioned this, upon the sensibilities that you've developed as you work with our IEB and the state police, the GEU, with Karen Wells and Loretta, those sensibilities are going to be critical in your new position. You know, I had the privilege, and I think many people know this, participating on the five member selection team for the former state treasurer, when the treasurer Grossman was determining who would be his first appointee to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. And we got to meet you and interview you and review your application at the time. And it is ironic for me that when we recommended your appointment on making, I never would have imagined I'd end up working with you as your fellow commissioner, and in fact, experiencing just exactly how you did your job. I am particularly thankful for the work you did with me and our colleagues to advance our equity and inclusion initiative. We are already, you knew this I think when you were leaving, feeling the impact of the intentionality of our work and our commitment continues to be firm to the five action items that you helped develop as critical to our workplace. As I mentioned, and I can see the faces starting to light up, we know that there are many who want to acknowledge you today. I've had the chance to speak with you since your departure. Main message for me on Rike is that Jeff and I want to wish your wife, your children, your new colleagues and you the very best in your new position. It's a critically important position and it's going to be one that will be a big challenge. We know that the common mother's very lucky to have your leadership and we wish you very, very well. So critically important to our frontline enforcement, law enforcement officers to the residents of Massachusetts and to the entire Commonwealth. So we're very thankful to know that you've been appointed to this position. Thank you very much, Kathy. Commissioner Cameron. I'd love to chime in and Rike, get ready. No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. No, you know, this is similar to when Bruce left for me, meaning it just brings back all the old memories, right? Of starting this commission, the early days, hiring staff, writing regs, figuring out our priorities and you know, really how to work effectively together, right? That was a challenge. But Rike was never afraid to speak his mind, which I always appreciated. And I actually learned an awful lot, not just about finance, because I certainly did that. How to really assess our applicants and what their financial stability was that was so helpful to me in the early days. But just a lot about cultural differences, right? Which is so important. I loved your stories about growing up in Mexico. I loved your stories about how you assimilated to the Northeast part of the United States and how all that worked for you. And I especially appreciated all our stories. We would have the most intense discussions about policing of all things and criminal justice in the United States. We came from such different backgrounds and we really had some fabulous discussions. Never, ever would I have thought that Rike would end up in a position with the next chapter of his most impressive career in a position where police reform can be handled in such a professional. And I give the Commonwealth great credit for understanding the importance of this position. But I also give in Rike credit for understanding the importance of the mission and wanting to be involved. His commitment to public services is really amazing because it is a commitment. We talked about next steps, right? In your life in Rike. I know you considered the private sector. It was a consideration, but your passion was public safety. And when this position, when this whole post position came about, I know you're interested from day one because you really, really care about these issues. So I'm proud of you. I've loved working with you, loved getting to know your family and the work that we've done over the years. So I know that we'll remain friends and help each other in whatever those next steps are. And I don't even have to wish you good luck because I know you're already, having spoken to you many times, I know you're already off to a great start and really care about the mission and hiring the right folks and the whole thing. So just a big thank you and I'll miss you. And, but we'll be, we'll stay in touch, right? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Sarah Bryan. Thank you. Rike, I miss you already.  I want to say thank you. You were incredibly welcoming to me when I came in as, you know, a new commissioner with, was at the time pretty much the old guard and not really knowing my way around. You were very gracious. Like Gail, you and I are on the opposite sides, not infrequently and would have animated conversations about where, where that came from and why and where we're ending up where we were. I would learn a lot in those conversations too about perspective and background. But the best part of it for me was, you know, being able to two minutes later, go talk to you about something else or go grab something to eat or a cup of coffee. That it was the most respectful animated dialogue that I've had professionally. And, and I got better for it. You know, there was no hard feelings or anything like that. But I'm not going to lie to you. The part that I miss the most is that you always needed some activity and a break before I did in meetings. And now I have to be the bad guy that puts my hand up and says, I got to go.  So Betty, I didn't have to show up, but what I'm sure will be very long executive director meetings at your new position, but they're lucky to have you.  Thank you much, Eileen. I miss you too. Commissioner Hill, you didn't have the privilege of working with Commissioner Zuniga, but you did have the privilege of watching the legislation pass that is now based on his new employment. So let me introduce you. Enrique Zuniga, Brad Hill, Commissioner Hill's come on and Enrique, he's bringing to us great background in terms of municipal law and the legislation. You knew that that's just something that we would benefit from. I'm sure when you saw his appointment, his legislative experience is so helpful to us. And he kind of was around when 23K was written, which helps us a whole lot. So it's been that he's no one replaces no one, right? Everyone brings new perspective. And Brad, it has done that for us. We, of course, keep track of Bruce Stevens and his other role. We'll be able to keep track of you and now you get to meet Brad this way. And at some point, you know that you'll meet in person. But I do know that Commissioner Hill had monitored our meetings before you left. So he saw you in action. So Enrique, Brad and Brad, if you'd like to comment, please do. Well, let me comment as a citizen of the Commonwealth and then I will comment as a newbie on the commission. As a citizen of the Commonwealth, I want to thank you for your service here. I've already mentioned this publicly as well as privately to my fellow commissioners of the legacy that you've already left when you started your new position. Your legacy in responsible gaming, your legacy in community mitigation programs. The most professional agency I think I've ever worked with or have joined is this gaming commission and clearly the work that you did to create the people that you worked, you brought on board here at the commission, folks that you worked with. This is probably one of the most professional agencies the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has. And from what I've been told, Enrique, you're one of the reasons why this is one of the best agencies in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And I think the citizens should know that and understand the work that you did to make it that professional. As a newbie, I have very big shoes to fill. I just mentioned responsible gaming and community mitigation, which is I know two things that you really, really cared about. And I want you to know that moving forward, these are two issues I care deeply about. And because of the foundation that you have built, which is second to none, that any newbie coming on board can slide right in and learn from what you have given this agency. So although we didn't get to work together, I can assure you that as a citizen and as a newbie here, I greatly appreciate your work here and the time and effort you put in. And Gail and Eileen and Kathy have told me many stories about you all good, I might add. And I too want to wish you the best of luck. I know you jumped in with both feet when you were here and you've jumped in with both feet in your new position. I've already heard from my former police chiefs of the good work that you're doing. So again, I appreciate as a citizen everything you did here. And I appreciate as a citizen what you're doing over in this new agency. So congratulations for your great job here and good luck on your new job title. And we look forward to hearing good things coming out of the post. Thank you very much, Brian. Likewise, welcome. Karen, your team is making its presence. Monrique, can I just introduce you? Did you have, you had met Marie Claire virtually, right? I see her. And now she's sitting right out here which is great to see her in your life. I'm just looking at who's got their camera on. I don't see long, but we did have long joined and you knew that Mark was gonna be bringing, strengthening his responsible gaming team. So I'm sorry that you missed out on meeting him. But Karen, I'm gonna let you orchestrate how you want team members to acknowledge Commissioner Ziniga as we get more and more open there'll be opportunities we hope for a visit. And on me, maybe even might make sense for you to even do a little presentation for us. I would really appreciate that as you start to really get things underway. So Karen? So I'll open it up. I do have something, you know, the service award I would like to read for Commissioner Ziniga, but I don't know if Todd or Loretta or Derek in particular want to chime in and see your members of the team. I see Mark's also on board. So I'll just open it up. I see Loretta turn to her mic off. Do you want to say something? Sure, I agree, it's good to see you. I couldn't let this opportunity go by without mentioning your paella. It wasn't just paella, it really was presented the times we shared it together with such ceremony and flourish and pride on your part in your background and your culture of birth and in such a spirit of sharing that it's really become symbolic to me of you as a person and some of the things that you brought to our relationship and to your colleagues here at the commission. And of course, with everything we've been through over the past almost two years, it's become even sweeter, a sweeter memory over time. So I wanted to acknowledge and thank you for sharing that with folks on multiple occasions. I also wanted to just acknowledge and thank you for that collegial nature that you brought to the day to day. It really served to bring our fulsome discussions in a forward moving way all the time and helped with a productive communication here. I wanna thank you because you always kept the needs of our applicants as a central focus. And as part of that, really insisted that we constantly be mindful of the diversity of experiences of our applicant pool. And I think that has made me better in my job now and has made the whole team here in the bureau better able to serve the people that we do serve. So really thank you, I miss you, wish you all the luck. And it was a great privilege to work with you. Thank you much, Lorena. There will be a future paella, I hope. I hope. I never saw the paella. Oh, it's amazing. Nope. For a bit, forget the presentation, just bring the paella, right? Right. Loretta, you didn't mention the size of the paella. It was a, how big was that pan? Eight feet long.  He had to wash the special pan out in the backyard because it would not fit the sink. A truck, like for horses. The pan covered the floor burners of the stove. Really? Yeah. Karen, did anybody else watch anything I saw? Todd, you know, you had sort of leaned in a little bit. I would love to chime in. Enrique, obviously great to see you. I didn't prepare any witty remarks, so I guess I'll have to just speak from the heart and tell you that, obviously, you had an unbelievable ride here. Your contributions will always be remembered. As has already been said, your fingerprints are all over this place that we're all tremendously proud of. You've always been a role model to me. Someone I've looked up to for many, many years. I've tremendously valued our personal interactions, our friendship. We've spent a lot of time in the kitchen over coffee, talking about all kinds of things, work and personal. And I've always tremendously valued that. I'll miss that deeply. I'm really proud of all the work we did together. And as far as I'm concerned, you have a spot on the Mount Rushmore of the Gaming Commission without a question. So congratulations to you for all of your great work and the new great work you will be doing. Hope to see you soon. Excellent, thanks, Todd. Is there anyone else that would like to say anything? Yeah, I would. Enrique, it's so good to see you. I really, truly do miss you. As Todd mentioned, I miss the conversations around the Corrig in the break room. It always started off as perhaps something related to work but trended towards personal. And when I first started at the commission and really knew very few people in this area, in this state, you were always so incredibly kind. I would say you were probably an unassuming commissioner to take up the mantle of research and responsible gaming. But I think that your unique way of your unique experience, your personal story, your professional experience, you brought an incredible passion and critical thinking skill to this area. And it meant a lot. And I think if you... I know you were on for the last presentation to hear about the prevention paradox. You helped identify that as a research priority. And so I'm so thrilled that you got to see it, see Dr. Volberg present that. I'll never forget about the process of choosing game sense as the strategy that the commission wanted to bring up to adopt for responsible gaming. That was huge. And that is something that I will... I have such pride in and I hope that you do too. And our process and conversations about how to build that program were instrumental. So I really do miss you. I really hope it's going well for you. And I hope we can stay in touch. Thanks Mark. You know, I was gonna turn it over to Derek. Thank you. Hey, Rike. So one of the very first faces I saw in my interviews at the commission, I'll miss you quite a bit. You know, Gail has stepped right in and is the beneficiary of many of the processes and procedures that you've put in place. She has said that many times. So your professional assistance is on everything we do in finance. On a personal note, I'll never forget our discussion over a fire truck funded from the Community Mitigation Fund. And I thought that we either of us would get that. They had to made it over a fire truck.  So I appreciate that. I'll miss you. Good luck at the post commission. I think you are perfect for the role. What you're gonna bring to them is very good. Perspectives that many people have touched on that you bring in your background will be very helpful there. I look forward to continuing our personal friendship and watching you grow in your executive director role. Thanks, Derek. Is there anyone else that wanted to chime in before I go ahead? Okay. So Enrique, first of all, on behalf of the staff, I'd just like to thank you for everything you've done for this commission and most importantly, the people that work at the commission that you supported, myself included, through good times and not so good times. There's been some challenges in the commission over the years and you were extremely supportive in the personally and of other people in the commission. So I wanna say thank you for that. It is weird coming back to the office today or in this week because normally when you walk around the office, Enrique is always there. He is someone that was always in the office, always available. And I'm gonna piggyback on what Gail said about service because I think it is not as similar to what Gail's saying. It's not a surprise to me going over to the post commission because you had this whole sense that your job was of public service at the gaming commission and you were looking for the public good, the good of, as Loretta said, the applicants, people that were looking for jobs. You were always supporting the people that were looking for jobs and trying to make their lives better and trying to make a living. So I really respected that and I think you did leave quite an imprint on the licensing process and how we go about talking to people and getting them through the process and having something positive come out of the Expanded Gaming Act. So I wanted to thank you for that. Also just your willingness to serve within the commission. And people have mentioned the community mitigation, equity inclusion group, also the annual report, which is a project you took on and you were always someone that if something was going on, you would step up and you would volunteer to help out or lead an initiative. So I think that really speaks volumes about you and your character. So the commissioners have all signed. Hopefully we will get together in person so we can give you your certificate in person. I think that would be really fun. We can invite Bruce as well because he had a virtual going away. But I just wanted to read to you something on behalf of the commission which will be presented to you in person. And that is on this fourth day of November, 2021, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission proudly presents this Distinguished Service Award to Enrique Zuniga in grateful appreciation for his distinguished service to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As a founding member of the MGC, Commissioner Zuniga was instrumental in successfully building a new and sustainable public agency while simultaneously implementing a multifaceted expanded gaming law. He brought financial expertise to his role as commission treasurer and was an advocate in areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. His work ethic served as an example to others and his heartfelt efforts related to responsible gaming contributed to the agency's international reputation as a leader in the field. The MGC extends its heartfelt gratitude for its immeasurable contributions, consummate professionalism, and admirable dedication to public service. So thank you, Enrique. And I will turn the floor over to you. If you'd like to say a few words. I know there are people watching on the live stream there. Not everybody is doing the HD meeting day more at the agency. So no pressure. Thank you. Thank you very much for all those kind words. You know, let me say a couple of things. Some of you have heard me say a version of this, but I think it bears repeating. When we first started, we were criticized for not knowing gaming, which was, I think, appropriate. I would think, well, we know a lot of things, but we know a lot of skills that are relevant, you know, state police, public policy, you know, law, et cetera. But of course, I made it my mission to learn gaming and learn a lot of what we had to regulate by necessity. And so I want to share with you the lessons that I've learned and the hint is not none of them have to do with gaming. I learned the lesson on the importance of the method, that the talent is the method. This is true for just about everybody in the gaming commission in the legal department and the IEB with a law degree. The method of analyzing, looking at things, dissecting is really what brings the crux of what we do. I'm thinking of Catherine, Doug, Karen, Loretta, everybody at legal. The IEB, this is true for the commissioners with a law degree. Just the method is the importance of everything we do. I learned about how important and critical it is to just get things done, how execution matters just so much. Karen, you're the best example of that, but Katrina, everybody at IT, all the gaming agents, Alex in racing, all the support staff, Jamie, Mary Ann, Mary, Lisa, the other Mary, everybody just getting things done is just, you know, just so important. Doing it with a sense of humor. Derek, I'm thinking of all the finance team, pretty privileged to have worked with you so closely. Also just having a real balanced approach and a real objective understanding of what we're doing in order to move the needle. Having research, informed policy. Of course, everybody with Rachel and I was watching with interest the presentation, by the way, about the prevention paradox and the insightful questions, but Rachel, everybody in her team, you know, how important it is also to accomplish big things but by making small incremental progress. And that's, in my mind, is Mark and all the work that he does, how we have, because of his great work, we're also recognized elsewhere by how important work we're doing here. That goes also for game sense, everybody there. I'm thinking of how relevant and important was customer service, never forgetting that we serve the public, as was mentioned. Licensing everybody at the gaming agents, everybody at the state police really have that in mind at all times, and that's critical to everything we do. How critical teamwork is, and this is true for just everybody, but I'm now thinking of whenever I saw John and Elaine go into the chair's office, I thought, well, something's growing, but it's okay because the team has it. And I'll eventually know about it, and that's okay because I know others are working on it. But if I may, I do wanna recognize, well, thank you for all those recognitions, but I do wanna recognize the first four commissioners that started with me in the early days with apologies to the current commissioners, by the way. But in my new role, I have been really thinking quite a bit about the early days of starting an agency and this is why I want to just acknowledge how difficult but rewarding it was. I got to witness four styles of leadership that really circused well. Steve was the leader that would go in the trenches on behalf of others, absorbing the attacks and responding like no others, not like no other, could actually potentially respond in those situations. Jim was in everything he did at a public meeting, he was teaching us the masterclass in how to make an argument and how to analyze a complex situation and how to make a compelling argument even when I disagreed with him. It was really the masterclass. Bruce, who was simply practicing radical kindness and how critical it was in everything we did and of course, Gail, who I love like a sister. And long before, you know, people like Cheryl Sandberg were giving women advice about how to make it in a male-dominated world. Gail was rising to the top by being the ultimate people person. So my advice to Kathy, Eileen and Brad is that you of course bring a lot of skills like we did early on. Those are very important and very valuable and will be critical in everything you do.  They're doing great. By the way, this includes the licensees when they tell you that something matters, it really matters. It's important for us to listen for you now. I keep telling me a thing. For you to listen and take that into consideration. You will hear from them. You will hear from others as I know you have already. And that's a critical part of the process. So I take all those lessons with me. I will cherish them always and I thank you very much for this recognition. Great job, Enrique. Thank you. Fabulous. So Enrique, as Karen said, we're hoping that maybe we'll have something in real life. The only rule will be you can't come empty handed. Those are my lights. Lights out. Apparently, if you don't move around, that's a good thing because it's a sustainability at work. But you can't come empty handed. You've got to be some of your special cooking skills. And if you could do it in real life, like Chupi did for us during the virtual times, you could do a whole cooking thing here. Your words don't escape us, Enrique. We're very, very lucky to know that we have a lot to learn and that we are very lucky to have a team that we have. So with that, Bruce, I see you, me, has everybody had a chance to say what they want now? And then we have a hope that we can all be together. So Enrique, the one thing I can say is that you have not changed spots yet. And so we'll stay tuned. Perhaps we'll hear about, at some point, you'll probably be figuring out your space issue. We are trying to do that, but I'm still coming at you from the basement at 59 Eastland Road. That's your son's room. Isn't it for right now? Behind there is his room, but he's not here, so he doesn't mind. I know, I know. Anyway, I look forward to a kid update when we get a chance, so always monitoring that. All right, well, thank you, Enrique. We won't keep you. You've got important stuff to get to. Yes, thank you so much. Thank you much, Kathy. Thank you for all of your nice words. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm gonna turn my lights on. I can see you all here, but I really can't see my desk. Oh, they're kind of back on, I don't know. Karen, you have this issue before. Oh yeah, it's funny. Yeah, we'll figure it out. Motion detector, I guess. Thanks, Crystal. Alrighty, well, that was really, really a treat. And Derek, thank you. And Derek, you're in a new spot today. Your office today. Yeah. So your perspective is really interesting. Yeah, so we're turning this, we're embracing in the finance division, the remote workforce. So this, my office is getting turned into a team room. And we already have done a few meetings. I know that Gail has sat in on a few meetings where we've had the team in, sat working from here, and a few of us joined from home. It works pretty nicely. Looks good. Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair and commissioners. I'm joined by Agnes and Doug, and we are here to present to you the first fiscal year 22 quarterly budget update. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission approved a fiscal year 22 budget for the gaming control fund of 33.02 million, composed of 27.12 million in regulatory costs and 5.9 million in statutory required costs. The gaming control fund required an initial assessment of 29.3 million on licensees. After balancing forward 2.05 million from fiscal year 21, the initial assessment is reduced to 27.26 million. The commission approved an initial budget of 274,000 for the community mitigation fund, which we will be asking for some changes to in this memorandum. So moving on, the commission approved the initial FY 22 gaming control fund budget with the knowledge that only the bare minimum required for the MGC's insurance policy was funded in the litigation budget, and a flat spending projection was funded from the Massachusetts State Police overtime. Well, through the first quarter, we're not projecting any increases to those, but we will continue to monitor both items. The cost of the independent monitor will not included in the FY 22 budget, as that item is a revenue neutral item. We're increasing the spending projection by 73,000 for the July billing for the independent monitor, but we'll also increase the revenue projection by 73,000 for that. We're increasing the local gaming enforcement unit item by 330,000. 271,000 of that has to do with the city of Springfield submitting a late invoice their last quarter from fiscal year 21 wasn't submitted until fiscal year 22. And then there's a $58,000 increase to the Plainville Police Department. There was a turnover in that department. There's a new chief, and when he was reviewing our contract, he said there were some costs that weren't included. We worked with him in the town accountant and the town manager, and we are recommending increasing it for those costs with the full costs of that. Those offices are borne by the Gaming Control Fund, which is what the statute requires. The finance offer, one other item I wanna talk about with the Gaming Control Fund is we did enter into an incidental contract for services to cover our communication office. That contract has been going on for two months, and it is approaching the $10,000 threshold. At this point, we would recommend changing that over to a best value. The cost in spending through two months is less than we would have spent on a full salary in one month. So it is a best value. It's a great value to us. The person who is filling out that contract was a contract employee to us when the lane was off at Harvard. And we're not seeing billing just to bill. We're seeing that person step in where needed, and there's no getting up to speed. There's no knowledge transfer that's needed. So we're recommending for the reasons in the memo that we changed that from an incidental to a best value in hope that we can get that position filled in the upcoming month or two. Table two of the memo, the table on page two of the memo shows how the $2 million surplus revenue from fiscal year 21 will impact each licensee's assessment. And it also shows the revisions in actual gaming positions. So when we approved the FY22 budget, we had anticipated gaming positions because the COVID restrictions were just being lifted. And as of the writing of this memo, we have the actual gaming positions that happened on July 1. And as you can see, the majority of the changes were within PPC and Encore Boston Harbor. MGM was almost exactly on what their projections were. PPC was a little lower. Encore was a little higher than they had projected. Even though we are having spending projections increasing by 330,000, we're not recommending any change to the assessment at this time. And the main driver for that is we're only in the first quarter and as we are showing right now, we reverted $2 million last year. So 330,000 we don't think at this point necessitates a change to the assessment. We'll carry that and we'll get areas of under spending as the year progresses. One last item we'd like to explore here is we would recommend increasing the community mitigation fund budget by 100,000. In FY21, we had 100,000 set aside for a database development in the community mitigation fund. We're not able to get development of that underway until fiscal year 22. So all of that money reverted back to the community mitigation fund at the end of FY21. And we're just asking to move that into this year's budget to spend it. It's money that was approved. We've talked to the local community mitigation advisory councils to let them know we were gonna ask for this at the commission. We did not get any pushback. I think Joe would support that as well. That statement because he's the one that had me appear in front of all the local community mitigation advisory councils to make that notification. And that's the end of our presentation. I have Doug and Agnes here. If we have any questions about specifics within the memo or anything else that you see in the packet. Questions for Derek? I don't have a question, Madam Chair, but I do have a comment. First of all, I just, I wanna thank the financial team. Derek, Noel, Jacqueline, Agnes, I haven't had a chance to work with Doug yet, but I'm sure I will. Coming into a new role, big shoes to fill, right? And Rike is the treasurer, but the team is what I've learned. And first of all, the way you learn is to ask questions. It always works best for me that way anyway. And there's not a question I've asked that they couldn't answer and they have to use solid reason why they do something, how they do it, how it all fits together. And so just an impressive team that I am privileged to work with. And I love learning something new. I'm not with the commission too much longer, but it's been a great experience to learn. And we spoke about the processes they have in place already, but just a great team, a pleasure for me and really thoughtful. All of these numbers are thoughtful, the process, the looking back, looking forward, what do we really need as a commission when it comes to our finances? So just to thank you to the team. That's been very well. Commissioner Hill. The only question is, and maybe some of you educate me in regards to, we're looking at hiring somebody new for our press stuff and right now we're in a contract with someone and it looks as though we're saving a lot of money by doing that. So moving forward, is there conversations taking place where we might just continue with a contract which seems to be saving a lot of money over the year so far. But moving forward, will there be further discussions on whether we should be looking at hiring a staff member or staying with what we've been doing for the last two months? I'm gonna take that one, Kathy. Well, I can start and I'm very eager to hear from other folks and Derek and of course Karen. Commissioner Hill, that position has been posted and we have received applications which is gonna be a review process underway. That topic, the savings that we are achieving and the service that we are receiving, first up we're very, very fortunate to have Sarah magazine in this interim role. She stepped in during the first year when she heard Elaine Fiscal was getting her master's at Harvard as a Bradford fellow and Sarah came with a bunch of experience, so we're really lucky. And then she's been able to step in while Elaine has moved on to her big new position. So we haven't had that discussion. I think it's a fair one to raise given that we just learned the savings. And I mean, I know you're anticipating being part of this process you might wanna weigh in and of course Karen, it's critical to you. We haven't had this discussion, it really is new today. I guess I had the less interesting question but I wasn't really sure what the difference was practically speaking, don't answer that now. But that was the difference between the types of contracts for what the implications were. But I do think I had in the back of my head, Brad. I wondered about exactly that. Gail. Yeah, I'd love to help with this conversation if I could. I think when we were in a virtual mode, a contract employee works out just fine because everybody's getting on camera. But I think from my experience, having a person in the office full time really engaged in the work that we do helping all of us, not just the chair, but every single one of us if we had a speaking engagement, what are the important pieces? Who do we wanna reach? Who the audience is? I have learned so much from our communications director and I do think it's a critical role for this commission. There will be other issues that are really important and our messaging is so important and we were aided every single day by our former communications director and I know that Sarah is a real professional as well and has assisted us tremendously. But I do see the need for a full time person because it's much more than just the press. It is a much larger role. It has to do with all the work we do with the website and every single way that we message the work that we're doing, which I think is critical to the public. So I, for one, have seen firsthand value in that position and think it can only be a value to everyone moving forward. I mean, yeah, I would reiterate what Gail said. I think it's a valid question, absolutely given the savings. I think as Gail pointed out, virtual versus live is one thing and I also know that Sarah also has other commitments and so there's also been judgment calls on when we use her or not in the recent months in particular because she's not a full time person and so we've sort of been making do a little bit and in addition to us, I know and Mark can maybe speak to it. I know she used to do quite a fair amount of work, Elaine did anyway before she left with Game Sense and the research and sort of getting out that really great work that we did in addition to sort of responding to press queries and things like that. So absolutely valid question when you see the title. What might be helpful, Brad, is maybe if you saw the job description because I think it then fills out some of the other stuff that like Kathy and Gail talked about in terms of how it goes beyond press. So that's sort of my perspective on that. Thank you for that. Karen? I think between the three commissioners sort of summarized what I think is the crucial point here is that there is a lot of proactive work as opposed to just reactive work and we are so fortunate to have Sarah because she has an understanding. But for example, also the research and responsible gaming initiatives, there can be a lot of proactive work putting that out. And there's also some value in having someone at the office. We are back in the office and I think that will be helpful. So that's sort of where we are and really support with the commissioners show. That gives me a much better understanding. Thank you very much. Great. Okay. Kathy, did you have a question about the difference between an incidental versus a best value? Just a practical question. I think you had a chance to ask that the other day. Sorry. So an incidental contract by definition is, by OSD's definition is something under $10,000 that you don't plan on doing on a regular basis. And what we've tried to look at is regular basis set to a two-year time period. So hopefully we won't lose the communications structure again within a two-year time period and have to go forward and do this. And we were hoping that we'd be able to fill this position rather quickly. That being said, we have a lot of positions that we're trying to fill at this time. And prioritizing it has just led to this going a little longer than we'd like. Now for a best value procurement, what you're saying is this company is uniquely qualified and you usually have to do this to your appointing authority. So the commission by appointing authority. The contractor is uniquely qualified. They bring a skill set and a dollar value that we don't think can be competed with. And I think part of the process is to show how little she's spent over two, what this firm has spent over two months as well as her background qualifies for this purpose. And our accounting reflects that change. Correct. Okay, got it. Thank you. Really helpful. Not at all. Questions, we have to, any questions for Doug or Agnes, you're prominently, the three of you are lined up as if we were in meeting in person right now. Other than to say a big thank you, Commissioner Hill or Mr. Bryan, the Commissioner Cameron, any questions for them? I'll set. Two questions. Happy to make a motion. Big thank you. And yeah, we do need a vote for this. Yeah. Thank you. I'm chair, I move that the commission increase the gaming control fund spending projections by a total of $430,000 and increase the FY 22 community mitigation fund budget by a hundred thousand for the reasons discussed here today and described in the materials in this packet. I think there's an edit, Commissioner Bryan, did you say Commissioner Cameron 430? 403. Okay. 403. $1,000. Second. Second. Thank you. No further questions for Derek and team. Alrighty. Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner Bryan. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. We're zero. Great work and as always, Derek can make it really accessible. Thank you so much. Thank you and like I always say it's, I get to read the material. It's really Doug Agnes and the team that pulled it all together in the monthly meetings with all the directors that make this possible. So thank you. And Derek, you are excellent. Thank you so much and Doug, great to see you. Agnes, great to see you. Have to say we went into your office yesterday, Agnes looking for something. It was pretty chilly in there. We all said, ooh, and we decided maybe we should open the door to blow a little heat in. I don't, I didn't know what was going on there, but it was pretty cool. But we didn't end up touching anything. We just went. It's no longer my office. Feel free. Got a bit of a scavenger hunt looking for a particular supply. So thank you. Good luck. Yeah. Anyway, thank you so much. Any further business commissioners? Gail, I mean, that's rad. All right, then we, Crystal, thank you for, you know, we have to just acknowledge Crystal, this has been a month. I know Todd, you did a nice job acknowledging all the help that Crystal did as we have been dealing with multiple meetings and hearings and, you know, with the legal's guidance and Crystal's good work. And of course, Jamie, I'm also working on the side. Agendas and notices went seamlessly. And so thank you so much. Nevermind all the other work that came in. Alama, I know that Karen recognizes that as well. So thank you. And it's nice to know you're right out there. Great, thank you. So we just need a motion to adjourn. So moved. Thanks. Second. Thanks. Okay. Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. I felt, yes, of course, Sarah. Thank you so much. All right. See you guys later. Thank you.