rview of the required use of combines. And so combines is used to create all requisitions, requisitions in particular to initiate purchases off of the statewide contracts. It's also used for posting all solicitations, such as requests for responses, RFPs, in other words, requests for quotes, RFIs. It's also used, you know, for recording any procurement exceptions. And it's used also for. Any notifications such as due diligence postings or trade organization notices, requests for information. And then all as noted before, all responses to these solicitations and bids, they're all going to be coming in through a combines. And then combines itself is used to award contracts and in certain certain cases for master agreements. It's also used for creating electronic catalogs and placing orders. And then finally, announcements of grant funding availability and grantee selection for state discretionary grants is another use for combines. OK, next slide, please. Perfect. All right. So what are the three different size procurements and the requirements? You know, before we get into that, when writing an RFR, it is important to determine the type of procurement. The size of a procurement is determined by the dollar threshold. After performing market research and estimates of potential contract value will then be available to make that determination. All right. And then Derek is brought us to the first of the three different sizes. First one is the incidental purchase. The threshold for an incidental purchase, as mentioned before, are values of less than 10,000. You know, for procurement process and for purposes, it is advised to get three quotes if applicable for best practices. As far as responsibility goes, since it's not on statewide contract, the procurement it falls on the department, in our case, MGC. The requisite contract forms that may be needed with an incidental purchase, excuse me, as I stumble over my words. So anything less than $5,000 and invoices adequate, unless otherwise noted in the expenditure classification handbook. Other than that, services over 5,000 and up to 10,000, a standard contract form and associated terms and conditions may be applicable depending on what's noted in the expenditure classification handbook. And then as far as whether a secondary review is needed, because this is an incidental purchase and the threshold is so small, there's no need for secondary review from CTRO, STR, or other departments. All right, so getting into the next size procurement is the small procurement. The threshold for small procurements is annual spend of like less than $250,000 for goods and services. The process for small procurements is we'll post the bids on conbys and likewise accept them through conbys. Small business purchasing program language is required. We also add like preferences for SDO certifications for benchmarks that we have to hit as determined by the Supply Diversity Office. Supply diversity program plan forms are encouraged, but they're not required for small procurement. That being said, MGC does require them for our procurements because we take the diversity piece very seriously. All right, so procurement responsibility. These procurements, again, they're not on statewide contract. They're the responsibility of MGC and the commission. Documents, like forms that are required for these types of procurements are RFRs. The RFR itself, the request for response, is the document that actually has the scope of services that we're looking for and the information for bidders and what we're looking for in response. Along with that, terms and conditions, which are non-negotiable, those are required, the standard contract form is required, just like it is for all the other departments. Prompt payment discount form is required. A W-9 form is required. A contractor authorized signatory listing form, which basically says you can sign on behalf of the vendor with the Commonwealth, is required. And references to electronic funds transfer for ACH payments is required. Also optional forms, but forms that we require. Are any additional RFR attachments. The environmental, environmentally practicable practices form. The business references form. And again, the supplier diversity plan form is required. And things to take note, if this is a multi-year contract and the total value of the contract or expected services exceeds $498,000, a WTO notice would be hid. And, you know, if this is a multi-year contract and the total value of services exceed $500,000, the contract will automatically get routed to the office of the comptroller for secondary review. All right. And on to the large procurements. So the large procurements are done very similarly to the small procurements, except there's a different threshold and there's a few tweaks to the RFR itself. So for large procurements, these are for services that are $250,000 and over annually. The process, again, is almost exactly the same, except now the supplier diversity program plan, that is required. All the contract forms that we referenced for the small procurement, those are also required for the large procurement. And unless this is a one-year procurement, then WTO notice is likely going to be required. And unless this, again, is going to be a one-year contract, then this will also get routed to the comptroller's office. All right. I'm just taking a breath for a second. And now that John, yeah, absolutely. So now that John's walked you through some of the technical points of procurement, we come to an area where the commission holds both our licensees as well as us to a high standard of fostering growth in and working with diverse businesses. So what are the requirements for procurements? As John indicated earlier, OSD's threshold for large and small procurements is both an SBP as well as an SDP priority for opening bids. We'll review OSD's guidance, but then we'll let you know where we've adjusted those based on where we are with our benchmarks. So for the Supply Diversity Program, the Supply Diversity Program Plan, which is why it's called the SDP plan versus SDPP, because you have to throw the program in there, is mandatory for large procurements with annual values of more than 250,000. And this actually began in FY22 that the SDP plan submitted by a bidder must be evaluated at 25 percent or more of the total evaluation points. That used to be optional and it was recommended that you do 10 percent. Starting in FY22, that changed and it has actually been very helpful. It's been very good to grow business as well as provide more opportunities. So as part of MGC's own diversity initiatives, MGC's RFRs will note that businesses that are women-owned, minority-owned and veteran-owned will receive the full 25 points of diversity scoring in the evaluation as long as they complete an SDP plan form as well. This is a requirement. If you do not submit a plan form, we cannot evaluate your bid. All bidders, regardless of their independent certification status, must complete this form. And this is something that we had to give a little bit of leeway with at the beginning, but most bidders are aware of this at this point if they're responding to RFRs. Bidders offering more value in their SDP plan submissions must receive higher scores. That's another requirement from OSD at this point. And a nice thing is ancillary products, subcontracting, paper, supplies, printing, that can actually count as part of your SDP plan. So it's trying to spread as much of this around and there's really no excuse for a vendor to come forward and say they can't make a commitment. Everyone uses printing. Everyone uses office supplies. Everyone buys some food. There are plenty of vendors out there that you can do this with no matter how specialized your services are. So now going on to the small business purchasing program. OSD's guidance for executive branch agencies is that any small procurement, so once again, anything with a spend under 250,000 must be given preference to a registered small business if available. This means that an agency cannot even open up a bid from any type of vendor other than a registered Massachusetts small business unless there's not a valid or complete response from a SBPP partner. We at MGC crush this threshold. We hit close to 7 or 800 percent of what our benchmark is. So once we hit the 100 percent, we actually turn this into an SDP requirement and we don't open up anything unless it's a supply of diversity certified vendor that is at least a prime vendor that is minority women of veteran-known business. That's our first level of opening. If those people aren't available, a vendor of that certification, then we move to SBPP. If there's no diverse or SBPP program, then we move on to everyone else. So we really and we have gotten some good feedback from the supply diversity office on this. They said, you know, this is a great way of looking at the intended issues with the kind and the intended policies of the Commonwealth and making sure that we're not losing sight of how we're trying to grow in two areas, not just one area. They did notify us. So if you ever fall behind that 100 percent, we're not going to work with you on the SBPP program. They're not going to work with us on allowing us this variance. So, you know, that is an area that we have adjusted a little bit as a commission, and that helped us to meet our benchmarks last year. So I move on to John now. All right. So how does MGC conduct strategic sourcing? And I guess go into the next slide, Derek, please. So this slide basically illustrates from soup to nuts, OSD prescribed guidance on the procurement process, right? It's got seven steps that starts with the assessing, sourcing opportunity, going into developing sourcing strategy, you know, profile sourcing opportunity, then getting into the nitty gritty of creating the RFR, going through the whole procurement process and then finally managing the contract, right?  You know, before we really start this process, like again, we're going to go back to the same questions. Are these goods and services, are they available on a statewide contract? Can we do this like through an incidental? Is there a grant or is there other cooperative procurement that is out there? If not, then we need to go through these seven steps of strategic sourcing and this, you know, OSD's thought process on making these the primary objectives are as follows. So it's one to reduce the cost of goods and services. It's also to capture resulting savings. It is the determined areas of risk to assess the level of acceptable risk MGC is willing to accept, create contractual alliances with suppliers to support long-term goals, maintain and improve product quality and improve business functions. All right, so if we can go and Derek's already there. So for the market research and forming a procurement team, these are the early steps in that procurement process where we're actually doing the research and backgrounds. So when forming the team, you're going to want to designate a team lead. They'll lead on all aspects of the purchase. You're going to want to create a procurement file. The official posting will be up on combines. But, you know, there will also be a file in our SharePoint with the process and the documents as it's ongoing. The procurement team, when you create it, you're going to also want to determine like whether who's a voting member, who's a non-voting member, for example, like who's actually going to weigh in on the score sheet or who might just be sitting in as advisory. You might want to establish a charter, like our mission statement for like the reason as to why you're doing this procurement. And then you're going to also want to do membership terms, which are basically, you know, non-disclosure agreements for staff so that, you know, they're not spilling the beans as the procurement's ongoing, right? So you're going to want to consider the value of the procurement itself. Again, like things to note, if it's over $498,000, that's going to dictate the amount of days this procurement has to be up. So it would have to be over 40 days. If it's over $250,000 annually, then it's going to be a large procurement and there's going to be some tweaks to the RFR to include the large procurement language. Next, you're also going to want to do like research industry trends for the broader market, you know, assess your own buyer needs and just see what the vendor landscape is out there. And then also, like, you know, when you're doing these early stages, you're going to want to determine if there are any conflicts of interest for any of your team members because this procurement must be fair for all bidders. All right, so the next slide. So this is the essential elements of conducting a procurement and, you know, when you're going to be managing this procurement and creating a timeline, like, these are the things that you're going to want to think about. So you're going to want to keep in mind the actual evaluation criteria that gets worked into the RFR. You're going to want to determine, like, the procurement calendar, things like, you know, again, the value of the procurement if it's over a certain threshold may require a WTO notice. So again, 40 days or more. Are you going to be doing any types of, like, bidder conferences, any other things that may affect the calendar? And then the next step, like, which is probably one of the most important steps is really creating that RFR, which is going to dictate the responses you get in this procurement and really lead into the negotiations later on. The issuing bids in combines, you're going to want to account for question and answer periods. Again, bidder conferences. And then, you know, if there's good points brought up, like, you threw any of the questions by bidders or if there's anything that, like, the team has identified, you know, maybe the RFR may need to be amended. So you want to build in a little bit of time for an amendment date. And then, of course, you're going to want to build in appropriate time, like, to evaluate the actual responses you get, right, into that calendar. So you're going to want, you know, if the team wants to do interviews and presentations, you're going to have to build in time for that and build in time to, you know, to reach out and do a best and final offer and then come up with the final scoring, of course. And then after that, like, you know, figuring out some time for how long you want to allow for contracting negotiations.  All right. So the next slide is the importance of creating the RFR. Again, the RFR is very important at outlines, the scope of the procurement, why you're doing it. It gives the bidders themselves guidance on what documents are needed. And I'll just kind of go through this step right here. So again, as noted, the RFR is going to note, like what kind of evaluation for scoring criteria is going to be there. And our RFRs in particular, we try to eliminate barriers for diverse vendors and level like that playing field. The RFR will determine the actual contractor duration. So like any resulting contract from this procurement, the RFR will lay that out, you know, three years, like, you know, with two options to renew for a year each, right? So that would be ridden at the RFR. And then the RFR will also determine how many bidders we're going to award for this procurement. So whether you're going to just have one bidder or you're going to have multiple bidders that actually result in a contract. The RFR will also determine the compensation structure for bidders, whether it's a fee for service and outright purchase, or we have like a maximum obligation for a budget, where we absolutely just can't go past that number. That'll be outlined in the RFR. And the RFR should have clear instructions for submission and format of responses. And then all included forms or required forms will be put up with the posting as well. And then also for consideration is for IT RFRs, there's going to be a separate terms and conditions that will be associated with that. So that if you're putting out an RFR for IT services, you may want, you're going to want to look and see if those terms and conditions are applicable. All right, and then, all right. So taking a breath, coming on to the last slide and hopefully bringing us home, just to some notes for negotiation. As noted before, with the RFR, you're really going to set expectations for both departments and bidders, right? Those expectations are going to be set in a well-written RFR. And other parts of negotiations that you're going to see in particular, you're going to want to consider how, like whether this is going to be a single vendor negotiation or if it's going to be multiple bidders and you're going to be offering a best and final value option. So that's one thing to keep in mind. And then also, like while you're doing these negotiations, all responses to their RFRs, those remain in effect for 90 days, right? So while you're negotiating, like the bids that they submitted, they're good for 90 days. And we can get extensions on those if needed, if negotiations take longer. So bidders may negotiate costs down for a better value for the Commonwealth. They can't negotiate costs up. They can negotiate STP plan commitments up, meaning the amount they plan to commit for business or services to a diverse vendor that they'll be partnering with. They can always negotiate those up and that they can also negotiate any clarifications to the RFR. And one last thing that comes up a lot, unfortunately, the Commonwealth terms and conditions and the standard contract form, those are take it or leave it. Bidders may not negotiate changes to that. And with that, I think we're going on to the last slide and I will toss it back to you to the commission for any questions. Thank you and great job, John. I know you get nervous about these, but great job. Thanks, Derek. John, you shouldn't get nervous at all. This is, you did an excellent job and, Derek, you as well, I think commissioners, we sometimes forget that we get kind of conditioned to the public forum and our team does so well because it's a different forum, but John, you're a pro, so. Thank you. But it's really important stuff and what I love about this presentation and this training for us commissioners was that it was already in place. Now, John and Derek and team have this all down and they practice it and they deploy it and deploy it with our team members so that we are in compliance with all these rules. But really triggered this for me was, Derek and I talked about it because just been busy schedules, right, Derek? That probably it would be a helpful presentation and also the idea of thresholds. I've sat with different treasurers who have been appointed by us and each time it's always been like, oh, we should do this. So here we are. So I appreciate it. Commissioner Bryan, do you have any thoughts? I know that we've got some work maybe going forward.  Getting all the certifications. I think it's a great presentation. I think they may do a fabulous job, but I also agree that it's probably something we should talk about as a body of five in terms of thresholds where we wanna be alerted and or sign off on it and participate sometimes in the procurement team. I do think it's very eye-opening to actually participate as one of the members at Betsy's. Yeah, I agree with that. Commissioner Maynard. Just to say I agree with Commissioner O'Brien and Commissioner Skinner and I have had an opportunity, her more so because she understands the licensing world a lot better than me, but to work on a procurement recently and it's been very helpful. I also really appreciate the work being done on the diversity side. We have a commitment to that and through procurement and when that was decided and I think it was adopted by the commission that statement of purpose in September of 2020, you guys just launched. It was already in place, but then it just was intensified and the results have been super impactful and I'm personally so proud of the team for that. It's been really good work, so great. And we're also really lucky to have John because he did come over to the Comptroller's office and one of the things I learned this year in this presentation was, I didn't know that the Comptroller reviewed everything over 500,000. So that's a great control and it just makes me feel even more comfortable for us to just be better informed as well. Great, anything for John? Chris, just get her. All set. Just a big thank you. I'm very lucky to have these experts on our team, John, Noel and Agnes and Derek, thank you because you're always so humble when you're referring to your team and I just think it's great to see it's good information. I too would like to just be informed as when we're bringing this forward for commission discussion, not interested in getting in the way of the experts, but it would be good just to be kept abreast of what's happening in the way of curements. I do enjoy participating in some small way in these as Commissioner Maynard indicated. Krishna Hill, you all set? All set, nothing to add, except great job, as always. Yeah, and as treasurer, you have regular meetings with these guys and know exactly what they're up to, so thank you. And we know that Commissioner Hill keeps you guys on a good short lease. So we've been very lucky with each treasurer to add to us versus, I mean, no one has been in the way, all questions are appropriate, everything has been very helpful. So we do appreciate all of the different points of view as well as assistants. Commissioner Hill, I didn't over, I didn't miss speak, right? We like that, so thank you. Okay, so great, so with that, we appreciate it. We have that slide show. Everybody can go be kept for reference and then we'll figure out the next agenda sitting meeting where you wanna go on that topic next. Okay, so now we're turning to Chief Delaney and I'm assuming our MGM on Springfield friends out there. They are popping up. Yeah, there we are, thank you. We'll turn right to you. This is item number 11 on our agenda, good afternoon. So thank you, Madam Chair and commissioners. So today we have MGM Springfield here to do their quarterly report with also an update on their impacted live entertainment venue agreement. We will also be talking about their capital expenditure plan, which we will do in an executive session once the quarterly report is completed. And we have with us our usual list of suspects with MGM. We have Gus Kim, Vice President, Legal Counsel. We got Dan Miller, Director of Compliance, Arlen Carvalho, Vice President of Finance and Beth Ward, Director of Public Relations. And I think Gus and Dan, you've got a special guest that you'd like to introduce to us and I guess I'll leave it to you to do so. Hey, Joe, thank you so much. Yes, we do have a very special guest to introduce as the commissioners, first of all, thank you, Joe and Chair Judd Stein and the commissioners. As always, we appreciate the opportunity to appear before you to discuss our performance. We are exceedingly proud of our property and we do appreciate the fact that we have this public forum to discuss our performance. As you are all aware, we had Chris Kelly leave us back in December. He went back to California to be with his family and who can fault him for that. But of course, we miss him dearly here at the property, but we were blessed and fortunate to find Louis Theros to step it and take over. And he has been sensational. It has been a seamless transition. Louis has done a great job, not only with our team members here on property, but also with our external stakeholders. And I believe, including meeting with you, Chair, a few weeks ago. So without further ado, I turn this over to Louis to introduce himself. Louis. Well, thanks, Gus. After that introduction, I think I should just drop the mic and go. I mean, it was my goodness, it's the lawyer's thing. So good afternoon, Chair Judd Stein and members of the commission. Wonderful to see everybody. It's a pleasure to meet you all over, I guess, Zoom here or the version of it. As you know, my name is Louis Theros. I'm the new president and COO of MGM Springfield. Let me just tell you a quick little about myself. I've been with MGM Resort since 2015, most recently as vice president legal counsel for MGM's Midwest Group, which is for our Detroit and our Ohio properties. Prior to joining MGM, I spent 26 years as an employment law litigator for two large law firms in Detroit. And recently was given the privilege to come and lead MGM Springfield. This is not my first foreign to Western Mass. I was here for the opening of the property for several weeks and also a little bit after COVID to help out on a three opening with some contracts. So I'm really proud to be able to now lead what I think is one of the most tremendous and beautiful properties in our regional portfolio. In my whopping seven weeks here, I've been digging in and learning all things Western Mass and meeting lots of the leadership of Springfield and many of the organizations with which we partner. And obviously I spent a tremendous amount of time meeting our employees to the best I can as I am still living in the hotel as I, you know, finding a place to live. But that's given me frankly an opportunity to meet employees over all three shifts. So I just wanna thank you again for welcoming me and for our team to present today. I look forward to continuing our work with the commission and building upon our partnership. So unless there's any other questions, I'll turn it over to the team and let them give our presentation. Well, welcome again, Louie. And no, you can't get away without hearing from all of us. I'm sure everybody wants to give at least a virtual welcome. So congratulations first and foremost on the position. You know, you've got a great team you're gonna see them in action right now. We'll be just welcoming you and I think all of us joined in your sentiment that it's a special property. And this commission is invested in, however we as a rigorous regulator can also be a partner in the success. So thank you. Thank you. Commissioner O'Brien. I won't draw out the day anymore than we need to but welcome. Thank you. You're coming at a great time of year to go into probably what the best Western mess has to offer too. So well done on timing. I look forward to meeting you. Same, thank you. Same. Commissioner Hill. Welcome aboard. And we look forward to meeting you in person. Same here. Thank you very much. Mr. Skinner. Yeah, Louie, I love how you kind of pulled back the curtain right on cue. Your screen was black and then Gus gave that glowing introduction. There you are. So I'll add to the theme just congratulations and welcome back to Massachusetts. Look forward to working with you and just meeting you in person to start. Absolutely. Thank you. Commissioner Hill. Welcome. And I have to say, if you're staying somewhere, that particular hotel has to be one of the best places to stay in the Commonwealth. So. I have to say it's hard to let go. I kind of like it. The rooms are fantastic. It's unique and everybody in the Commonwealth should go check it out. I agree. Well, thank you. Look forward to meeting everybody. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. So with that really, we're going to turn it over to your team and I'll turn it back to Chief Laney. Or I guess we'll go right to Gus again. Sure. Yes, thank y'all. That's right. Thank you very much, Chair. Anyway, really appreciate Chair and the commissioners on the warm welcome to Louis as Louis mentioned, you know, he was before coming here was Vice President and the old council for Midwest Group. So Louis and I have known each other for years. We work, we work great together. He's a terrific guy, a friend, as well as an outstanding leader. So we're really fortunate to have him here. Having said that now, I will go to the formal presentation. So Dan, I will turn it over to you to start the presentation. All right. Good afternoon, everybody. Lady chair commissioners. Are you seeing that okay? We can. All right, okay. And as normal, let me just do a full screen here for you. And then we'll start off with the wonderful Arlene Carballo, our VP of Finance. Hello, good afternoon, everybody. I'm hoping everyone can hear me okay. And we'll go ahead and get started. So our total gaming revenues for the fourth quarter were 66.6 million generating 16.7 million in taxes. The breakdown was October generated 21.5 million in gross, you can go back one slide. October generated 21.5 million in gross gaming revenue and 5.4 million in taxes. November it was again, 21.5 million in gaming revenue and 5.4 in taxes. And then December closed with 23.6 million in gross gaming revenues and 5.9 million in taxes. And then the next slide, we can see the total gross gaming revenues for the year ended at 271 million, which was an increase of 4% year over year. And the total taxes generated for the year were 68.5 million. And the next slide, we can see that the sports week generated 491,000 in taxable revenue and the total taxes were 74,000. But MGM generated a 10.3 million in total taxable revenue and the total taxes were 2.1 million. And the next slide. So our total lottery sales for the fourth quarter were 357, an 8% decrease year over year. And the decreases that you're seeing are patterns that match our GGR on a year over year comparison. However, in the next slide, you can see the total lottery sales for the year were up 7% closing at 1.5 million for the year. Our total diversity spend was 1.4 million or 21%. Our MBE spend was 448,000. Our veteran spend was 169,000 and our woman spend was 733,000 for the quarter. And then in the, sorry, and I did wanna highlight on the previous slide that the prior year we were at 12% of total biddable. So the property has come a long way in reaching our goals. Our total local spend was 3.3 million or 50% and our total spend within the state was 3.4 million or 60%. And then in the next slide, I just wanna highlight some of the procurement efforts. Our team participated in the GNEMS, G-N-E-M-S-D-C Annual Business Opportunity Conference in October, as well as the property hosted the Western Mass Developers Council Conference in October. The team attended the NMSDC Conference and Exchange as well. And then we also hosted the CWE Annual Supplier Diversity Awards and Matchmaking Event. So the team continues to participate in as many events as possible to ensure our diversity procurement efforts. Thank you. Madam Chair. Yes, Commissioner Hill. Do you want us to hold our questions or as we do each subject? But when we have Armin and she's thinking about this, why not ask her your questions? So I'm curious, because I've seen this, I think industry wide that December seems to be a month where all revenues seem to go up. And I'm curious about that because I would think with holiday spending and things of that sort that those would be the lower numbers. And yet everywhere I've looked whether it's, well, we know because of NFL obviously with the sports wagering, but in regards to gaming revenue on the floor, December seems to be a good month for everyone. Is there an explanation for that that I don't understand or haven't heard before? I like to think of it as everyone's got money in their stockings. So a lot of it has to do with that holiday week between December and New Year's. And then depending on your location, New Year's Eve is a really great night in the industry. Everyone's coming out. Everybody wants to be out and about. So although you're right, there is a lot of spend in general because it is the holiday season, but there's, this is also entertainment. And so you kind of just see the whole lift and that time between I would say Christmas and New Year's Eve, it's really good for all of the properties. So to reiterate what you just said about entertainment, do you tend to do more entertainment? Not necessarily, I just considered gaming is a form of entertainment. So it's just people are out and about doing things. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair, I was just curious. It's a good observation, Commissioner Hill. Thanks, Arlen. Anytime. So, Daniel. All right, I'll take it back and carry on with our compliance numbers. As usual, I'm happy to see a lot of the green reductions in numbers. And I know that, you know, whenever I present these to you on the quarterly basis, we're aiming for that zero. We're trying to get there. Now, as much as we've also agreed that, you know, zero, maybe one of the hardest things to get to, it doesn't mean that we stop trying. And so you can see here with numbers in sort of the low teams for access, low single digit numbers for either gaming or alcohol, we do continue to try and head toward that goal. Now, I know usually Commissioner O'Brien has a couple of questions here about, so longest time period, three hours and 45 minutes, that happened to be someone who didn't gain. She was actually a 19-year-old daughter of one of our DJs inside our Commonwealth lounge. And she entered with him through an unmanned area. It was one of the gaps in the handrail and just stood behind him, his entire DJ set in the Commonwealth and just drank water. And it happened to be that she then stepped foot out onto the gaming floor to go get a soda at which point our security saw her, asked her for ID, and then we come to find out who she was. But like I say, she never gained at that time. And then just to sort of draw a note to the two instances of consumption of alcohol, neither of those were served directly from our employees in GM, to those parties. It was to a person of age, whether it be a mother, father, or family member, and they allowed the underage to have a sip from their cup. But our team, whether we serve it or not, we still report it clearly and we want to make sure that you know that we're looking for these things and finding them as well. Something I wanted to draw attention to, I know that past I've mentioned that marketing here went out on their own and created these great go-bow projectors. I always have to make sure I say that right because I want to say go-go, but buy one, get one, and get it incorrect. They did it again where we had these black decals that were on the floor signifying the quote unquote, under 21 expressway. And they thought, well, the 21, sorry, the black ones, one were getting a little bit beat up and two possibly weren't as visible as they could be. So they've now introduced some brightly colored ones to really kind of, you know, put that to bed and let people know where they can be when they're within NGM Springfield. Following that theme on, you know, obviously we worked with the commission to create another gap in the rail close to game sense so that people weren't being deprived of that access. And you're all aware that there were four TRUs to get redemption machines that were in that area and feared there might be a little bit of an obscurity to the view. Well, two were removed, placed in a different area within the gaming floor. And so now you can see in the two center photographs that would be, you know, at the center looking out to the floor, there's, you know, nice big area of open space there. And then from within the floor, good 30, 40 feet, you can clearly see the game center. So it's not out of view, out of mind. It's now quite sort of visibly there. And then just a sort of a final shout out. I know I did this halfway through the year and now I'm making this sort of a semi-annual celebration that any of our security that can go out on that floor and really, really look to detect and get underage off the floor that are there. This young man, Tanner McTagged, he managed to take 24 persons off the floor between June and December of 2023. And in all cases, that was less than five minutes that he found them and got them off the floor. So, you know, he was to be celebrated. And so we gave him what we call a star of the show as a recognition in January. And that's my piece on compliance. I will hand it back to Arlen for workforce unless there are any questions, of course. Yeah, Chris, is there any questions for Daniel on compliance? Okay. Chris or Arlen, you all set with that? Thank you. I am. Thank you, Dana. Thank you. Excellent. All righty. Thank you. So our total employees for the fourth quarter was 1,495. It is an 8% increase year over year, same quarter. We ended with 50% minority, 4% veteran and 41% woman. And then the next slide, we can highlight some of the workforce hiring efforts we have. So we continue to do our property tours and career presentations. In the fourth quarter, we had Holyoke Community College, Manchester Community College, UMass, the Veterans Administration, Perron Villages and Westover Job Corps. We also participated in a handful of job fairs, including Johnson and Wales, Springfield Technical Community College, Western New England, and Mass Hire. And we also have efforts on developing our workforce, including partnership with Dress for Success. We had a career conversation in early December. We participated in the core expungent event. And I actually believe it was posted here and Beth may have to correct me on that if I'm wrong. And then we also participated in the disability inclusion panel as well. So we're continuing to work with all of our partners, all the colleges around us to improve our KPIs. Any questions? Thank you. Take it away, Beth. Hello, everybody. Very nice to be with you all once again. I always say I get the really fun part, the part that I get jazzed about. And that is community outreach and special events. 2023 was a busy quarter for our team when it comes to community engagement. This is just a snapshot of what we've been up to, including the raise of hope, walk toward the cure of breast cancer, and Jim Springfield volunteered for the event, walked in the event, and we also sponsored the event, which is an iconic one here in Western Mass. We continue to support our veterans ahead of Veterans Day as we do each year. A large number of us took the entire day and made sure that a local cemetery that veterans were honored and their graves were decorated by American flags. Dressed for success, you heard Arlen talk about that a moment ago. We continue our partnership with them and another entity called Sudak Springfield, partnerships that we really value and continue this year in many ways, including an internal clothing drive that was just a huge success for us, something that we did for the first time this year. We continue our partnership with Springfield Public Schools by supporting our adopted school this year. You've heard me talk about it before this year. It's the Kiley Academy right down the road in Springfield with teacher appreciation events and donations, supporting student needs as well. And rounding out the quarter with what has become several signature events for us here at MGM Springfield is the Mayflower Marathon. Again, you've heard me talk about this. It's a 24-7 three-day event in conjunction with the local radio station, all leading up to Thanksgiving. This is the largest fundraiser of the year in Western Mass to support food insecurity in the Springfield area. And I'm happy to report that our partnership, we secured a record number of donations. So we're just super proud of that as well. Toys for Tots also record amounts of donations this year to support the marines and local families in need and what has become a tradition right before the holidays. We like to call it surprise squad kind of thing, publishers clearing house giveaway. We surprise several of our community partners with checks. These are community partners that we also volunteer. So it's a great way to end the quarter and the year by playing Santa Claus. If we could go to the next slide, please, Dan. Just before we do, Beth, I'll point out that I'm the little elf with the green hat on in those pictures, just in case. Can I point something else out too? Gus isn't doing too much weight bearing in that picture there with the box. Ooh, cool out. Ooh. I was hoping you were not gonna notice that kind of sugar. Yes, that's true. I believe he was guiding and supervising. I believe he's, what are you doing? Yes. It's sort of like the fake Starbucks in movies where they work on the empty cups, that's Gus. He just carries the empty cup and box everywhere. Someone that also guides and supervises. I support it, Gus. I think he put that picture in there for a reason. It was very good. Let's take a look at community outreach and special events. Again, just a snapshot of Q4. For the first time, Arlen mentioned this, but we partnered with a local law school to host a criminal record and expungement and ceiling event. We had attorneys on hand for members of the public who may have had marks on their records in the past to come in and for free talk to an attorney to determine whether they're eligible to have their records sealed or expunge. I have to tell you that this event that we held on property was just an overwhelming success to be able to see so many people who came out to take advantage of this free opportunity. And as you know, I mean, having that service and to have that go through unlocks so much for someone's future, including housing and jobs. We continue to take our job fair on the road, our show on the road, so to speak. And Arlen mentioned this briefly a little bit ago. We are partnering with Address for Success of Western Mass on a number of things, but we did our first job fair at their brand new facility that is literally just down Main Street from us, which was a great success. And we will continue that as well. We also continue to take our, we ended the quarter, I'm gonna point your direction to the tree lighting and skating rink opening. This is my favorite event of the season. It's a hallmarky moment, but we had so many families who came down to participate in this big event which has become such an annual tradition. In the bottom middle, you'll see we're supporting our local Boys and Girls Club. This is their biggest fundraiser of the year. This is held at the Mass Mutual Center across the street. We participate and support this event, the Festival of Trees, and then rounding out the year, the Bright Nights Ball. This is to support the nonprofit Spirit of Springfield. This is the largest event of the season, and so many people come out. We had over 500 people come to that event, which we sponsored and hosted as well. We wanna go to the next slide. This is just a snapshot. I won't read everything here, but a couple of things that I really wanted to point and I asked for your forgiveness and advance to just take a whole look at the year. Total volunteer hours, this just warms my heart over 3000 hours of volunteering that our team has put in. That's over 125 full days, giving update more than a million of direct and in-kind nonprofit support since we opened back in August of 2018. So just some numbers to round out the year, which we're just so proud of. Total foundation support from MGM Springfield team, what they have given to the foundation. This is something that they do voluntarily that they want to do. That is at 9.1%. That is more than double the year before. So community impact, you can see some of those numbers there that we set some records over the past year, particularly in the fourth quarter, and we have a lot of upcoming opportunities down the road. If we could go to the next slide, please. So I also get to talk about entertainment at the Mass Mutual Center. I seem to say record a lot in this quarter, but we set a lot of records and we're very proud of that. Bill Burr sold out in August with his first show. So immediately our team got together with his people. We created a second event in October, which also sold out. So we're very proud of that. And it's just a testament to how entertainment is doing here in the city and just driving all that foot traffic to downtown Springfield. I would be remiss if I didn't also bring up our fabulous Thunderbirds and AIC Hockey. They are selling out the arena, which continues to happen. And we're very proud to be a partner with them as well. If we could go to the next slide, please. Talking about ARIA Ballroom on property specifically. So a lot of shows there that are recurring some that are new in the lineup, Thunder Down Under and Bronze Tail, both returning shows that did very well in 2022, also did well in 2023. Tusk was our sold out show for New Year's Eve. You heard Arlen talk about how critical that week is between Christmas and New Year's. And that's a testament to just how well we did. We were rocking that night. And so that was a great show that we had in ARIA. And if we wanna move on to Symphony Hall, we had some fabulous shows there in Q4 as well, including sell out shows and notable names. See them there like Bob Dylan, Chelsea Handler, Jerry Seinfeld, I went to that one, he was fabulous. So it was great to see so much activity at Symphony Hall and we're excited about what's to come as well. And if we wanna move on to the next one, talking about war comedy club, I think I just really wanna shine a light on war and how our team continues to just pack them in weekend after weekend. We have such a diverse group of comedians who are coming, local favorites and some national names as well. So we continue to get sell out crowds in our lineup on war comedy show nights. So very proud of that. And we have some announcements that are coming up for as we look into 2024 as well. As I mentioned, some things coming up. I do wanna point out Free Music Fridays, we've talked about this here before, we have Free Music Fridays on our plaza that has been such a tremendous success that once again this year we brought it in, Free Music Fridays winter edition that just wrapped up. We had so many people coming to this show that we had to have waiting lines and when people came out, other people would come in. So it just goes to show that people are so excited to come down and take advantage of that. Roar, I mentioned we have some great comedians to announce coming up with that. And also in the aria ballroom, we have voyage. I think we're getting close to sell out on that as well. So fun stuff coming up. Thanks everybody. And that concludes my portion. So I'm gonna turn it over to Des for a few other thoughts. Okay, thank you, Beth. Thank you, Arlen. Thank you Dan for the wonderful presentation. First of all, before I turn over to what Joe talked about about our venue cooperation agreement. Are there any questions or comments about our slide deck chair or commissioners? Any questions? Madam chair, I just wanna know through Beth that the blushing bride sell out. That's a big band, a fun band. Absolutely, I can report yes. Excellent. Yep. If I may, just in, so our room takes around about 900 people. And as a gauge, our entertainment team has seen in the past that if they get good social media interest ahead, depending what that number of people is they can roughly double it. And that's the number we can expect. So they got about 200 to 250 interested parties thought they would get 500, but we were turning away. Once we hit the 900, they were turning them away at the door on that first night. So. Anything else? Okay. So at this time, I wanna make sure I got you all set for the public portion now. Yes. We do want to get an update on the expenditure report. But in order to do so, we would have to go into the second session where this is where Lily, you start to understand or you know it anyway as a lawyer, but our public process, I have to read this language into the record. I'm sorry, Sharon. Before we go on to discuss the executive session, I did wanna address Joe's point about the Impacted Live Entertainment Agreements. Okay, my apologies. Yes, that's okay, Chair. So as you know, back in 2014, MGM, Vine Blutarp entered into an agreement with the Massachusetts Performing Arts Coalition with respect to the theater here at Symphony Hall in Springfield as well as the Hanover Theater in Worcester. Back in 2014, I think everybody was looking to the crystal ball to figure out what the entertainment scenario would look like once MGM Springfield opened up. As you know, subsequent to that, MGM actually took over management of Symphony Hall. So one half of the equation that's set forth in the agreement no longer is relevant because MGM is directly involved in terms of marketing and managing Symphony Hall on behalf of the city of Springfield. Just coincidentally, although we have been trying for many months to try to communicate with the Hanover Theater, we had not much success, but this morning I actually spoke with the president of the theater this morning from Hanover Theater about this agreement. And as we were talking, I think that the Worcester is sufficiently geographically distant from Springfield that the president of the theater didn't think he made a whole lot of sense to talk about cross-marketing or cross-promotion of each other's events. So I think what we're gonna do now is with his agreement, we'll probably work on streamlining and modifying the scope of this agreement to take out the portion about cross-marketing, cross-promotion, and really just focus on the fact that MGM will not do anything to impede or to block anything that the Hanover Theater would like to do in Worcester. So that's the report that I wanted to present to you right now is that I think that we are, the parties are in agreement that we can probably streamline this agreement to a much simpler, much easier agreement going forward. Joe? Yeah, thank you. That's what we really wanna hear about these is that there were some conversations going on and that these agreements aren't just sort of a piece of paper that's sitting there, but people are actually looking at what they say and if there are opportunities to streamline it, I think that's great. As long as the parties are in agreement that this is a good thing, I think that's where we are. It's not an agreement that we are party to. This is an agreement between the ILEV and MGM. We obviously monitor that and that's what sort of we're trying to do here. Thanks, Gus. Okay. So this juncture, we're also okay to consider moving into the second session. So the commission anticipates that it will be in its second session in accordance with G.O.V. Chapter 30A, Section 21, Subsection A7, comply with G.O.V. Chapter 23K, Section 21A, Subsection A7 for the specific purpose of reviewing the proposed multi-year Capital Expenditure Plan described in 205CMR 139.09. In any corresponding materials submitted relative to MGM's screen field as discussion of this matter in public would frustrate the purpose of the statute and associated legal authorities where the Capital Expenditure Plan at issue is covered by a non-disclosure agreement between the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and MGM's screen field. The public section of the commission meeting will reconvene at the conclusion of the executive session. Do I have a motion? I'll move to Madam Chair. Thank you, Commissioner O'Brien. Second. Thanks. Any questions on that? Okay, Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. Commissioner Skinner. Aye. Commissioner Maynard. Aye. And I vote yes. Five's there on that. Now we have some virtual magic. Tom, are you all set? We should be, Chair. David's gonna be moving the relevant folks that we've identified into the breakout room. You'll get a little pop-up box and you can click join. If we do miss somebody, please just drop a line in the chat to David Sousa and we'll get you right in there. Okay. Thank you and we'll return to public. Thank you. All right, everybody, I have sent out invites and added those who I have on my list. If there are others that have not received an invite, please feel free to either, you know, give me a holler or send a message in the chat and I will add you over as soon as I see him. Thanks so much. We're all transported, so David can take down the screen. Madam Chair. Yes. Can I just request a five minute break, please? I was going to check in on that. That's a good idea. So it's 2.46, I don't know, five of three, right? How about that? I only need a five minute break unless someone needs more than that. I'll take the time offered, five of three. Thank you. Thanks, everyone. Okay, David, you wanna take that down, please? Also. Thanks, Dave. There we are. This is a reconvening of the Massachusetts Game Commission. We had a busy day from holding this meeting virtually, so another roll call. Good afternoon, Commissioner Bryant. Good afternoon, I'm here. Good afternoon, Commissioner Hill. Commissioner Hill, just for the record, I couldn't hear you. I'm here. Thank you. I can see you. Thank you so much. Commissioner Skinner, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Thank you, Commissioner Maynard. Good afternoon. Great, thank you. We'll get started. We are now on item 12 of our meeting number 506. Director Vanhoen, thank you. And I don't know if I think you are solo today. I have to go for a file day anyway. Yes, good afternoon, Madam Chair and commissioners. I am solo. It's very rare that I actually bring something before you without either one of my team members or somebody from Research and Responsible Gaming Partners. So I'll try to do the best I can here. So today, I want to talk to you a little bit about considerations for behavioral risk identification and response technology. I'm going to share my screen. We all sat there. Oh, before I do, I just wanted to just make a quick statement. Tomorrow kicks off problem gambling awareness month. It's initiated by the National Council on Problem Gambling. It's a nationwide effort to highlight the risks and the harms associated with gambling. We have a range of different activities through our game sense team, game sense program, both front of the house with casino patrons, but also back of the house, recognizing that casino employees are at greater risk of gambling related harm. We're also participating in National Gambling Disorders screening day with the Cambridge Health Alliance Division on Addiction, which is on March 12th. And that screening day will be again, both front of the house and back of the house. So more to come and a lot of activities over the course of the next month. Before I kick this off, I wanted to just draw your attention to and recognize Judith Glenn with Pratt Solution. She's one of our research consultants. Has been for a number of years and she was really helpful in kind of pulling together some of the research on this specific topic. Judith is in the final steps of finishing her PhD at Gibraltar University. I believe that she's going to be moving on to being a lecturer there at the university. So congratulations to Judith and much appreciation for her support for this project. So this is what we're really talking about today. So the gambling landscape is changing, right? This is driven by innovation and technology. And if that's the case, so too must how we look at our response to mitigating problem gambling. What are our strategies? What are our responses? To that end, I think the commission should consider a range of strategies to effectively reduce harm across MGC regulated gambling formats using to the extent possible evidence-based approaches that target specifically as specifically as possible the characteristics and manifestations of risk unique to each of the gambling formats. The presentation today will cover just one of those possible approaches. Again, I think that we really need to, as we move forward, look at a range of different strategies as we have over the course of our work together. So we're talking about artificial intelligence. And I think this is a term that's bantered around frequently, but to really just kind of hone in on a simple definition.  Another definition from the Oxford dictionary is a theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making and translation between languages. It is broadly used and it's used in a range of different issues. And in fact, last month, there was a Boston Globe article talking about how researchers are turning to AI to predict the risk of pancreatic cancer. And similarly to what I'm going to be talking about that those researchers are looking at, what are the early warning signs? What are the early predictors of this type of cancer in order to prevent or intervene as early as possible? AI is increasingly being considered or adopted within the gaming industry for a range of purposes, obviously including responsible gaming, but also marketing and fraud detection. Risk identification technology, AI-driven technology to identify and respond to risky gambling behaviors is one of those responsible gaming approaches. There's a lot to learn in this space and I'm far from being an expert in this space but I'm learning quickly. And part of that is to the thanks of the company of individuals that responded to an RFI that we released back in August of 23 in order to gather insight and to key considerations that we should account for and determining whether this approach is worth something that we should consider. And looking at not just our online environment but also taking a look at land-based casino and environments as well. So this is what we'll cover. Just quickly, key purpose and objective, a rationale for regulatory involvement, a proposed approach, insights from the RFI, state of the market and proposed next steps. So back in 2014, the Gaming Commission adopted a responsible gaming framework and it was updated in 2018 and there's a work underway to look at this framework again. The overarching goal has remained consistent which the commission adopted way back which is to create an effective, sustainable, measurable and socially responsible and accountable approach to gambling. Each of these terms are obviously important. Interestingly, even from the very first iteration of this framework, it stated that RG efforts and their entirety will retain flexibility and respond to emerging evidence in the evolving technological and cultural environment. And I think both of those are actually really important. The evolving technological, looking at the advancement in AI technology and how far it's come but also the cultural environment and what is accepted and what is appropriate in any given response that we would be considering. So to that end, the MGC released an RFI seek information about AI driven technology solutions to identify and respond to risky gambling behavior. This wasn't just limited in our approach looking at online sports wagering though obviously that is top of mind for us. It also took a look at land-based casinos including carded play and cashless wagering which we'll be talking about here a little bit more shortly in next presentation. But also like we are within the approved FY24 gaming research agenda, we have a study looking at kind of down the road and around the corner of possible action on eye gaming. And so I think it's important that we think about eye gaming though it's not legal or regulated in Massachusetts at this point but thinking about should it be down the road whether or not this will be an appropriate response. And so the ideal path forward ideal recognizing that this is the overarching goal and there's probably many iterations that we could take of this is a strategy that can effectively reduce harm in all MGC regulated gambling formats by using the evidence-based approach that target the characteristics and manifestations unique to each and every gambling format that's regulated by the commission. So when I talk about sort of these indicators what are the actual behaviors that we're looking at or that AI technology would look at and there's many and these are just a few examples of that that were delivered through the RFI process and they include use of multiple gambling accounts increase in frequency of bets repeatedly attempting to recover previous losses or chasing losses by placing more bets progressively increasing bet sizes frequent high sum deposits number of payment methods used for deposits declined deposits by banks, canceled withdrawals, increases increase in frequency and length of gambling sessions change in the type of sports that are wagered and change in the days and hours when wagers are typically placed. Each of these alone may be a single indicator but the true power is when you look at combinations of indicators then they can provide a clearer picture of the degree of risk. So there are actually, I think it's important to recognize that a lot of operators especially multinational operators licensed in advanced gambling jurisdictions like the US like Europe, UK, Australia, Canada already have AI driven solutions for identifying risk in various forms. And some of those are developed in in-house developing predictive models in-house and so it's unique and specific to the operator that is offering this tool. Some are configured solutions. There's been a number of companies that are in this space and there's been considerable investment in this space and a few of those I will be talking about as we look at respondents to the RFI. And then there's also a hybrid. So using both in-house predictive models as well as some type of external product or company, a product that they offer. So there are, this is not a perfect and there are plenty of areas where we should look at improvement and I'll just cover a few of those now. Some of it deals with a lack of rigor or reliability in the indicators. So the indicators that I just touched on or the thresholds that are used in order to identify the degree of risk. And so I'm citing one evaluation right here where an international research team found that a system based on nine markers of harm or indicators of harm used by consortium of operators identified less than 1% rather than greater than 6% of online players who self-recorded pathological gambling. Sometimes the response isn't adequately supported. And so most solutions, and as I'll talk about here more in a second don't have an integrated response technology. So you can identify the risky gambling behavior but it's not supported by adequate resources for the response of that. And then finally, it's not always supported by an outcome-based evaluation framework. And this is something that as the commission has moved forward and many of our responsible gaming strategies, we look at how is that coupled with an evaluation framework that can tell us more how do we maximize the utility of whatever the given responsible gaming strategy is. And so there isn't a great degree or body of research that supports that. The UK Gambling Commission shout out to them for developing regulatory standards that require regular evaluation of harm reduction efforts. Mark, can I just interrupt here? Cause this is interesting to me. I just want to understand it sounds as though you've evaluated other programs. And I'm wondering who you've done that with. Cause I know, I don't know what student was. Is that part of her work? And so she's evaluating the other programs. Now this is just a review of the evidence that exists within this space. So this was more like a literature review. Thank you. So regulatory involvement can be really helpful in a couple of different ways. First on the technology side, so the risk identification side and developing rigorous indicators, thresholds and proxies tailored to diverse gambling formats, whether it be sports, online sports, wagering or casinos or cashless wagering. And to assure that they're flexible and adaptable to diverse environments as needed. The second piece, which is what I just was speaking about is to assure that there's resources and policies in place to support individuals who are displaying a risky gambling behavior. And whether that's systematic evidence-based response intervention protocols, that also can be an evaluation framework that can continuously monitor how AI can continue to evolve into a better job and work as a RG tool. There's a lot of, I think there's a lot of hope in this space too, that there's a significant amount of academic studies have identified the risk using a variety of player data looking at play patterns, consumer communications and financial activity. So I listed to you a few slides back some of the key indicators, but those are just some. If you wanna, you could also look at customer communications and financial activity that is not behavioral based. And I'll talk a little bit more about that in a few of the responses that we received. Many of the, there was some interesting early studies on this looking at online sports betters, specifically and quite notably, there was a very large study by Harvard Medical School Division on Addiction just over in Malden. They partnered with a company BeWin between 2007 and 2014 and did an impressive study that really, really dove deeper into looking at gambling behavior and risk indicators. There's a general consensus that extreme plays. So the top one to 5% is a reliable concept for identifying risks. So identifying the one to 5%, you can begin to identify what risk indicators are should be trapped. And finally, that research is increasingly focused on risk indicators specifically online sports betting environments, such as in play, betting outside the normal hours and in betting on sports outside the top 10. So evidence suggests potential. Many studies have demonstrated that intervening with players simply be an automatic method. So whether it's a pop-up within the sports wagering app or an email sent to their account can actually have an effect at reducing gambling really. For players that are in sort of that top level, players indicate in greater degree of risk, there's studies that have indicated that person to person intervention. So something that's much more tailored can be successful at reducing harmful gambling amongst those players. And then there was finally, there was a study which found the high risk players who received a phone call intervention reduced their theoretical loss, I'm sorry, by 30% compared to 7% amongst those who did not receive the phone call. So this is very roughly a proposed approach. And I think we're into it at this point in time. So one is obviously the RFI risk identification response. Another is expert consultations. And finally, beginning to kind of narrow in on what is the target environment? What is the evidence in the market and role for regulation? And so some of that is continuing our due diligence in this space to identify whether this is a priority of the commission. And if so, where do we want it to go? What environment would we want to launch this in? One or four more? I think the next step is to understand the local context. Much like we have with Play My Way, our operators were incredibly valuable and important stakeholders in this. I think that consultation with Massachusetts operators to get a better understanding of kind of what their position is, what they currently have in place and what we could look to would be an important piece of this. I think consulting with other relevant stakeholders as well, the Mass Counseling and Gaming and Health has a recovery board that at a certain point, I don't know at what point in the process it may be worth consulting them about an appropriate response strategy. I also think that it would be really useful if the commission recognizing that this touches on many different areas would assemble a work group, both the sports wagering division, certainly the IT division and our legal division as well as the research and responsible gaming division. And consider further research to explore this. Next, I think it would be warrant us to prepare different options. And I think there's a number of different ways which the commission may wish to consider going, whether it's establishing regulatory criteria and outcomes, but leaving it up to the operators in order to meet those regulatory criteria. It could be identifying and mandating one solution for all operators. And it could be much kind of going back to consulting with our operators, collaborating and identifying a common solution or criteria in order to move forward. So just a general state of the market. Again, this is largely sort of doing a literature review and exploring what is currently out there. Most solutions market themselves as offering response functionality, though most of those leave it up to the operator to decide what that response is. There's one, a product called Mentor that provides an integrated both behavioral risk identification and a corresponding response functionality and they have a bank of automated messages. Most solutions are designed for implementation in online environments, but there are just a few out there that also have another module of it that couples into a land-based environment. Most solutions undergo extensive configuration process to build and train their predictive models and operator-specific data. I think that this is actually a really important step in making sure that the solution that's implemented in Massachusetts would be unique to Massachusetts players and unique to gamblers in Massachusetts and not built upon a predictive model from another jurisdiction. Most of the solutions, I'll touch on this a little bit, were developed by academic experts in the responsible gaming field and a number have been peer reviewed, but in most cases those include members of the development team. So going back, so I'm gonna just begin touching on the RFI respondents. So it was released in 2023 to get insight into key considerations. We received five responses, four from providers of the Act Risk Identification Solutions and one from the Mass Council on Gaming and Health. All of those responses are included in your packet today. The responses were really helpful in order to provide some insight into the state of the market and some of the details about how they work. And the Mass Council on Gaming and Health really supported the gaming commission's work and participation in this space. When I talked a little bit before about some of them, some of the solutions were developed in-house and some of them were outside companies. And so the ones that I'm talking about today were companies that have unique solutions in the space. So one is called BetBuddy developed by a company called PlayTech. It's an AI solution. It's evidence-based risk segmentation approach. In other words, you can see it places players into three levels of risk, low, medium, and high. Mark, can I, I'm sorry to interrupt again. My apologies. In order for me to sort of think about your presentation going forward, what are you going to ask of us? There's a couple of things that I can certainly skip to. That's a good point, Matt. No, I mean, just, no, I don't want to jump ahead. I just want to get my mind set right. I'm sure it's a lot of content and I just... Yeah, I know, I apologize. This is, it's a lot. It was a lot for me too, honestly. My wish for the commission is that we continue down a path of exploring whether this technology, it would be a fit for Massachusetts. And to that end, my recommendation and our very next steps would be to say, I would love to hear from our operators and what technology is available on their gambling platforms? What if any technology is available? I would love to assemble a work group within the MGC across divisions in order to continue to explore this. And finally, I would like to expand the scope within our current FY24 research agenda is a study on artificial intelligence, much to the credit of you, Madam Chair, who recommended that specific study early on. I would recommend that we expand the scope of that study to do what we originally intended and is scoped out in the FY24 research agenda but add an additional focus on this type of risk identification technology and how AI can be used in this space. Okay, so as we go through the RFI, we're not evaluating them. That's what I- No, no, no, this is, thank you, I appreciate that. This is really just for background. This was to help us begin to understand how what technology exists and what are important components as identified by the respondents to the RFI. Okay, Mr. Chair, I don't know if that was helpful for you, but if you have any other questions about framing this chime in now, I'll set. Okay, Mark, that was helpful for me. Okay, I'm glad. Perhaps I should have led with that. No, you wouldn't know how I'm viewing it through my lens versus your lens. It's just fine, it's fine. Okay, all right. All right, so back to the respondents to the RFI. And again, thank you very much to the respondents for this RFI. It's no small task to pull together a response and it's much appreciated and really helpful. I hope for the commission. So the first one is BetBuddy offered by PlayTech. As I said before, it offers evidence-based risk segmentation on three levels, low, medium, and high. It offers product-specific features and determining level of risk for sports betting with greater weighting in different ways and analytical adjustments for seasonality and big sporting events. So it isn't sort of a one-size-fits-all across any specific format. It's able to adjust based on seasonality, based on specific big sporting events like perhaps March Madness or the Super Bowl. And it has been piloted to a land-based environment as well. The second is a product called Game Spanner offered by Mindway AI. Similar to BetBuddy, it is also a cloud-based AI solution but this is based on neuroscience. In fact, the developers have 10-plus years research in neuroscience and neuroimaging. This is the one product that has been performance-tested and verified by GLI, the first producer. And I think that that is notable. Sorry, my dog just arched into the office. So Game Spanner defines risk score for each player based from one to 100 combined with thresholds and customized behavior. The thresholds trigger an alarm, but that alarm really, the response is still left up to the operator in order to determine what the appropriate response is. So these are two, what I would consider alternative or complementary approaches to the conventional risk identification response. So where it has sort of BetBuddy and Game Spanner are sort of the conventional product that's available on the market. IDPair and TransUnion are both products that would be complementary. And I'll explain that just a little bit more. So IDPair is an interesting product that offers data consolidation, a data consolidation platform, which means that it assigns a random number and play can be tracked across multiple operators. I think that this is an interesting product in large part because oftentimes players, especially players who are at risk, play across multiple platforms. And traditional technology really only tracks to the very specific platform. And it was IDPair pointed out in their RFA response that an estimated 76 to 82% of players have multiple accounts on different platforms. So this would be a direct response to that. There is no apparent integrated player-facing response functionality, however, and there hasn't been adaptable to a land-based environment. The next one offered by TransUnion is the player stability score. And what's unique about this one is that it focuses not on the behavioral data, but on financial data and such as individual loss amount, monthly loss amount, multiple deposits in a short amount of time. So what strictly financial-based inputs in order to establish a player stability e-score that relates to the person's propensity to be suffering financial distress. And similarly, there's no apparent integrated player-facing response functionality that would need to be developed. And in terms of its adaptability to land-based environment, that's to be determined. Two additional products that were not part of the original submission that are interesting and worth noting. One is Preventor Suite, offered by a sustainable interaction and cloud-based AI solution. That has a kind of grown within the market. The developers of that had experienced across different companies within the space, play-scan, green-gaming, and tendering. There is no apparent integrated player-facing response functionality. It notifies the operators to prompt an interaction and the ability to display messages or nudges through different communication channels, though those weren't defined. The final one, and I mentioned this just a little bit ago, is Mentor. It's the one that has the ability to both identify risks but it has sort of a range of different sort of built-in response features. And this was the one that was unique for that. It's an evidence-based approach with indicators and responses. And as I said, there's an inventory of automated personalized messages that the operator can deploy. And it has been implemented and utilized and land-based in land. So just quickly, what are the key implications while solutions do not market game-specific considerations? Sports-specific indicators and thresholds can be accounted for in the configuration phase. And that's what, earlier I said that that configuration phase is really important in order, if it is deployed in Massachusetts, that it's being built upon players in Massachusetts based on play here. Mentor was the only solution offering an integrated response functionality. And there were two solutions that have been tested in land-based environments, BetBuddy and Mentor currently implemented. So proposed next steps and Chair Jed Stein, I think this is where I kind of highlighted that just a few minutes ago. So in terms of next steps, I would recommend that the commission continue to move forward in this space. I think that there's adequate evidence to show that there's promise. But I also think that there's still a lot that the commission needs to consider and needs to learn. It's like that thing in that the more you peel it back, the more that there is. And while I think that we just need to continue to learn a lot about this. So part of that is consulting with our operator to explore what the current status of risk ID and response efforts are. What are the operational opportunities and barriers? What are their feedback actually to regulation? They may welcome regulation in this space or they may be willing to contribute to developing a consistent strategy for all operators. So I said before, I think it may be worth seeking the advice of the recovery board on the utility and specific elements of an effective response system. Not on the risk identification system, but mostly on focusing on response. I think that the MVC should develop a work group. And as I said before, we have within our existing research agenda now a study that looks specifically at AI technology. I think that it would be worth considering merging this with the RG evaluation project in order to just do a much larger product within this space. So it'd be taking two already approved projects but then the research agenda merging it into one in order to have a much more energy going towards this project. And that's it. Thank you. Can you take that question? I can. And again, I thank you for, I was really how to think about the responses that I needed to understand whether we were kind of evaluating them. All right, so that was helpful. Commissioner's questions for Mark. Commissioner Maynard. More of a statement, Madam Chair. Mark, I watched the rock bottom King's skit on Saturday Night Live last weekend. And I immediately thought of AI as a solution, part of a solution to this problem. It makes sense that if you can use AI to know that someone's more likely to bet on say a college basketball game, right? That you could use it to know if they're betting more than they should, right? And I heard you talk about models. You know, I think that it can help with intervention. And I think that we should be at the forefront of encouraging perhaps even requiring operators to engage with us on this because they do have the technology, right? And part of what you found shows that. We've been kind of the leader in research and responsible gaming for the last 10 years in Massachusetts. I think this is kind of the next frontier, in my opinion. And as someone who fits the demographic that is highly affected by this potential problem, I have to say that I totally explore support exploring this further. If I could, I want to jump on, Commissioner Mayer, because you kind of set the stage of where we are. Mark knows that I was familiar with what was happening in New Jersey. And I did follow up with our counterparts in New Jersey. They provide great leadership. And many of their operators are also our license operators. And they are right now truly cooperative, not through regulation, a cooperative, I think it's kind of like an MOU or something. Working, all the operators are working with our counterparts in New Jersey. And they have a list, I think of like 10 triggers that they would either look at account activity or behavior activity that's associated with patients who might have put at greater risk for gambling issues. And I hesitantly have to say gambling, problem or addiction. And then once those triggers occur, then there's a second sort of analysis where they'll do a degree of due diligence with the operators. And then there are three levels of intervention. And one of them is to send an email, the first one. The second one is to do, I think a tutorial mark, if I'm remembering correctly, a tutorial. And then third, they actually do have an RG team who will intervene with the patient. I love the idea of Mark continuing to explore and kind of see where it would be tweaked for all of Massachusetts sensibilities. But I'm wondering if it makes sense kind of explore doing kind of taking what they're doing and building our best practices. And I bet they would share back, they would take from us as well. I don't know, Mark, that's why I was wondering, I assume when you were looking at all those, the other programs that you had in New Jersey in mind, but it seems there's a lot of intersectionality there. Yeah, well, one, I really appreciate the work that New Jersey and leadership New Jersey has done in this space, I think it's wonderful. And I think that there is a lot that we could learn or partner with New Jersey if that's the direction that we go. And it was kind of contemplated when I was talking about what the different options were of possibly adopting a sort of a New Jersey style model and any work that we could do in collaboration with them, they have been really helpful and forthcoming with their information about this product. They should be really proud of what they've developed. And the operators are cooperating, I think, because you're first step, one of your first steps, and I agree with all your steps, the idea of a working group and figuring out how the AI, the technology can be elevated. But the operators, I think a lot of, I guess I said, our licensees overlap with them, they have a bigger group. You may hear that, just, I guess I'm saying, we shouldn't be surprised that they're saying, well, we're actually doing this. And I'm not sure what other states they might be doing it with you, you'd be more familiar with that Mark. I'm just more familiar with the New Jersey model. And it's- Yeah, I'm not familiar with other states that have taken, have moved in this space. I've had conversations with other jurisdictions in the US that are all very interested in this space. And I think there's a lot of sort of waiting to see what other jurisdictions are doing. And I've also had a number, I've had conversations with some operators in Massachusetts and elsewhere that I haven't heard that there's a lot of alarms. I think that there is sort of a willingness to participate in using technology for this purpose, but doing it right and making sure of that, that it's going back to what are our goals of the responsible gaming framework, that it's effective, that it's measurable, that it's accountable, and that it's socially responsible. So I think all of that is great. Yeah, I mean- So yeah, Mark, I was fortunate enough just to sit in this a while ago. I can't recall how long ago it was, Mark, you and I went through sort of the presentation from a vendor on this. And we've had conversations about how Europe has mandates in place, some of which, obviously when you take things from there and here you've got some, you always get to assess the viability of it state by state, but there is an element of compulsion in New Jersey. So there's a cooperation, but there is also a mandate in New Jersey to do this. And so I do law in New Jersey for sort of being in the forefront of this. I think this is something we've all talked about, stepping into this space. It also dovetails with the data privacy conversations that we have because this is the same information, right? That's the concern is, please don't use it to target, right? And create a riskier behavior. So it is out there. I love the idea of using AI and what's been learned in Europe in a more mature market to do this. I think we need to learn more. I do want to be more proactive. I feel like, yeah, there's a natural tension obviously with wanting to make more money and then wanting to stop somebody who's betting a lot, right? So I think there is gonna have to be probably a regulatory mandate, but I think before we move there to Mark's point and to your point, Madam Chair, and we need to find out what's out there and what is already being done by the operator so that we do it in a way that's the most effective. But I do think this is somewhere where we talk about Reg review and we talk about circling back. This is a top priority area, I think, for this body. I agree. Commissioner Hiller, Commissioner Skinner. I agree with everything that's been said. I don't think there's much more I can add to it. Looking forward. Yeah. I think building on, if we could early adopt some measures rather than nothing and then keep on improving, what is the saying?  Mr. Skinner. No, I feel the same as Commissioner Hiller. I don't have too much to add. I do agree with what's already been said. The takeaway really is more education for us commissioners and information gathering and seeing where this goes, but I do think it should be a priority and I'm happy to see that we're already starting to think about it. Whether we're taking tips from New Jersey or some other jurisdiction maybe in the beginning stages as well of looking at this, I think it's a step in the right direction. I think that Jersey launched in January of 23, Mark. So they're just at that one year mark and starting to do auditing. So, you're inquiry one year later, right? This initiative, the timing is perfect and you've done a lot of research already. So I'm excited for you to get this going. I know it did come up during our regulation promulgation and it's a priority. So thank you. Thank you. May I say one? Oh, sorry. I was just gonna say, do we need to formalize any steps for you further? But go right ahead, Mark. I think in terms of actually it did dawn on me that if we're merging two of the approved research projects within the gaming research agenda for this fiscal year, is that something that would need a vote or approval by the commission? Still both projects, but it's just kind of merging it to one, which is a little different than I think what you had approved. I think we should think about that. I'm sure it talks about to weigh in for the agenda-setting meeting so that we could get it properly on the agenda. If that's something that you feel is needed, right? Yeah, it would be great. And I apologize. I should have thought about that before. Don, don means. No, no, no. This is why you're presenting. So you get some feedback, right? What are you gonna say? Because I interrupt. Oh, yeah. I was in thinking about what commissioner Maynard had said early on, we offer a range of tools, both casino-based and our operators offer different types of play management tool. And a lot, I think that almost exclusively that relies on patrons to take an active step in order to seek the information in order to enroll in what that tool is. And this type of technology, and I was really excited, exciting about it, is that it's a much more proactive approach to responsible gaming. It's not trying to be overly intrusive, but it's also there as sort of a check. Whereas I mentioned at some point in the presentation sort of a nudge and helping much like we do with the rest of our responsible gaming tools, increase in form player choice. Then it's important for somebody to know if you're moving from green to yellow to red to provide some input or to introduce play management tools. That there's a range of different ways that this can be used, but I think of it as far more proactive perhaps than some of our other initiatives. That's all. And Mark, you did it out on yourself? Well, sort of, I did have the help of the team here help me think it through and certainly kind of develop PowerPoint and Judith Quinn is always a wealth of information as one of our research consultants. Yeah, she's been wonderful. So no further questions for Mark? Okay, well, again, I thank you and thank you for helping me figure out the RFIP. So all right, and now we're gonna switch to your next subject matter. You're not going anywhere because we have item 12B. And that, I know Carrie wasn't feeling great yesterday. I hope you're feeling better today, Carrie. But this is a topic that we rolled over and we just wanted to make sure you have time. So again, it's dealing with cashless or digital payment. So big issue, thanks. Oh, and hi, Dr. Andrews. Yes, so good afternoon, Madam Chair and commissioners. I can get us started here. Dr. VanderLinden, Dr. Andrews and I are excited to talk to you about some of the responsible gaming considerations of cashless payment technology or digital payment technology in casino gaming. As you know, the question of whether to allow the use of digital payment technology at casinos in the Commonwealth is under review by the commission and we'll be coming to you soon with a proposed regulatory framework and policy considerations for the commission to weigh in on. We thought that it might be helpful before we do that to provide you with some information related to the responsible gaming considerations for cashless payment technology, as well as ways in which regulators might address some of those issues. So there's really no particular ask of the commission today. This is really just introductory information for you on this topic that will hopefully be helpful to you as we move into the regulation process. So Mark, if you wanna share the slides for us. Oh, okay. I hadn't pulled up, Carrie, and now I'm struggling to find it again. I'll just bear with me one second. Sure. Or Bonnie, if you have it pulled up. It was in the meeting packet, I had it just a second ago. Karen, I have the packet version open, I can share that with us. Okay, I'm sorry, Carrie. I had it all peed up. No problem at all. So I'm just gonna start on this definition slide here before we dive in. This is really when we're talking about digital payment methods. Generally, I'm not specifically talking about, with respect to gaming or casinos, but we're generally talking about payment methods such as debit cards, e-wallets, and wearable or mobile devices. These types of payment methods allow for frictionless contactless payments. And there's been an increase in the focus on these types of methods due to the pandemic. So I'm first actually going to turn it over to Dr. Andrews to discuss some of their responsible gaming issues inherent in the use of digital payment technology. Hey, thank you, Carrie. And thank you, everybody. It's wonderful to be here today. So when thinking about introducing digital payment methods, it's important to consider possible concerns related to responsible gaming and problem gambling. And I'm just gonna give a brief overview of some of these concerns as they relate to digital payment technology. So the first is related to play. And that's that some data has shown an increase in play in time on device using cashless technology. The second point is that there's a phenomenon known as the pain of paying. And that's that consumers experience negative feelings when parting with their money. The research literature discusses that there could be less pain of paying experience when paying with non-cash methods. So that there's the idea that when money is less tangible, there's less inversion to the thought of using money. In addition, looking at the broader research on consumer spending shows that there may be increased spending with less awareness using electronic payment methods versus paying with cash. And that this effect related to increased spending is stronger in younger consumers who's already a population of concern when talking about possible gamble-related harm. Another way to consider is just how people may also use cash to assist with responsible gaming. So for example, there may be no built-in break in play or enforced break in time for reflection as a harm minimization strategy, like if you have to get up and get cash. With using cashless payment, you may have access to additional funds when in a hot state or when decision-making is affected by emotions, which may compromise someone's ability to stay within their intended limits. Additionally, the use and withdrawal of cash itself may allow for a free commitment of the amount of money intended to spend. And lastly, there's the point that easy access to funds is correlated with increased spending by individuals who feel like it belongs. So again, thinking about introducing digital payment methods, it's important to consider how these possible implications related to play, access to funds and increased spending for people who experience gambling problems may come into play. And now I'm gonna turn it over to Director Van Der Linden, who's gonna talk about some of the responsible gaming opportunities that come with digital payment technology. Thank you. So there are also a lot of opportunities that present that are unique in a cashless wagering system. They can provide safeguards for anti-money laundering, rules and backgrounds needed for the KYC know-your-customer and additional barriers for underage gambling. And additionally, compared to cash, digital or cashless wagering systems contain features that can effectively prevent and mitigate gambling related terms. Much like in the presentation I was talking about cashless wagering system, where you're capturing player data, you can also begin to use that data in order to identify early warning signs of risk and develop a response system that would be appropriate. So certainly as the commission considers how we move forward with the type of risk identification and response technology, and as cashless wagering continues to move forward sort of in tandem there, I think that it would be in the benefit of the commission to look not only at sort of online sports wagering handling behavior, but also how it applies to a cashless wagering system. Kerry, I'll come back over to you. Yes, thank you. So with all of that in mind, there are a number of possible regulatory actions that could be taken to address some of these concerns. So we thought we'd just run through some of these possible options today. You could set digital wallet parameters. Some of these options, for example, you could require default limits on the amount a patron could deposit into their account within a set timeframe. You could implement a delay before deposits into a digital wallet can be accessed for gambling. You can restrict access to funds transfer on the gaming floor. These two bullets, number two and three, are very similar. The bullet two is more of a technological tool where there would be a delay actually built into the app. And bullet three is more of a physical tool which would require a patron to actually step away from their gambling in order to transfer funds. So this one would be more akin to the requirement that ATMs be located off of the gaming floor, but they would essentially serve the same purpose, those two options. You could require the automatic deposit of jackpot wins into player accounts. This would require a patron to take an extra step to actually use the jackpot funds to continue gaming rather than it being automatically available for continued play. So instead of it being continuing to stay on the machine that they're playing at, it would be automatically moved from the machine to their player account. And if they wanted to continue gaming with it, they would have to proactively move it back onto the machine. You could make it so that there's no limit on the amount of funds which can be withdrawn from the account or digital wallet. The ability of a patron to remove all funds if they're so inclined could remove the temptation to continue gaming. You could also implement some limit-setting tools. You could give patrons the ability to set a daily, weekly, and or monthly budget along with the ability to enable real-time notifications as the patron approaches and reaches their set budget. This would be similar to some of the play management tools that are included in our sportsway during regulations. It would prohibit you from gambling beyond a set limit which you had set within a particular timeframe. You could also implement a delay on requests to increase limits, meaning to increase the funds that the player has available and an immediate implementation of requests to reduce limits, meaning to reduce the funds that the player has available to play with. This, as Bonnie mentioned, this could sort of help someone to not act in a hot state. I did just want to note, however, Director Randerlin raised this issue that there are some arguments against this type of tool as it could increase player frustration with the tool and decrease players who use the function. You could also allow the use of a cooling off option, the ability for patrons to set a cooling off period during which their account is temporarily frozen for a predetermined time period. Again, this is similar to what we implemented on the sports wagering side and this can keep someone who might recognize that they need some sort of tool from acting in a hot state and would implement this break and play for them. You could also require or make optional real-time player activity statements to patrons. This would help individuals to see the actual amounts gambled immediately in real-time. With respect to tracking of or intervention for at-risk behavior, you could authorize or require such tracking and a system to deliver personalized messages through the machine. This is sort of what Mark was just talking about some of this player risk identification issue and the ways that it could be tracked and monitored and messages sent back out to the patrons. You could also allow the use of on-site game sense staff to intervene with patrons indicating high-risk gambling behaviors. In terms of intervention, there's a range of levels or degrees of intervention that could be considered, including the use of game sense staff, which could be especially useful with patrons showing higher-risk gambling behavior. And then finally, this is slightly separate from those above, but with respect to the research agenda, you could consider the effects of cashless wagering on gambling behaviors and the effectiveness of measures we've talked about when developing the commission's annual research agenda. So as I said, we do intend to bring a regulatory framework to the commission soon for discussion and it's likely to include some of these options we've discussed today. And these are all things that the commission might want to consider when we discuss possible regulations for this implementation. So I will stop sharing and we are happy to take any questions that you might have. Clashers? Clashers are fine. So the only thing when you move forward on this too, when we were down getting a demo review on this, we'd ask the question about whether you could delay the ability to even implement the request consistent with some of the research that's out there about impulse control and riding out the wave. I can too, the ATM has to be x feet away from the floor so the physical act of going there might slow you down. So whatever we do, I would like some discussion about that like that time period where they talk about the urge and the impulse riding out. So that you don't reload in that time period. Sure. Thanks. It's great. It's a lot of options and there's stuff to talk about. Thank you. Anything else, commissioners? Well, thank you for Carrie and Bonnie for your good work on this and for Mark. It made sense to have them presented together. So that worked out well. Thank you. Thank you. I guess, thank you. Thank you. Okay, great. Okay, commissioners, so we're going to go back to the mission statement. We needed updating and I want to extend my appreciation to Commissioner Mayer, Commissioner Bryant for working with a good team to think about this. I know that Grace helped formulate that team and it looked like a really good cross-section of the agency. So I bet you got a lot of good input and we've seen it. It's come to us a couple of times we just haven't circled back, right? Commissioner Mayer, Commissioner Bryant. Well, may I go first, Commissioner Bryant? You go first. No, you can go first. I'll just be brief because you're right, Madam Chair, thinking about John Scully and Lily Wallace and Grace. There were a lot of time, a lot of work that went into it that was really just observed and guided by Commissioner Bryant and myself. The goal was to set the tone to modernize, given that the MGC is more than 10 years old, modernize the language while integrating sports wagering but not just dropping sports wagering into what existed but thinking about kind of the values of what we want to push forward as a group. Same thing with the proposed updated core values. Again, Mills took a heavy lead on that. The language speaks for itself and happy for feedback and we'll turn it over to Commissioner Bryant. Yeah, I think the only, the role that Commissioner Maynard and I played really was being mindful of what this commission has consistently said were the priorities of the regulatory agency and making sure that as we modernized it and we pulled in sports wagering and gave a nod to horse racing and some of the other things to make sure it was all in there. It was just making sure that our priorities were referenced in it. And then there was a lot of wordsmithing, time spent on literal one word versus the other and going back and forth. And I think the team did a great job on it. I mean, I think it pulls it up into 2024 in a way that encompasses everything on our plate. I can give a specific example if you don't mind Commissioner O'Brien. For example, I remember we talked a lot about and allow an appropriate return on investment for gaming providers being mentioned in the original statement. We thought, well, what does that mean today? First of all, does the commission allow any private business allow to make a return? Well, what we really wanna do is foster economic benefits. And then we also thought about how important it was to foster diversity with that. And so there was a place where we kept the intent of the original language, but modernized it for today. And we tried to do that kind of over and over and over again. And I really appreciated what the team came up with. Yes, we really appreciate the three of you have anything to add, edit, you know? No, now's the time. Commissioner Skinner. Thank you, the two of you for your work on this and the rest of the team. There's nothing that sticks out to me as inherently wrong or incorrect about the direction that we're moving in here. So I'm prepared to give significant deference to the team, but two things I'd be interested to hear from our interim executive director and his thoughts on the core values and the new mission statement, but then also interested in any areas of disagreement or tug of war, if you will, that occurred as part of this group just so that we can sort of get an understanding of where there are sticking points. If that may... To answer your second question, I think Commissioner Maynard highlighted one of the main one was the tension of what exactly is our role in that regard. That was probably the most robust conversation. Otherwise, there was consensus on everything else really. But there were places where a word was used twice, for example, right? And we said, well, we've got to find another word. And then there was a lot of wordsmithing on the second word, right? And Mills can jump in, I don't know if he's on here and probably provide a lot of history on that. But really that was... I have been around to different conferences over the last year and a half and heard a lot of operators say, they like that we talk about the fact that it's okay for an operator to make money, right? And that we're kind of unique in that way. Lily pointed out that there are other jurisdictions that say that also. But again, we tried to think about how do we modernize it? So I think Commissioner O'Brien's right, that was probably the biggest substantive conversation we had. That's helpful, thank you. And then I don't know if Todd, you wanted to add anything? Not too much. I would just add that, for me, it was important as it was for everyone that the core values in particular reflect all of our core values. And that's why there are some adjustments made, including things like ensuring that we have an inclusive culture, that we work collaboratively, the transparency, the integrity, all of the things that we practice every day are recognized here in the core value. So it was really a modernization, I think of the values that were established long ago that have served us quite well, but this is really just a refreshed and updated version. I think it looks great. It was really, as has already been noted, a truly a team effort, which is often difficult, but there was such an agreement across the unit that it was not a difficult undertaking, really. It was really an interesting one. So I'm really pleased with the result. Right, I'm just gonna, I'm not sure if you knew that, Intermediate Secretary Gross was on that in that room. I don't know if you- Yeah, I did. Okay, good. A whole list, I don't know if we have, because we should be thanking all the participants. Do you have a chance, anybody? I think I have a- Right now, yeah, it's in the packet. I think that opening- So my apologies. Yeah. Okay, 776, Madam Chair. Although he's tossed, Grossman. Sorry about that. I wasn't gonna mention anything. It's like an old college nickname or something we put in there. That wouldn't come up in the spell check, so that's quick. And I do have to say, everyone was phenomenal, but I do have to say- Yeah, there it is. What you saw earlier with the procurement, et cetera. John Scully is a get it done kind of person. I mean, he would have redrafts and reminding everybody as you go. So if you have a task to get done, still away from dark. Yeah. And I did scroll right over that list. Commissioner Skinner, so I wanted to read everybody's listening and thinking just to thank you too. And I don't mind having you, Commissioner Skinner read those names. I know you weren't on it, but you just read it into the record to thank them. Oh, I'd be happy to. Commissioner O'Brien, Commissioner Maynard, Todd Grossman, Dr. Lightbound, Tom Mills, Judy Young, Crystal Balscheman, Lily Wallace, John Scully, and Grace Robinson. Yeah, so thank you. This is a very important, then look at John. He's there with a, he is there participating from behind his screen. So I am very, very happy with the work. I really looked at it before and I just think it reflects all the values that I know we work hard to live by every day when we're at work in this public forum. Commissioner Hill sounds like you feel the same way. No, no tweaks. Commissioner Skinner, did you say you still want some time I might have misheard or are you prepared to say? I am all set. I think it's thorough. I think it reflects the good work of the team. So. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. And you know, the beauty is just like a regulation, these kinds of policies or mission statements, you tweak them along the way. And so it's a living document, right? If a need arises, something shifts, it picks a just so. Thank you. Should we, I think, I think I reserved, yeah, for a vote and I think it deserves that. I have a motion. I'm happy to do it, but I feel I wonder if it comes better from something not on the group. You should lead it. You should lead it. That's fine. I can move. Madam chair, I moved that the commission adopt the revised Massachusetts gaming commission mission statement as included in the commissioners packet and discussed here today. Commissioner Maynard. Thank you. Okay. Great work. Mr. O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. Mr. Skinner. Aye. Commissioner Maynard. Aye. And I vote yes. Five zero. Excellent. Well done. Mills, that would go up like immediately, right? They'll be publicizing for us and that's just exciting, exciting work that's completed. So thank you. Now we have, I think our final item on the agenda, force 10. I'm looking at page 103. Oh no, there's a couple more. So we have item number 14 on our agenda. That's the update from the screening committee on the interim executive director. Yep. So we, I think you've all seen the holds on your calendars for the 18th. That was the first date that looking, they could get a chunk of time for all of us to sit, do final interviews and take a vote on the ED position. So on advice of council, we had one more meeting. We have one more meeting on the 11th to make sure we've done everything we need to do. At which point they'll be reach outs. I would hope. And I don't see the reason why there wouldn't be to the candidates that will be asked to come forward and then their names and resumes will be forwarded to five of you no later than the Thursday prior to that Monday. So the 48 hour rule. So the agenda would go out with the names on it, resumes forwarded to the entire commission by no later than nine a.m. Thursday the 14th. Do we know how many candidates are not yet? There's obviously at least two. And we did, you know, it's, it is a tough decision. It is a good pool. So there will be at least two. I don't think we can really say anything beyond that at this point. So March 19th, Monday. The 18th, I believe is the Monday. Oh, I can't say that. Apologies that that was Sunday, the 18th. All right. So Monday. Oh, well I know it's cause it's February stone not having turned the page yet, still the 29th. So March 8th, that is, it wasn't Monday. I'm glad that I haven't been misreading the calendar out long. Okay, that sounds good. Chris, just get a question. He got any questions? Well, it's been a lot of work. So we appreciate your leadership on that guys. Thank you. Okay, I got ahead of myself. We do have another item on the agenda. And this is to go over executive session meeting minutes commission until these are your minutes. But in order for us to review them, it's appropriate for us to consider going into executive session, I'll read the language into the record. The commission anticipates that it will meet in executive session to review minutes from previous executive sessions as their discussion in an open meeting may frustrate the intended purpose for which the executive sessions were convened pursuant to GL chapter 30A section 21 subsection A3 January 24th, 2023 and GL chapter 30A section 21 subsection A7, February 8th, 2023. Do I have a motion? I'll move. Thank you. Second. Thanks, commissioner. Okay. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. Commissioner Skinner. Aye. Commissioner Maynard. Aye. And I vote yes. I should add that the public session of the commission meeting will not reconvene at the conclusion of the executive session. But before we do leave, is there any other business that you have commissioners? Okay, commissioner Skinner, I'm assuming you're hearing and I'm not hearing anything further. Then we have our marching orders to go into executive session and Tom and Dave will transport us. Thank you to the entire team for the good work today, a lot done and a long day. So thank you.