meeting is being recorded and of course we are using remote technology made available to us during this pandemic by an executive order that Governor Baker issued way back in March and we've been taking advantage of it since then that allows us as a public body to still meet this way virtually. I've been very appreciative of that capacity. So we'll get the meeting started. Today is January 14th and for those of you who have been here from the very beginning this is meeting 332 and I think that that starts to take on some particular significance as we go deep into 300s. First item of business I'll have a councilor Grossman stand in today on the minutes we have two sets of minutes starting with September 10th Todd and perhaps Carrie correct?  Thank you yes I confirm visually but we'll do a verbal roll call. Commissioner Cameron. I am here good morning everyone. Commissioner Bryan. Good morning I'm here. Thank Commissioner Simica. Here good morning everybody. Thank you and we'll get started now with the minutes. Todd and Carrie. Sure thank you Madam Chair. Good morning everybody. There are two sets of minutes in the packet for your consideration. Those from September 10th and September 24th and just for everyone's information there are others that are on the way over the course of the next week as well but why don't we put September 10th 2020 on the table first. If there are any comments or questions I'd be happy to address those. Commissioners are you all set? I'm all set if if it's okay I would move I would move that they be approved that's included in the packet subject to any minor corrections of typographical major. Thank you. Any further discussion? I'll set. Commissioner Cameron. I. Commissioner Bryan. I. Commissioner Simica. I. And I vote yes so for record keeping Todd for zero thank you. Thank you and the second setter from the September 24th 2020 meeting same situation. Any comments or edits on those if you've had the chance to review them? Okay. No comments. I don't have anything Madam Chair but I'd be happy to move them with with any technical corrections that may be necessary. I second that. Thank you Commissioner Bryan. I'll set. Commissioner Cameron. I. Commissioner Bryan. I. Commissioner Zuniga. I. I vote yes thank you. The third set that's listed on the minutes December 3rd are not yet ready for commission review so I'd ask that we just pull those down and we'll get those to you at an upcoming meeting. That's absolutely fine thank you so much. Okay moving then on to the next item of business administrative update. Good morning Karen. Good morning Chair. Good morning Madam Chair members of the commission. The first item item 3a in the administrative update is a presentation of a recommendation for the MGC deputy director that's the investigations and enforcement bureau director. As the commission is aware after I was permanently moved to the executive director position that created as they could see in the IAV director. The clear the chair included an agenda item for a public meeting where the job description was discussed amongst all of the commissioners. Search process was convened by the chair and commissioner Cameron including myself and director Griffin the assistance of the HR department. The posting is developed by the entire commission was not only placed in the state system of the Toledo system but also posted to noble the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Executives the IACP the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the dinner group which is a Boston chapter dinner group. That's made up of 101,500 black professional men with a range of ages and professional levels. We did receive a tremendous response to the posting with an excellent candidate pool. We had applicants with different types of impressive skill sets and the review team was able to select from that larger pool a group and conducted in interviews approximately 10 applicants who rose to the top of that group. Those interviews were conducted not only by chair Judd Stein, commissioner Cameron and myself but also director Griffin to ask about approach to an understanding of issues of equity and inclusion as it related to the position. The interview process itself highlighted that this position was multifaceted and required a broad skill set. The director oversees five very different divisions in the bureau with different functions the licensing division state police the financial investigations division the gaming agents division and the office of the enforcement of the chief enforcement council. The team asked the same set of questions to all the interviews ease on topics that touched on all areas of the position and after an extensive review and much discussion the team is recommending that the commission ratify the selection of Loretta Lilios to serve in the position of the MGC deputy director the director of the investigations and enforcement bureau. The commission is very familiar with her work she is an ethical intelligent highly competent professional aside from serving as the interim director of the IEB since September Loretta was the deputy director of the bureau and the chief enforcement council for the last six years. Part of that she'd been a deputy general counsel here at MGC after being alone to us from the attorney general's office. She served the Commonwealth as both an assistant attorney general as well as an assistant attorney district attorney in Middlesex County where she worked for over 14 years rising to the positions of deputy chief of the appeals bureau and then chief legal counsel for the office the prior to her legal career she led the conference division for wine garden publications. At this point I will turn it over to chair Judd Stein a commissioner Cameron for any comments about the position and the selection. Thank you Karen yes I do want to reiterate much of what you shared. First off you know I want to thank Karen and the HR department for administering a comprehensive rigorous competitive search process. Karen we work extensively to make sure we had a diverse and inclusive pool and as Karen indicated the recruitment process produced a pool of outstanding candidates. I was very very pleased with our selection process and I asked Karen to explain it in detail because it's important for Commissioner O'Brien and Commissioner Zuniga to really have full confidence in the the recruitment process as well as the selection process. I want to thank Karen director Griffin and of course commissioner Cameron for bringing their expertise to the table. You know we are very very fortunate to have in our colleague Aline and Amrikay the extensive expertise in both law enforcement and investigation that Gail brings to us and we very very appreciative of her insights as we really assessed this outstanding pool of candidates. I also want to thank those candidates if any of them have followed the process and are actually following it today. Each of you and it was we interviewed a very good number of candidates. Each of the of you particularly the interviewees the entire pool was very strong but the interviewees brought to each interview a perspective that really helped us learn. I don't think I'm overstating that and perhaps Commissioner Cameron you'll chime in on that and for that we're very thankful. I think that that helped it will help me in my role going forward and I think you know we will be able to share those insights in a way to eventually to Loretta Lillios if in fact she is confirmed and ratified today. So we thank that pool each candidate that applied and as you know Director Wells indicated one clear candidate did emerge at the top and that is Loretta who has served in the interim position since September. In fact at reviewing our minutes it was our second set of minutes in which we we asked Loretta to serve as the interim and that was the near the end of September I was reminded by that date when we reviewed the minutes for today's meeting and as Karen said Loretta has served and demonstrated really her her capacity to take on this complex role. Loretta is meticulous in the execution of her duties. She's a thoughtful manager and truly a team member and a utility player. Her interview revealed for us depth of understanding of the complexities of this key position within our organization and it also revealed an understanding that we know will guide her going forward to make this position her own. Her leadership capabilities have been in the spotlight over this last year as she has guided each of us and I'm talking about my fellow commissioners as we've had to make very difficult and complicated decisions regarding the reach of COVID-19 and its impact on our licensees and she has made sure to be vigilant about the compliance and the rigors of COVID-19 protocols and guidelines but she's done it with just the right balance of understanding and compassion that is mandated by our community at this very difficult time and for that I am forever grateful. So I'll turn it over now to Commissioner Cameron and then we'll proceed with a discussion for our fellow commissioners on how we proceed with our ratification. Commissioner Cameron. Thank you Madam Chair. I too was very first of all grateful to be asked to participate in this process. I always learned something new. I'm a big believer in a process even with strong internal candidates which we clearly had I think it's so important to conduct a process and we did that we did it with an open mind and we really had some strong candidates as both Karen and Chair pointed out. So you know as far as I was concerned Loretta really needed to come up on her feet to compete and she realized it was a competition frankly and she did for me a very very well prepared not just okay this is how we do it and I'm going to continue to do it this way. Came in with ideas came in with a with a working knowledge of all of the units within the bureau and frankly admitted to us that there was more to learn and that she was relying on supervisors and learning from them and engaging them in the process which I very much appreciated. You know we've all been there when someone kind of wants to change things right away and it's really about learning from one another and this process was that and Loretta talked about that. She had suggestions on how to strengthen the bureau and ensure the coordination with the other parts of this commission as well as that coordination with the commissioners. So that was and that was all in an idea how do we make this more effective. So I did appreciate that as well it certainly wasn't business as usual. Also the working relationship with the licensees I think as a acting person you have so much on your plate that something like that could fall by the wayside and it did not. Loretta clearly talked about that working relationship but that balance of really being you know enforcing regulations being a strong regulator but still listening and understanding the concerns of the licensees so I appreciated that as well. So the you know the outstanding interview in combination with a very credible body of work for many years with this commission I was not fortunate I came in from another state and so did not know any of the folks that we hired as far as their their work in other parts of state government. So but just the work here over the years as well as you know the very strong interview certainly convinced me that this was the right candidate for this position and again very strong pool of candidate but I am wholeheartedly recommending to my fellow commissioners that this this is the right candidate for this position and and we will be in very good hands if if ratified here. So thank you for the time to explain and and we'll go from there thank you. So with that yes commissioners we are recommending that Loretta be promoted to this position but we want to give you the opportunity to ask Loretta any questions or any of the four of us who participated in the process and of course troop D I think is probably available too if you want to understand some of the magic that she performed to get the outstanding pool and I know in many ways that was informed by commission direct sorry director Griffin's insights we are staying true to our commitment to make sure our hiring and recruitment and retention processes are inclusive and that they work to to lessen the inequities that are in our system. So again Jill thank you for that Patricia Zuniga do you have something on your mind? Thank you Madam Chair I don't have a question for Loretta I have some comments to make if there was a relevant at this point but if Commissioner O'Brien has a question I will be happy to defer until that. Patricia O'Brien do you want to ask a question before we go into comments? No I just I have comments I don't really have questions so commissioners Zuniga I would like to go now I can go after him. Okay thank you. Commissioner Zuniga? Yeah thank you um well thank you for that summary of the process of that description I have full confidence in in the process I think it was necessary and important and I know you know not not just until now but since it began how diligent and how much it took it seriously and I'm happy to to have that outlined here today. I also have full confidence in Loretta which is what the bulk of my comments are are going to be about and if I may and I was very pleased when I learned that she had been she got risen to the top for all the reasons that you already articulate so if I may I'd like to go a little bit on memory lane and talk about the early days of the commission and I know Loretta has heard me say a little bit about this and others have as well but I think it bears it bears repeating a little bit because it's central to to her profile her arc and and the reason for which I think she's earned this this promotion when we first were conceived as a new commission there was criticism out there for us in the public sphere for not having gaming experience even though there was quite a bit of relevant experience that that the early members of the of the commission brought now and I'm not just talking about commissioners I'm talking I'm specifically thinking about us Loretta as well as she was one of the first of people who came in to this to this commission never mind that we did have a lot of relevant experience and we were soon going to acquire it in other forms and developing some of the expertise of course I'm talking about specific gaming operations but I think what we did have then and we do have now are the necessary skills and methods central to the job and that is something that Loretta really brings and has excelled at she's a prime example of somebody who's diligent methodical humble self assured and and willing to learn and willing to understand and go through the method of adhering to our processes regulations and that is something that is central to what an investigator does it's it's okay to be shown and learn about things that we might not know about and I think Loretta has demonstrated that over the years and and I think that is a big aspect of what what contributes to her in my opinion as you articulate rising to the top so I'm really happy to have heard that she's being recommended I'm in full agreement and congratulations Loretta modified as I suspect you will be. Commissioner Bryan. I won't torture Loretta with a long comment to draw out the process but I agree I'm happy to hear there was you know a diligence search that are having been involved in the GC search I do think it's good for the institution and the internal candidate as well to understand you know that they rose to the top I'm not surprised that she did I've known Loretta harkening back to the middle 68 states and crossing paths at other entities when we both worked in state government and she as everyone has said is you know competent intelligent deliberate and I think one of the better qualities for this job that will serve her well is pretty unflappable I know I can sometimes get animated I think some of us can and even animated Loretta seems relatively calm in the moment which I think will serve her has served her and will continue to serve her very well assuming as I believe it will that she'll be ratified by this full commission as we finish up this item so I just want to say short and sweet and I think we can move on to the business at hand great so Madam Chair may I just make one more comment if you don't mind absolutely thank you I just I just wanted to point out that I very much appreciated working with Director Griffin on this process it really did provide a different lens and a very unique lens that I I appreciated and I just didn't know if Director Griffin had anything to say about the process engaging with us and her thoughts because I just I really did think that was added value to the process to have a different lens yes and Jill you're back in with your video before I I'm sorry Commissioner Cameron reminded me I did want to ask you to chime in so I think that you heard us say how valuable your your your expertise since and is guiding us not only on this process but really across the agency and so much of our work and so I think I I can repeat what Commissioner Cameron said is that your value was really full demonstration to us during this process and I think that we also as I said know what's going on throughout the organization so do you want to chime in and and again Tripti I don't know if I see her but perhaps you can speak to her the work that you did with her too so Tripti and I work together to make sure that the position was listed broadly and and specifically in various outfits I think we also asked the commissioners for suggested places to post the position and and I would just reiterate first thank you for your kind words but I would reiterate that this was a very competitive process it was tough and the interview questions I thought were really tough you know so I would reiterate that Loretta was the clear candidate that rose to the top and and just add my comments to endorse Loretta so thank you I'm going to add one other observation that I think if there were outside cameras on the process they might have noted in that of course we did this all virtually and of course that means we had boxes of faces and all four of the gaming commission representatives from Massachusetts were women and I am extremely proud of that and now we are adding into another leadership position if this boat takes place as I'm hearing it will another woman us to our leadership positions and that wasn't necessarily intentional but it is noteworthy and remarkable given the industry that we work in so it wasn't lost on the poor of us nor was it necessarily lost on our interviewees so I wanted to note that so thank you Jill for your wonderful comments Karen do you have anything else to add in? Nothing further I think I think everyone really summed it up very well okay excellent then we will engage in the ratification process if there are no more questions on the process or our recommendation you know I bring to the table a recommendation that we promote Loretta Lilios to what is the MGC's deputy director director of the IEB and with that if anyone wants to make a formal motion or if there's any further discussion Madam Chair I'd be happy to make the motion that we in fact ratify Loretta Lilios to be the director of the IEB second that motion thank you commissioners Zuniga all right no further discussion all right commissioner Cameron aye commissioner O'Brien aye commissioner Zuniga aye and an enthusiastic yes for me congratulations Loretta and we would love to hear from you and I think I'm already seeing a couple of chats coming up so congratulations well deserved thank you so much thank you chair thank you commissioners thank you Karen Jill and Trukti thank you for the kind words and and for this opportunity for your confidence in me and for your support that I know you will have as I move into this new role I have a full appreciation for the important responsibilities of this position important to the commission to the licensees and to the citizens of the Commonwealth really I fully intend and expect to work hard to meet the challenges and to continue to advance the commission's agenda and mission I'm very excited to work in the new role with you chair Karen mission and with my very talented and dedicated colleagues in the IEB and across the agency so I just thank you for the opportunity wonderful um virtual applause thank you we um we have um we're very excited over this um news and the the official appointment you are no longer interim status so that means the agenda isn't quite accurate but you're on the next item Karen do you want to make the introduction yes so for the next item it's similar to what we've been doing for months now which I think has been very productive and I've found it very useful and I'm hoping the commissioners and the public find it useful as well but having Loretta our new director of the IEB and assistant director banned I just gave an update of what's going on onsite what's going on at the properties particularly with relation to the COVID situation and the restrictions that have been in place uh which have been implemented by the gaming commission and also the restrictions you know that have been up put in place by the Baker-Fuido administration so with that I will turn it over to director Loretta uh thanks Karen so Bruce and I last updated the commission that you're meeting on December 17th so a month ago and since that time pursuant to the governor's order and in conjunction with a parallel commission order a 25 capacity cap has been put into place at the three licensees properties the 25 percent rule went into effect on December 26th and it remains in effect until at least January 24th so that means it's now been in effect for almost three weeks and that of course is in conjunction with the closing time of no later than 9 30 p.m. and in conjunction with all of the other health and safety requirements the masking the distancing standardization communications plan signage and that comprehensive set of requirements that's been in place since the properties reopened in in early July the 25 percent rule required the casinos to quickly prepare and submit plans to the commission as to how they would monitor and ensure compliance with that capacity limit and it also required our agents in the gaming agents division to review those plans and develop our own monitoring protocol which was quickly done so I'd like to ask Bruce to jump in and review for you the activity at the three properties over the last month with respect to the COVID-19 health and safety requirements including the 25 percent development. Good morning Bruce. Good morning all first on the behalf of the gaming agents division and myself I'd like to congratulate Director Lilio's on her appointment and say we're really looking forward to working under your direction congratulations. Thank you Bruce thank you very much and I enjoy and look forward to our continued work together. We're really excited we got rid of that mean director. Not quiet she's still around. Yeah I know I forgot. As far as the 25 percent order since December 26 the three properties have been in compliance PPC's highest occupancy days were was on December 26 where they got as high as excuse me December 26 and January 8 where they reached approximately 19 percent capacity. MGM's highest day was December 26 where they reached 22 percent capacity but that was due to a car giveaway and the rest of the time they were back down around 19 percent as well. On course highest day was January 1st where they reached about 19 percent capacity the rest of the time they were down around 17 percent. Overall the properties have done an excellent job at staying under the 25 percent. As far as additional operational issues since the 17th there really isn't anything substantial to report if you have any questions I'd be happy to entertain. Commissioner O'Brien do you have questions? I don't have any questions right now no thank you. Okay we'll just see if the discussions ensue and prop some. Commissioner Zuniga. Yeah just curious if you have seen any kind of peak hours or things that you need to manage more actively given as a result of your production or if it's essentially also a part of the demand that you will that might have itself adjusted a little bit as well. It's really been around their promotions Commissioner. It's like I say the car giveaway on court during that day had point giveaways and things like that so that kind of spread out through the day so that kind of added to their crowds and so on but they spread that out through the day so it brought it out and that's been true for both all the properties. So this time of year tends to be a little slower time of year anyway so you know I think we're kind of lucky with that as well. Commissioner Cameron. No questions but it is interesting to learn because I wondered when you know cutting back for all the appropriate reasons to 25% if that would affect you know the demand and would they in fact have to turn some folks away but it sounds like that did not occur so that's interesting to learn. Bruce could you just reiterate the highest number for PPC I didn't quite hear it. They had two days which was the 26th and let me just see in January 8th and they were 19% or excuse me yeah 19%. Those were the highest. Yeah and there's promotional days you know. All promotional days. So I think Bruce your point about that this is not necessarily the the period of time or the season for heightened casino attendance anyway competing with the holidays. It sounds as though they did have some good successes at the same time not withstanding all the restrictions. That's correct. So they were pleased good and I agree with Commissioner Cameron for all the right reasons those are restrictions are in place and we'll stay tuned until the 24th and for those who may need a reminder Todd our motion that the vote that we took can you just explain it I know that you did that for for us to through a legal explanation but a reminder to the public where we stand on our vote. Absolutely so the commission had in place of course a set of guidelines that set capacity limits and the governor and I don't have the date in front of me but as the chair was just referencing enacted a an order that limited occupancy at certain places including casinos essentially at 25 percent so the commission incorporated the governor's directive into our own guidelines and it set the time frame at the two week date which I think was January 11th or thereabouts if the governor didn't take any further action and if the governor hadn't taken any action the initial guidelines the the limits set in the guidelines would have kicked back in but as it turns out the governor did take further action extending the 25 capacity so by the terms of the commission's order we followed along with the governor's extension by operation of the order itself and it didn't require the commission to take any action so all that to be said the 25 capacity remains in place as long as the governor's 25 order remains in place that's really the bottom line that's why we didn't have to return for any reason okay excellent thank you Loretta do you have I do I I have from time to time I have reported to you on the number of COVID positives among the casino employees that we get notified of so I'm prepared to to do that today it's no surprise that we would see an uptick that would be consistent with the justification for the 25 and early closing rules in the first place but to date over the past approximately seven months since the properties reopened we have been notified of a total of 147 positive cases arising in casino employees and in each of those instances the casino notifies not only us the IEB but also the board of health in the host community and again this is across all three properties and dates back since early July the state department health is also aware of and is monitoring these these numbers it remains consistent with my other reports that the employees these positive tested employees in the overwhelming majority of instances are reporting that they believe they contracted the virus outside of work typically they are reporting from a household member we have seen no widespread trend or widespread concentration in any particular employee department or population in any on-site area of the casinos in the rare instance where more than one person in a department that has worked together has been a positive there's been immediate action to quarantine closed contact employees tests and so forth and most significantly local and state public health authorities have been cut up to date including there have been site visits by the public health professionals as well and of course the licensees have been fully cooperative so that's you know that's the up-to-date number I'm happy to address any anything you any questions you might have. Commissioner Zunica. Yeah thank you for the update Loretta thank you chair just one quick question if you if you have that you know off the top of your head or is it something that you could come back to us at a future meeting in general people employees who have tested positive in the past and have potentially hopefully recovered can you can you speak a little bit about protocols or timeframes for returning to work is that any information that you keep track of or what can you tell us in terms of kind of like what happens after that and the CDC and the DPH have guidelines on that period and return to work and both for employees who are testing negative but have been in close contact as well as those who have tested positive but have had no symptoms and those who have tested positive in who have been symptomatic and the licensees are on top of those guidelines that they have on occasion evolved but they are monitoring those closely and their HR and personnel policies completely track the the CDC and DPH protocols. Thank you great and but is it fair to say that at least a portion of those employees after having been you know quarantined or recovered or tested negative for whatever period of time is it fair to say that some have been able to return to work? That oh that's my understanding now I don't ask for the notification on you know when they're coming exactly when they're coming back but it's my full understanding that they are returning after recovery and after they've satisfied those periods that the public health officials have have dictated. Thank you. Commissioner Cameron. Thank you I think the most important thing I heard in this update is that the belief is that the licensees are doing everything appropriately and taking measures to keep employees and patrons safe and then on the back end when someone does in fact test positive really following all the appropriate protocols. So from the standpoint I think that's what I'm hearing and that that's that's really important that our licensees are in fact doing everything possible to to keep folks safe. That they are they're working really hard. Sure Brian. Just to follow up also I we had spoken about this yesterday at Loretta and as you said that this is these numbers are not unsurprisingly given the statewide search have gone up but that they appear to be consistent with what we've seen so far in contact tracing which is that they are for the most part if not entirely being contracted off premises and I suspect and have trust that you will but I just want to make clear also that to the extent that as we move forward particularly during this time period where we're peaking again whether there's any change in what the contact tracing shows in terms of whether we have you know passed a point where now we're getting some either in certain departments certain specific casinos or something like that I would trust that you would bring that forward to us if and when that ever happened I would hope given how hard they're working and given what we've seen over the last seven months we will not be seeing that but if we do I would certainly want to know about it. Absolutely. And Loretta you and I've spoken about this we we do know that the the experts in the public you know the State Department of Public Health are monitoring all industries and the trends and looking for any cluster so we would have you know Loretta and the licensees are closely monitoring this as well as the local boards the state is is keeping close track of all trends and you know to reiterate what we've we've learned in the past is where there's highly regulated industries like ours you know the the precautions and restrictions appear to be effective with that we can't be anything but super vigilant and we appreciate you know to Cameron not Commissioner Cameron's point the full cooperation and the vigilance of our licensees and I think all of us can agree that we we have been able to really expect and receive their full cooperation throughout this difficult period you know in a couple months it will be a full year right so anything else to add except again Loretta thank you for and Bruce thank you for the comprehensive reporting. Karen I do think that we should probably continue to keep this on the agenda let's hope trends start to turn the other way because there's a lot to look forward to as the vaccine rolls out so I think that that's right and then Loretta again thank you too for keeping us informed around the way as well. Great thank you. So that concludes item three for the agenda so Chair I'll turn it back over to you for your agenda items. Okay you're you're all set nothing else Karen at this time right all right thank you thank you for the thorough report now we're moving on to legislative update and this is just a preface is that we've asked Jill Griffin as you've already heard we are tapping some of her her expertise and and and it it's obviously given her good work in in the workforce and diversity work that she did in construction phase of the licensees we knew about her expertise with respect to equity inclusion but she also with her teammate Crystal Howard has the full capacity to help us on monitoring legislative development and we haven't had employee that's designated for that in any formal way and Karen is assessing that now so we've asked Jill and with Crystal's help to really work on helping us be able to monitor legislative developments and give guidance and of course you need a good lawyer on the side to help you with all of that to decipher what's up so today we're going to get an initial legislative update from General Counsel Grossman and Director Griffin I understand that Crystal won't be able to be here today but again we thank her for her contribution. Good morning thank you Chair Judd Stein and good morning commissioners so General Counsel Grossman and I are here to provide an update on the legislative filing specifically regarding the ethics and conflict of interest issues relative to the appointment of representatives on the commission's committees and subcommittees and I just wanted to briefly frame the problem as you saw in my memo the gaming policy advisory committee and the associated subcommittees you know were established to provide advice to the commission on gaming policy and related mitigation manners as per 23k section 68 the committees are comprised of appointees from municipalities and gaming licenses amongst others by virtue of their membership on the committees these individuals are deemed special state employees the state conflict of interest law um chapter 268 a section 4 contains several restrictions against divided loyalties accordingly individuals whose employment requires some touches with the mitigation efforts related to the casino are generally precluded from serving on the commission's committees and subcommittees this has made it difficult to fill the statutorily required seats on the committees resulting in delays and scheduling due to quorum issues um and and sometimes meeting cancellations um municipal and regional planning agency employees that are familiar with how gaming facilities are operated in their communities again maybe in violation of the state's conflict of interest law if they provide advice to the gaming commission while also performing their local duties involving gaming related matters so staff is exploring various options for moving forward um as the previous agency file bill hb 14 died at the end of the last legislative session staff has identified several options for the commission to consider that would streamline committee and subcommittee processes creating efficiencies and allow staff to more easily meet committee legislative requirements for quorum moving forward with the legislation would require at least one legislative sponsor by the current filing deadline as the agency filing deadline of november 4th 2020 has passed lawmakers at the start of a session can usually file bills up until the third friday in january but during the first day of the 21 22 session they extended that deadline to allow bills to be filed until february 19th that are considered timely so i'm going to actually unless there are any questions turn this over to general counsel grossman to describe the three options in front of you well thank you jill and if it's okay i'd like to i'd like to just offer my congratulations to loretta first of all loretta and i go way back i'm very excited for you loretta and for all of us i know the ivy's in really good hand so congratulations i just wanted to uh say that to you publicly i'm excited for all of us and you so thank you so much tot absolutely um secondly um since everyone has just gone through three hours of ethics training i didn't want to spend uh any more time than you absolutely need but however it is important to really be able to answer this question to understand uh the exact section that we're talking about so i happen to have a quick slide and with your indulgence i'll just put it up for a second so you can see exactly what we're talking about here this is the so-called divided loyalties section of the conflict of interest large chapter 268 a section four as jill already mentioned its sections a and c and i won't read it for you but essentially section a says that a state employee can't receive a request compensation from anyone other than the commonwealth or a state agency in this case obviously the gaming commission in relation to any particular matter in which the commonwealth or state agency is a party or has a direct and substantial interest and the the key with that uh phraseology is that the ethics commission our colleagues there have suggested that community mitigation itself is generally considered to be or would be considered a particular matter in which the agency has a direct and substantial interest and so paragraph c is similar except instead of talking about receiving compensation it says that a state employee can't act as an agent or attorney for anyone in connection with a particular matter in which the commonwealth or state agency has a direct and substantial interest so essentially the issues before us when we deal with the committee and subcommittee members or whether they receive compensation whether they're acting as an agent or an attorney for someone other than us in the performance of their duties and when it comes to community mitigation to the extent that any of these members are municipal employees or members of the regional planning committees then they are government employees who may very well be receiving compensation or acting as an agent for someone other than us and so that's why this has become an issue and it's become difficult as jill mentioned to seat people on the subcommittees so what that means is there are a number of ways that this can be addressed and they're laid out in the the memo that was prepared for you and that's in your packet there are essentially three options there are others of course but these are the three that we wanted to bring before you option one you've seen before this was actually prepared for us by colleagues from the ethics commission and this is a very precise way of essentially exempting members of our committees and subcommittees out of the divided loyalty section if they are municipal employees and the key there is that it only would apply to folks who happen to be municipal employees and the reason for that is that municipal employees just like state employees are subject to chapter 268a the conflict of interest law so there are laws that govern their behavior as government employees and so this proposal here only applies to subcommittee members who happen to be municipal employees and then it only really exempts them from section four that divided loyalties section we just a look at and it says essentially that by participating in the subcommittee they wouldn't be violating section four by expressing their views even though in their day jobs they're still involved with community mitigation related issues so that's what option one is it's a very specific and precise effort to go into chapter 23 k section 68 and clear up this issue options two and three are a different approach and they're both based upon language that is actually in a statute that applies to the cannabis control commission and under the cannabis control commission as you may know there's what they call the cannabis advisory board and that's governed under section that says chapter 10 section 77 and they went in there when that law was passed and they they said that members of that board shall not be state employees under chapter 268 a period end of story so they didn't just exempt those folks out from the divided loyalties section they exempted them out all together essentially from the state conflict of interest law whether they're municipal employees or not so that paints with a very broad brush and there are reasons for doing that as well and some of the things just to bear in mind there is that these are advisory boards when it comes to the cannabis advisory board or our GPAC and subcommittees they're advisory boards to the commission they aren't making final decisions on anything and I presumably that weighed in and factored into the legislative and governor's decision to include language like that in the cannabis statute and so options two and three revolve around that option three would be to propose language that just says flat out members of the GPAC and subcommittee shall not be state employees under chapter 268 a that is an option and that would exempt them essentially from the conflict of interest law in its entirety option two and I'm sorry for working backwards here but option two is a slightly different subset of that and we could just say that only members of our subcommittees who are also municipal employees aren't considered state employees by virtue of their membership on the board which would mean that they're not subject to the conflict of interest law by virtue of their membership on our subcommittee but they are still subject to the conflict of interest law because they're municipal employees so there are still ethics laws that apply to them so those are the that's a lot by the way that's a lot this is a very complicated area of the conflict of interest law to grasp and we all saw that in the past couple days as we've gone through training in this so I think maybe I'll just pause there I don't want to over complicated any more than perhaps I already have but those are the three options that we would suggest are workable there are perhaps others as well but those are the ones we wanted to bring to your attention. Jill do you want to add in and before we ask for discussion? So I would just say that all three options are workable some are more clear I think the first option as you see was something that was worked out with the ethics commission but later on with the arrival of cannabis and the creation of that commission we have a new precedent so we wanted to talk to the commission and kind of get their input on these three options then we'll turn it over for discussion. Commissioner Cameron are you leaning in? I am and I wondered since the cannabis option three is already kind of already out there does it make sense is that an easier way to move this forward and still you know have the the results that we're looking for here. And commission and before we answer that commission Zinica were you asking about the same or do it's a distinct? No no it's on the same lines just to confirm options two or three is one of them or both already in effect for cannabis or is it a proposal? I understood three to be perhaps a proposal and it's not yet passed. Option three is the law. Okay for the cannabis control yeah I mean I can offer you my comments now I think you know I'm a bad predictor of what's possible in the legislature but it seems like you know Todd and Jill really you know through the memo and through their remarks get to the core of the differences here which is you know having the input of the ethics commission with option one that is a very surgical if you will specific detailed and nuanced exemption versus what's possible perhaps because there's already a precedent in the broad blanket options two and three. In that context I mean different I think each of them you know get to the same result which which I believe in by the way I mean there's mentioning that in some cases municipal employees with direct knowledge of the mitigation needs are in the best position to offer advice as it was intended in 23k to the ultimate decision makers who happen to be us with the help of the staff and a very thoughtful process and it's only too unfortunate that because of the way it's structured we find ourselves often you know differing some of those meetings because of the lack of quorum effectively so I'm in favor of any of those options if that's what we're sort of pumping here as long as they get us to the same to the same place. Commissioner Bryan. The sort of another question on option three the language of chapter 10 77a was that in the initial statutory language or was that a revision? No I think I don't know that that's a revision that is in Todd you can correct me my that's why I have an attorney here that's specifically in chapter 10 section 77a. And it appeared to be the original language I know that legislative history is hard to come by sometimes in the general court but well any of them seem to solve our purpose if there's something already recently enacted it would be probably helpful to see if there was any legislative history about why they chose that language for cannabis and not us. If I could chime in on that that's an important question I'm not sure to Commissioner Bryan's point whether you'd find legislative history but when we look at the inclusive nature of option three versus option two which would be more narrow on municipal employees there could be while we are very much structured the same way in our structure we do have quite a different mission ours is focused on three licensees and communities in the area their work is commonwealth wide there could have been a reason given the nature of cannabis in that industry and I'm not I'm not I don't understand that but Commissioner Bryan you may be thinking the same line there may have been a desire to make sure that individuals private you know privately employed individuals as well as municipal employees could serve without the burden of chapter 268A because they may have wanted some touches with the industry and so they may have decided to give that blanket exception and and so you know I would think we'd want to consider option three would free all of our committee members on GPAC and the three subcommittees and the lip max from all state conflict of interest legal provisions where I think option two and I think option one Todd correct me focuses on what I think is our problem which is where we want that municipal expertise and and we they're reluctant to join because either they would have to recuse themselves all the time so they wouldn't be effective or they actually will come against that really complicated section four that that always gets glossed over because it's so complicated in our our trainings is that fair to say Todd that that three really would be pretty broad move and not necessarily an immediate parallel comparison to cannabis and because of the different missions yeah they are a little different and I also was just looking at the the history of section 77 it has been amended but it doesn't look like they amended that particular provision so I think that's been an effect that was so I'm not comfortable saying that for sure but that's the way it looks initially you know I think it's also it is to to your point Kathy it's important to excuse me chair it's it's important to remember the reason why I think our colleagues at the ethics commission were comfortable carving out this exemption in the first place and that is when you are a municipal employee your private interests are less likely in this type of context to interfere with your objectivity which is the whole purpose of the divided loyalty section you're already a government employee who has the public interest at heart and so the fact that this section is in place doesn't necessarily achieve perhaps what it was initially intended to which is to ensure your objectivity in your service to the state government so that's kind of where the carve out came from of course when you that's the narrow carve out the broader you get you kind of lessen that but the the counter again being that these subcommittees aren't making direct decisions about anything that ultimately the commission decides what the guidelines are whether applications are approved all of that kind of stuff so there are filters that all of these things have to go through so you know it's hard to say why different approaches were taken in different contexts as the chair pointed out but you know there it's it's just basically a risk tolerance kind of thing and what do you think actually where the risks actually lie I think no could I yeah go ahead yeah I think one other option a reason could be that the legislature was informed by what the commission has gone through and made those changes based on information regarding our advocacy and and education about our issues I I agree with that it is possible I mean because we've been submitting comments about this issue from early on and only because cannabis was also modeled as you correctly point out chair after some of the a lot of the language of 23k so it's possible that they they came together when they when they drafted them I had a you know a comment about you know as we present and you know these the legislature we could simply present all those three options with this you know with a similar for them to decide could we not I think you want to sorry yeah go ahead commissioner brown I know that Jill has some insight on the process that would be expected so commissioner brian did you want to chime in I think my instinct would be that you know we know the we've been thinking about it and I think the better approach is to go in with our preferred option but Jill I defer to you know I'm happy to hear what you have to say to I think chair is it okay absolutely okay great thank you when your square lights up we listen okay thank you my instinct is that we would talk to legislators about our preferred option and it would be up to them to make changes or recommendations moving forward you know they would need to file it I would say that a solution that is very clear and precise would be probably preferred and easily explained to others and I wonder if option one has that clarity that is needed um but that's just my my personal comment could I ask another question too um have either of you asked anyone at ethics what whether they were consulted on the cannabis language and or what their thoughts would be on that as a solution I know yeah I can I can I can chime in here when I look at one two and three commissioner brian if I were if I were guessing correctly in Todd I'm sure this was probably your experience when you work with them and I think you alluded to this issue just now is that the fix that they offered is very very narrow and really addressed what was the problem that the commission was facing and let's be clear the commission was facing we haven't heard from other appointing officials that they've been challenged on their appointments but where we are looking for particularly local or where the communities are probably making their appointments where the communities can appoint or designate and where we can appoint and designate we're looking at those municipal experts and they're the ones who are really confronted by if I'm right Todd that that section four divide a loyalty provision where we start getting broader let's say the G pack advisory commission that most of those appointments are by the governor and their commonwealth wide appointments with some have to be from the host's communities and then just have different expertise so probably those appointing officials may not have confronted this issue so if you think about the ethics commission would always be inclined to go with narrow impact they do view these advisory committees as doing state work which is a threshold issue for them they could have said they're strictly advisory in nature and not subject to 268 a but they've made that clear that they are special state employees and they suggested this narrow fix if we went all the way down to the spectrum it would be a much broader ask of the legislature um it would be to exempt all members of all of these committees under section 68 of 23k to to not be subject to any conflicts so we might want to make that request but I'm suggesting that that would be a different certainly a different ask for the legislature to to consider commissioner brian you're nodding your head so I'll have you help me out here that's it's that's why I asked the question because they are they are they get us to the same results but some of it has other unintended consequences and so I would think the vetting that would propose language would be the preferred option going forward um for that reason because you are sort of dropping some conflict of interest protections and some in the broader language right and and and can Commissioner Cameron yes you know I just back to my original question I think what's important is that we are successful if if and if there's a way to be successful I don't know that precedent out there with cannabis helps us to achieve that goal and I certainly hear you that the preferred option would be more narrow but I'm just wondering if because there is precedent if that is an easier way to be successful I think we certainly point out this much broader provision that's offered to the cannabis commission I just wonder if that's what we really do we really want the broader relief or do we really want in the narrow relief and I think that might be the threshold question before we decide between one and two do we want the subcommittee members perhaps private privately employed to not have to be subject to the special state employee status do we see risk where it is advisory and you know are we letting perfection be the you know the enemy here of of good and successful so that's that was my only question is how do we get there and and do we really see that much risk where it is advisory only I would have concerns not only about that risk but the appearance of impropriety or conflict and so I think the narrower solution avoids the risk of an appearance right so we're not worried about getting to the finish line as much as but what we think is exactly right is that Commissioner Cameron I'd agree with you I'd agree with you except that I don't think we're hearing from the appointing officials that they're encountering this problem I think you know for getting you know recruiting folks that I'll tell you that they that always offers more relief you know when they have that in a statute that it's not subject to chapter 268a that opens up doors absolutely um I just don't know if if if that ask might be so broad to not make us successful I see that was my question and I I really did not have an opinion on it I was really asking you know what we really think could be successful here since we haven't been successful to date I mean and it just may be a process thing how you know we've done it before we've got Joe Griffin at the helm right now so that's a new starting point uh Commissioner Zuniga yeah as I hear the discussion I'm I'm getting more comfortable with shooting for the narrow option one the surgical approach if you will even though there's this president with cannabis there's perhaps you know differences that we might not know about in terms of how they can feed cannabis that you know are not necessarily applicable um one of them it occurs to me um and just want to verify if if somebody knows the members of cannabis are they subject to an enhanced color of ethics does anybody know I believe they are I you know I was I meant to look at it but I haven't they are the answer is yes they are I don't know what it says though all right which again maybe maybe he's neutral or maybe he's an indicator but even that we have an enhanced code of ethics and there was quite a bit of um you know a history on that and not just on the legislation side but also for us in how we came up with it and have updated it um perhaps the most prudent approach you know in that context for for us is to you know to recommend the narrow one um and explain it in that context and then as to the language itself if we went more narrow Todd is number two maybe just a more accessible language that mirrors option three but achieved option one does that make sense it does to me um I I think it's a good hybrid and kind of almost a compromise and you can make the case that you're still only exempting out folks who are already subject to the conflict of interest law in it they're they're day jobs so it's not like you're exempting them out altogether um so that it is a good middle ground I think and it's also distinguished from option one then um other than the length you know the language is precise around section four is the section four achieve the same I mean the section option one achieve the exact same thing as section tours are a little different it's broad right because so as you know as state state employees you can't be involved in particular matters that implicate your financial interest or that of immediate family members so that would be exempted out under option two um you know as as their further work on the subcommittee accepting gifts that would be exempted out under option two um in their capacity as subcommittee members and you know the the list of things that uh fall into the conflict of interest law as members of the subcommittee they wouldn't be subject to those provisions they would be as municipal employees in their day jobs and that's the distinction between two and three if you under three folks who are not municipal employees if you exempt them out altogether from chapter 268a and say they're not state employees then there are none of those protections which you might say is okay uh but that's really the question before and those are those unforeseen consequences that I think commissioner brian referenced yes uh can I ask this question um I think jill referenced or and it's the ethics commission not only gave a blessing to option one but crafted it does it make sense if we were to sort of steer you in the narrower option to just check in with the ethics commission on the language of number two to see if if they think it has that precision that will get it to that success point that commission of camera references um attorney general general I'm sorry was that question for me yeah I'm happy to do that that's not a problem at all well what do you think commissioners uh commissioner Cameron that makes a lot of sense to me which are brian yeah I mean that would address I think the question I have about ethics thoughts on two and three but I do think that if we're going to ask two would be the sort of the presumptive close on our part if we were going to suggest that as opposed to option one we want to know what ethics thought commissioner Seneca yeah I'm fine either way are we all okay taking the narrow approach are we thinking that that rather than exempt everyone just with our problem yeah right and I think now it's down to is it one or two that has a better success rate here right yeah and what ethics thinks about too that is an important piece as well I think that will help um if we if if jill's able to convey that to any legislative sponsor that we've gotten a blessing from the ethics committee I see commissioner brian nodding so yeah okay so uh what do we need to do formally uh jill and Todd to move this do we need I think we we preserved a vote do we have enough of a consensus at this point for direction that it's unnecessary to vote I think we are looking for feedback I don't think we have a vote on the agenda thanks um but I thank you you know you've provided some clear direction so I thank you all well Todd that's an accomplishment clear direction on a really complicated ethics thing so that's really uh kudos to both uh you jill and Todd and of course crystal for helping navigate this uh this issue really helpful Karen you agree on you yes yes I think that's my and and also good work on on your team's part so thank you yeah okay um yikes I gotta just get back to my agenda so uh barring no further discussion we'll move on to the next item which is but I'm chair good um could I request perhaps a five minute break absolutely before we want yeah that gives me a chance to find the agenda too thanks so much we'll return um we'll return at 11 30 Jewish okay thanks so much I think I see that um we're all back but I will do a roll call to confirm before we continue and I do see Dr. Benderlinden is is visually with us there we go um so Commissioner Cameron I'm here Commissioner Brian here Commissioner Ziniga here here so all four of us are here resuming our meeting and now turning to and again thank you so much to Director Griffin and uh General Counsel Grossman that was a really helpful exercise we appreciate um the update and we look forward to similar updates on other filings and just generally with respect to legislation so thank you so much um and I will turn to item number four five excuse me um responsible uh research and responsible gaming director Mark Benderlinden and we're going to have a couple of items for you today Mark yes good morning Madam Chair and commissioners um I am here to talk to you for the first item about the um Encore Boston Harbor's request to delay the implementation of play my way um I see that I have uh my colleague um Chief Information Officer Katrina uh Chagro Gomez but um do we have uh Jackie from um available I am here as well thank you Mark okay all right great um as well as Jackie from who's a Senior Vice President in General Counsel for Encore Boston Harbor uh so just so just quickly by way of background uh play my way is a budget setting uh tool um that allows players the ability to set and monitor their budget from electronic gaming devices um since uh it was launched at Plain Ridge Park Casino back in 2016 um over 26,000 individuals have enrolled in play my way it has a roughly 14 percent unenrollment rate um it's also worth noting that um as we've advanced this this project or this special tool we've done so through a memorandum of understanding our agreement with our licensees as opposed to regulation um in 2018 um we uh along with our licensees decided to um advance play my way across all three licensees not to just limit it to Plain Ridge Park Casino um so in that MOU there was an agreement that um Encore Boston Harbor and MGM Springfield would launch play my way by September of 2020. In late March, early April the both licensees came to the Gaming Commission with a joint request to delay the implementation by one year to September of 2021 largely and very understandably due to the effects of the COVID-19 shutdown and economic toll that that is taken on the the industry that request was granted uh since that time and in fact since 2018 both licensees IGT and the Gaming Commission have been diligently working together towards the development of playing my way to launch at these two facilities. MGM Springfield has reassured us that they are still on track with the September 2021 launch date and we will soon begin our process of planning that planning that launch. Encore Boston Harbor has made a request to delay the implementation further to September of 2022. That is what the question that's before the commission today and end up for discussion. So with that I think I would turn it over to all right turn it over for questions to the commission but also to Jackie to kind of explain the situation more clearly from Encore site. Makes sense to hear from Jackie. Okay thank you Mark. Good morning. First can I also add my congratulations to Director Lilias. I can't think of anything that is more well deserved so congratulations. Actually I don't think she's on but anyway. She's listening. Okay. There she is. There she is. Thank you very much Jackie. Let's forward to the process. As you know the upgrade to 9.7 which is the IGT platform is a significant upgrade to our core gaming system. The issue that we're facing at the moment is that it's going to require significant internal resources, external consultants and expenditures. We're trying to preserve all of our resources as you know they're extremely limited at this time and the current implementation schedule would require us to divert resources from other areas to this project. I just want to be clear we remain committed to getting playing my way up and running and actually the 9.7 platform is something that our team is extremely excited about and is eager to implement so it's not that would I think we're going to continue to move forward it's just really a question of allocation of resources. Mark and I spoke yesterday about the request to delay before another year. None of us anticipate that it's actually going to be a full year. I think our thought is we would try to pick this up as soon as we return to some semblance of normalcy whatever that that may look like. I just think from a timing perspective as much as we'd all love to know when that sense of normalcy will return we don't have that knowledge yet. So questions? Commissioners? Commissioner Campbell? Yeah question Jackie and this is certainly just a hypothetical I understand that we have no idea but say by this summer there was some semblance semblance of normalcy how long would it take your team to then start and complete the work to finish this project. My understanding is it's six to seven months out. Okay so that would be maybe a six-month delay as opposed to a year delay. That's exactly right. Thank you. Well let me I don't have questions I'm familiar with the matter and I think it's clearly outlined here. I am inclined to grant the request and point out a couple of things that I think bearing into this. Although it might be tempting to say you know how come MGM is moving forward with the upgrade which was a precondition of the deployment of play my way this operating to the system of IGT. I think we have to recognize that each licensee is operating under different contexts. They have chosen a number of different things when it came to business practices and preservation of cash as they are navigating these difficult times and you know I don't think that that would be a fair comparison. I have also I would also note that since we last granted these requests the restriction the conditions on the operations on ANCOR and MGM for that matter have only gotten more restrictive. There has been you know less in terms of operation of hours of operations and as well as occupancy limits that have been limited in more in more than 24 and I would also point out that a number of other costs have remained fixed for the licensees. They have kept their commitments and payments of hosts and surrounding community agreements, regulatory costs in the case of ANCOR, the independent monitor and many other things that happen that their interest payments at a corporate level as well as the resources that Jackie only outlined. So although it's not you know ideal I suppose again I'm inclined given all the context in which they are operating I'm inclined to grant these requests and hope as Commissioner Cameron is perhaps suggesting that if things get better in the short horizon the business process itself that we would be taking deference to would get them to do an upgrade perhaps earlier than they are now anticipating and develop to play my way to of which it's only a subject. Thank you that's a really important summary. Commissioner O'Brien did you want to chime in? No just to reiterate I have an agreement with what everyone else has said which is that given the current financial climate for the business I think it's reasonable to grant the request so that they can move forward as they need to in the short term and then address it when they can be in a position to address it hopefully to Commissioner Cameron's point expeditiously so it's not actually that's December day assuming all things go well. Perhaps I could just add then a little strength in our if we're you need a vote from us today correct? Yes I did. So perhaps we could think about maybe first off to preface this is an extremely important tool for the players at the casinos. I don't think anyone disagrees with that and I do thank you Jackie for indicating that it is the priority for Broncor. So that's a given we also you know we respect the exact issues that you're raising and I think Commissioner Zinica summarized you know all your full commitment on all your other obligations but it might be helpful because just to keep everyone accountable perhaps when things do start to shift as Commissioner Cameron suggested that maybe we have an interim report on the work has begun and and find and to make sure that somehow we don't find ourselves again a year later with the work having been delayed there may be another reason but maybe we just get an interim report. Does that make sense of some sort? Maybe Commissioner O'Brien and others can think about how we weave that into any kind of emotion. That way you know I think Commissioner Cameron's pointing out it could actually meet maybe a start of the year next year that the players would have access to that important tool. You know to that end there is potentially a silver lining in the fact that MGM is moving forward and that is that we will likely get some lessons learned out of that effort. As it continues. Excellent point. And we might be able to you know work out those kinks along with MGM as well as we as we move forward. In other words I don't think that our effort here for the implementation of Play My Way is significantly diminished by granting this request. I think we will benefit from their efforts as well. Any further questions for Jackie or comments? Just a comment that I always appreciate Commissioner Zuniga's fiscal clarity bringing that to a matter and I do really like the idea of knowing whether rather than waiting until say another year we get an interim report and that would be certainly after we get back to some kind of a some kind of a I won't use the word steady state but some kind of a normalcy with with this being under control. So I think both both the clarity and the suggestion of an interim report are good ideas. I absolutely support that. As Jackie mentioned we had a discussion yesterday that I thought was good. We are moving forward. This project has been moving forward steadily for quite some time and in good faith. We want to continue that path and I think that a degree of accountability to assure that it continues to move on for all parties involved including the gaming commission to assure that it's moving forward at a pace that makes sense and considers the current environment is is great. So that that sounds appropriate. Excellent. Before we move on any motion I just want to make sure Katrina did you have anything that would help us on this matter? I would suggest you know obviously taking everything that's been said they're all very important factors and there are a lot of influences that are going on right now. My one thought that maybe we could possibly think as a recommendation since the project wasn't deemed to be implemented until September of this year would we consider maybe doing a six month extension which also gives us that midpoint review status update and we could revisit at that time if they do need the additional six months. That was something that Mark and I had discussed I think it shows at least in my humble opinion it would demonstrate the commitment to ensuring that play my way stays a priority but it also helps flatten the field a little bit with accountability if we added or possibly considered doing the six month extension and then revisit at that time should things not have gone as anticipated during the full year. Thank you. Okay so we've heard now from our team and we've heard from Jackie for the discussion from the commissioners. Mark will you put a timer? Is the yellow square put up? No. Commissioner Zinnegaard. Thank you. You know I appreciate Katrina's comments but I'm still equally inclined as I was a few minutes ago on granting the request and as stated and you know determining as we as we go along and learn more about hopefully conditions improving as you suggested chair get a report as to you know where we might end up. So I appreciate the suggestion but I'm comfortable with the request as as originally stated. Are we set them for a motion or are there further questions? Commissioner Bryan do you want to take a stab at a motion? I would I just look for clarity in terms of when you're talking about an interim report you're talking about six months out from September 1 of 21 are you looking at six months from this date when you think you want some sort of interim report from the licensee on whether they need the year or not what are you looking at timing wise? Well I think the I have to say that I was thinking of that magic point of you know some kind of a semblance of normalcy which we can't really articulate and it's not really when you go into a motion either. So how do we how do we navigate this? Rather than give a date could we could we just be part of the part of the motion could be that when you know in the licensee we'll know when they're back to some kind of you know numbers that make sense from a business operation standpoint and of course that'll all be based on what what the state allows them to do with health and safety protocols. So I don't think we I think we can just say we would look forward to an interim update you know when operations are back to some kind of normalcy and and and we would anticipate I mean in my mind that hopefully that would be within six months but I don't think it's I don't think it's you can put a number on that. I just think for clarity though in terms of us knowing in the motion and then then knowing with back I'm wondering if what we do is do the extension till September 1 of 22 with the understanding that by that on a before September 1 of 21 that we will hear from them on you know their anticipation in terms of are they going to need the year. You could key it to whether or not it's been rolled back or move forward to you know face for the government rule. I think that's just too fluid. My preference would be to give a hard date so what I'm proposing is that we do the extension out to September 1 of 22 that on a before September 1 of this year we get a report from the licensee as to whether or not that year is still necessary. I'll go on with that. Which is which is what about eight months out is that what you're thinking okay that makes sense that's a long enough period of time that hopefully there'll be some some change in circumstance. And if not we'll hear about that right and so I think I might September or October but September works for me that's aligned with where we would have had to be the human place. So an interim report that Director Vanderlin will process. Karen are you all set with that idea? Yeah that makes sense. Yeah. Then Madam Chair I would move that the Commission approve their request of Encore Boston Harbor to delay implementation of the play my way management system from the current date of September 1 2020 to September 1 of 2021 further that the licensee report back to the Commission prior on or before September 1 of 2020 as to the status of the implementation. I think the years have to be one so we're talking 21 and 22. Right so it'd be extended to implementation date of no later than September 1 of 22 and further that they report back no later than September 1 of 2021 as to the status of the implementation. Second. Any further discussion? We'll take the vote. Commissioner Cameron? Aye. Mr. O'Brien? Aye. Commissioner Sunica? Aye. I vote yes. So that's quarter to zero and to Jackie we wish Encore a lot of luck and operations but of course we look forward to this report in September. Thank you very much. Great thank you and happy new year. All right okay then I think we can move on to item B Mark this is on your game sense quarterly update which we always look forward to thank you and we have guests. Yes we do I'm pleased to bring forward the game sense quarter quarterly report the game sense team has worked really hard to pull together I think a fantastic presentation for you. I'll just point out Teresa Fiore is a program manager and really provides a lot of support to the game sense program. We also have Marlene Warner who is the Executive Director of the Mass Council on Gaming and Help. Chelsea Turner who is their Director of Responsible Gaming. Jody Neely who is a VSE Resource Liaison and Lynn Ho who is a Senior Game Sense Advisor will also be contributing to this. So given the number of people that we have I don't really feel like I need to say too much more and I'm just going to turn it over to them to let them drive the presentation and I'm more than happy to chime in through and answer any questions. Thank you. Thanks Mark. Good morning. Good morning and thank you Mark. Good afternoon actually commissioners. Oh good afternoon Chelsea. I know and other VSE staff and other guests we really are grateful for the opportunity to present before you this afternoon so thank you very much for your time. We wanted to start off by talking about a topic that is very common and to you all which is safety and so just like the casinos are doing safety is the number one is paramount at the forefront of everything we do at the game sense centers right now. Obviously we comply with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health guidelines the casino's guidelines and the MGC's guidelines as well as our own. So wearing masks is mandatory of course social distancing is strictly enforced hand washing frequent hand washing is encouraged cleaning vigilant cleaning the casinos are fantastic about cleaning the centers and we also regularly clean them ourselves cleaning all of our equipment and then even we go as so far as to require our staff to to wash their clothes before they're allowed to return to work. So as you all know they wear either a gray sweater or a green shirt and black pants and they must wash their clothes before they return to work so that is at the forefront of every everything we do right now. It also means that the way that we interact with our patrons is different and so we have to be safely distanced so we are using technology more and our own creative ideas in order to do these interactions. Predominantly we use the large monitors at the game sense centers to conduct fun educational quizzes and then we also use laminated flashcards if we're away from the center. So adhering districts safely safety protocols but still finding creative ways to engage with patrons. Next slide. Before we talk about the numbers at the casinos just wanted to give a I know you guys are familiar probably with the definitions but I still sometimes have to go back to remind myself what they mean. So just very quickly when we talk about simple interactions we're talking about things like somebody asks you where the restroom is or how do I get to the bus stop. So basically non gaming related interactions. A demonstration is a two-way exchange between game sense staff member and a patron that involves some type of teaching tool such as a brochure or the monitor. An exchange is a two-way communication about RG or PG which does not use a game sense tool. Casino related interactions are questions that we get about you know where do I go to pick up my free promotional item or can you tell me where the rewards where the reward center is those types of questions. Volunteer self-exclusions you were all pioneers in implementing this program so I know you're familiar with that and then reinstatements is the process by which a patron can remove themselves from the list. Next slide. So now we're going to talk a little bit about the numbers basically over the last four months. So the first slide that we have in front of us right now is for Clean Ridge Park Casino and if you look at that the things that you're going to notice and this is something you're going to notice across all three properties is that in September the numbers are particularly at PPC and Encore especially high and that's in large part because of RGW responsible gambling education week. We are really fortunate to be able to work with PPC during that week to safely set up a table literally outside by the valet area if you're familiar with the property and we actually had stanchion set up in front of the table so that we force people to safely six feet distance. So that's why you're going to see a spike at PPC and I'll talk about EVH when we get to that during September and then you see relatively consistent numbers in October, November, and December. One of the things we've talked a lot about is that at PPC in many ways they seem to have at least and from our perspective been impacted the least by the new restrictions. It tends to be an earlier crowd at PPC so you know most of our interactions were happening before 10 o'clock anyways obviously now they're shutting down at 9 30 so the impact on PPC is a little bit less drastic than for example at Encore. The other thing I wanted to talk about with PPC is the VSE numbers are relatively steady which is we're happy to see inconsistent and so those are really really important interactions that we have and then lastly this isn't a surprise to you all but this is a community that's used bolder compared to the other two. Next slide. Now we're looking at MGM numbers and again you see so MGM actually for RGEW probably struggled the most in part because we didn't have a great location really safely conduct activities so we were limited by what we could do more so than at PPC and EVH so you don't see the same spike during September at MGM. Interestingly you see the numbers climb up in December and that's in part because we had staff that were either were on vacation and we were actually more fully staffed in December and so just by having a you know one person come back it can make a significant difference and the particular person that was away is probably one of our more gregarious GSAs so it was nice to see the impact that he could have. In additional if you look at the VSEs it's kind of interesting that December and November were a little bit down but again not an insignificant amount of VSEs. Next slide. This is Encore's numbers again you see that spike in September for RGEW and during RGEW Encore was kind enough to let us partner with them during a promotion and so we basically just did a very quick one question exchange with folks as they were safely distanced in line to go up to get their promotional item so that's why you see that huge spike in numbers at Encore during September. October you'll see still pretty high numbers and the reason why you're going to then see the dip in November and December is because Encore is probably in our opinion or our interactions at the Game Sense Center is the most impacted by the reduced hours and the reduced capacity. Encore is a later crowd it's a younger crowd and so closing early really really affects them and it impacts our numbers considerably. VSE numbers are also significant here and you'll notice that in September and October there's asterisks and if you look at the a little explanation at the bottom you'll notice that four of the VSEs in September and six of the VSEs in October occurred during the overnight shift so that's between the hours of 1 a.m. and 9 a.m. so we were we had implemented 24-7 hours at Encore prior to the hours being reduced and we found immediately an impact particularly in the area of VSEs you know that's 10 VSEs that happened in the overnight shift in just two months so a significant amount of VSEs happening then and so you know we were hopeful the casinos will be back 24-7 at some point in the future too because we actually know that that's a really critical time where we can reach people. Next slide. So in summary you know year over year our interaction numbers are obviously down and that's understandable we're keeping safety again at the forefront of every everything that we do there are fewer ways for us to interact with patrons you know we're no longer conducting 60-sided dice games or spinning you know spinning a wheel so you know we're really limited in those ways but but we are still having a significant number of interactions. Also patrons are just like less likely to engage anyways I think all of us are a little bit more guarded when we're out in public and that's natural and so you know it's it's hard to catch somebody's eye even when you can use your mouth but when you can just use your we we talk about smiling with our eyes it's it's even harder and then of course the capacity is limited the hours are reduced and then we've talked about this in the past the traffic patterns at the three casinos have changed they are better for us now at PPC at MGM it's still a bit of a challenge. Regarding staffing just like all other places across the Commonwealth we've been impacted by reductions as well we went from a staff of 23 game sense advisors to 17 and we currently still have one on furlough this is approximately a 25 percent reduction in staff in hours overall compared to last year so obviously with 25 percent less staff we're going to have less interactions but highlights I mean there's a plenty of things of good things to talk about you know the number of VSEs we were able to get is still can still significant totaling close to 40 over the last few months we're developing new ways to interact integrate technology we've tried digitized quizzes and we're going to be doing hopefully more of that during PGM we and I'll talk about remote VSEs in a couple slides from now but have implemented remote VSEs using the monitors I touched on that already and then just being more creative so on this on the left here you'll see a picture of Aisha who's one of our GSEs at MGM wearing a Halloween mask which was just kind of a nice fun lighthearted thing to do our GSAs do things like this all the time naturally on their own you know we have GSAs that wear their sport for example their favorite sports team and but we found that the the masks can actually lead to to fun conversations so again just being very creative next slide if I can just chime in real quick Chelsea you talked about changing traffic patterns and with the new protocols as patrons are coming and going the casinos have have changed how patrons are coming and going off of the casino floor and as careful as we were to plan where games and sin foes centers are at the casinos to assure that we have high traffic areas when they change the inferences and exits related to to covid that definitely impacted those traffic patterns so we've worked with the casinos and you know ultimately this will go back to the the way it was but it it certainly impacted the traffic that was coming by the centers for for this time thank you no that's great thank you um the next thing I wanted to talk about our um is something new and exciting that we're eager to share with you all today we now have the ability to conduct remote voluntary self exclusions um in large part thanks to Teresa and to Ray Fluet um we've developed a safe and secure way to conduct vse is basically using like a zoom style meeting um and secure technology this is fantastic uh for a number of reasons including safety not everybody's comfortable with face-to-face conversations even with distancing and mass so you know no longer need to be in person um logistically you know some people have transportation barriers so we eliminate that barrier connection the personal connection when you conduct a vse remains a priority um and it's essential that participants feel supported and that they're provided a warm handoff so it's it's not as it's not the quite at the same as being in person but I think it's the next best thing um and then comfort you know um hearing uh the the sort of the soothing voice of a gsa on the phone seeing them smile knowing that they're going to be okay and also not having to walk back into conceit a casino if they don't want to if that's the place that's causing them harm is important and lastly just being there um for them when they need to be so our hope is that when the casinos are back up and running 24-7 that we're offering remote vse is 24-7 so even if our game centers are shutting down at one o'clock at mgm and at ppc there'll be a phone number up where they can call to get a vse and we can engage in that process at whatever time of day um that they'd like at any day of the year so uh really really cool stuff and again uh huge kudos to Teresa and Ray for their efforts on this next slide um uh at this point in time I'd like to turn it over to Jodi Neely who's our outreach and recovery liaison um she's the person behind the scenes that after somebody goes through a vse is going to sort of follow up with them um see about what what resources that they might be interested in um engage in telephone recovery support if they're interested I'll let her um tell you a little bit more about that but just a little bit about her quickly she has a bachelor's degree a master's degree and is a certified addiction specialist as well um and she's a person in long-term recovery she's again somebody behind the scenes but in many ways um you know part of that that strong skeleton uh that keeps that vse program uh up and running and um is such a valuable resource for folks that are struggling with their gambling so Jodi we're gonna we're gonna have the word you're muted in the dictionary soon and you all uh for letting me to present here uh this is all this is just sort of a job description of what I do um you know you can read it it's uh it's really been an interesting expansion of the of my role at the council and um it has worked very well the this wonderful um partnership I have with uh with everybody who works at the council with the game sense advisors with Chelsea uh just great communication and really good referrals from the game sense folks who are out there on the front lines and it has really been an honor for me to use my experience such as it was to help others so um we'll move on to the next slide because you don't need to look at my job description there I am I asked Chelsea to change the slide from my professional shot because this is really who I am uh that's a picture of me at a when you could go to recovery events in person I was out in Springfield that was probably September 2019 and uh I do miss being out on the road but as we've said in this past meeting we'll get there eventually so uh for vsc follow-ups um whenever the game sense advisors do a voluntary self-exclusion they ask if the person doing it would like to have a one week or so follow-up and they usually mention my name and tell them a little bit about me and then I get the form and usually within a week or so I do reach out for the first time um the protocols for me are that if I get sometimes people just give their phone number sometimes they just give their email sometimes they give both if they give just their phone I will try up to 10 times I space it out believe me I don't try like three times a week I really space it out I don't want to be stalking anybody give people time up to 10 times I will try to contact a person and by email I really only do it about four times if all I have is an email from them because enough is enough uh they they will get through if they don't get the first one they'll get the second one and then if I give both I do both I call leave a voicemail and then I send an email so you can see from the numbers since July 1st I've had 36 people that have requested follow-ups I've connected voice voice wise by phone or you know sometimes it's a text first then it's a phone with 24 of them and um so that's 31 so seven I haven't and then five are in progress so patience and persistence payoff uh sometimes I literally get somebody on the ninth call literally they pick up uh so you know I do my thing and it as I say a pleasure to do that and then this telephone recovery support thing this has been a great program we've never had this before usually if someone called the helpline or if they wanted a one week follow-up we would do that but we didn't have sort of a understanding or their permission to keep following up so the TRS program telephone recovery support is basically we said to someone hey uh you know we've had a good conversation I've sent you some resources would you like me to check in with you you know once a week for up to 10 weeks and if so let's pick a time so on Wednesdays at 10 a.m I call Mary and I say Mary how was your week and she said I'm doing really well I said did you get to the GME and I told you about in Springfield oh oh by the way here's another one I'll send you the information about another meeting that happened uh or or I get no I you know I went out and gambled today um sometimes they go to casinos you know whether they via seat or not and I said well let's talk about that what were you thinking and it's just a conversation you know I so much about my work and about recovery in general is having the conversation in the way that people feel comfortable having the conversation whatever pathway they're at um and if they if they think they're going to go back to the casino after they via see that you know that's fine we talk about the in between time and um you know there have been many people I've connected with who I've developed relationships with and sometimes we'll say oh you know when we get to go to GA meetings in person maybe I'll see you I'm like yes yes yes I'm known as Jody Ann out there feel free to let me know who you are and it's relationships right I mean I really think it's not just credibility and having conversations it's relationship building which is what the game sense advisors do so well with the folks that they meet and then they get to pass that initial relationship off to me and I um I can take it as far as I can take it you know sometimes people go through the whole 10 weeks of phone calls sometimes after five or six they're saying you know we're great I'm great I'm like they always call me you know call me text me whatever I'm here for you so it's that it's that kind of um it's that kind of relationship with people and uh you know success story magic moments well you know there's been a lot there's been one woman who I knew did a vse with Amy uh she and I went through 10 conversations she actually she called me wished me merry christmas this was after the program the official TRS was done she called me again in new years and she goes it's been six months since I had my last bet and I'm like way to go you know um and uh it's the magic really is sort of the whole thing is magic when you talk to somebody who who maybe they didn't get something you know some of the things I find the most is I'll say something and you know the commissioners you've seen me speak before it's really just whatever comes to mind right so I'm talking to somebody on the phone and one guy and I said do you ever journal things oh he goes I hate writing stuff down or a hate writing something down so in my head for the first time ever I said well won't you record your thoughts and feelings on your phone he's like oh that's a great idea I hate to write well I'll do it on the phone and you know and that just popped into my head I might not even remember it again for the next person just to sort of in the moment and uh but sometimes when you explain gambling how it's different from substance use you see literally I see the light bulbs go off and you know whether they've stopped gambling for the rest of your life or they're just taking a break whatever information we can exchange with each other you know I really feel like it's been helpful so I would say that both these programs the follow-ups and the TRS have been um been successful so I'm handing it back to Chelsea thank you thank you thanks so much Jodi um I'm going to spend the next few minutes talking about some of our communications highlights a lot has been happening um we have a fantastic collaboration with the MGC team on this um including uh Teresa and Austin and I know there's uh the extension to uh KHJ as well um but we have very robust social media efforts which of course include Facebook Twitter Instagram and LinkedIn and we push our GPG messages um public health messages game studs tips out through both the GameSense Massachusetts platform as well as the mass counseling gaming and health platform um you know over the last four months we saw you know a reach of 30 000 plus folks um just from the MACGH platform so pretty impressive numbers there um on the right you're going to see this is a one of as a picture of one of our new pull-up banners we have two pull-up banners that we're allowed to put out at PPC usually one is stationed by the entrance way and the valet area and the other ones by the GameSense Center these pull-up banners are taller than me well I guess that doesn't say much because I'm kind of short but they're about seven feet tall or so um they very much pop um they're simple we keep it clean and simple and it's a way to try to engage to get somebody to start a conversation with us so in this particular example you know I don't know how this game works no problem we do let's talk at the GameSense Info Center you know we're we're encouraging folks to talk to us about their gaming behavior you know do they understand um do they understand what they're doing when they bet on the roulette table or play blackjack so um we you know it's it's a way to again get them to engage so um so we thank both PPC and MGM for for letting us do that um also we distributed our GameSense newsletters um and announced GameSense Champion awardees and I just wanted to quickly mention their names um these are folks that are casino employees that our GameSense staff has recognized as going above and beyond when it comes to responsible gaming so at PPC we um we recognized Nuala Deirden Joanne Smith and Lisa Duan-Gulmala at MGM we recognized Christopher Benoit and at EVH we recognized Richie Mendoza, Loghoy Nujain and Francisco Chacan and all of them received a gift card and a kind note from the GameSense commission um thanking them for going above and beyond um this is a fun way for us to um to acknowledge folks that are connecting folks to the GameSense Center um when they might be in distress um so please thank thanks to all of them um and then lastly uh pretty recently actually early December we participated in a local broadcasting session um in central Massachusetts uh with a senior population um and it's estimated that this broadcasted presentation will be picked up by 20 other local TV stations um and we'll literally reach thousands of people across the common well so we're excited about that we also um filmed two general PSAs and are about to get those and are looking forward to um to getting those out um into the community as well next slide so this is one of two um gifts I guess I'm I'm not the most uh social media conscious Facebook is about all I can handle but these are examples this is an example of a gift that we put out on social media that connects sort of the holidays to responsible gaming this first one reminds folks that as they set a budget when it comes to their holiday spend that they also do that with game gambling this is Aisha from MGM and then the second one is David from Encore and it reminds folks it reminds adults not to gift lottery tickets to kids this is part of a larger campaign that I'll get to in a second so just a cute clever way to do something fun on social media tying in the holidays and tying in our rg tips um originally we wanted to do videos where the game sense advisors could actually talk but there wasn't really a great easy way for us to do that with them wearing masks and even though we're in a pandemic masks on social media don't doesn't look it's not the best so so we thought this was a nice sort of compromise next slide so some additional communication highlights the the two videos that you just saw particularly the lottery one the national council on problem gambling and the McGill's center for youth gambling problems and high-risk behaviors in Montreal every year launch a national actually international because it's Canada and the United States campaign with gaming entities and responsible gambling entities really to remind folks not to put lottery tickets and kids talking and so the council's been a long time partner with them on that on those efforts and that's a fun way for us to get involved secondly we partnered with PPC and you know again want to thank them on a holiday toy drive you see a picture on the right of you know literally hundreds of toys that we collected for toys for tots so that was fun and then lastly we continued a partnership partner with Bclc and that has a lot of benefits which you'll see in a couple seconds next slide here's some of the responsible gaming holiday messaging that we did that was out on social media so you can look through that later but I just wanted to sort of point out the partnership with Bclc you see that scratch and win tickets aren't for kids right on the top that came from them so it's nice that we're able to share and exchange information and that makes our resources go further certainly all right before we go to the next two two slides there are really videos and there are videos that that Bclc shared with us that talk that educate folks about randomness they're very different but they're sort of the same message I'll let you decide which one you like best I definitely have a favorite but I think they're both both very cute and very clever so and just to be clear Bclc is the British one day lottery corporation who we have a partnership with have had a partnership with since 2015 on the game sense program so all right there you go so that was the first one commissioner Cameron I as a golfer I know you probably like that one a lot I think it's very very cute and fun so I love that one I just I try not to break my clubs though all right and then the second video that happened to you have you commissioner Cameron randomness you know I love the second one too probably because I'm a mom and maybe that one speaks to me but I think they're both great ways to sort of remind folks that there's always an element of chance when you gamble and so you know game sense is really about as you all know making sure that the the folks in the middle don't get into the problem area and so we try to connect with them using humor and in different different strategies and different techniques to relate to them and I think both of these videos are excellent examples of that all right next slide all right at this point in time I'm gonna turn it over to Lynn Ho who is a senior GSA at Encore Boston Harbor and he is a fantastic asset to our game sense team he is fluent in Vietnamese he has a background in gaming he's an expert in slot machines in particular and he's part of our outreach team as well he loves talking to older adults and folks that are Vietnamese or in the Asian community he does just a fantastic job in some of the relationship he has been able to build are really remarkable and we're looking forward to as everybody else is when the pandemic is over and actually being able to do some of our presentations in person but in the meantime again we're using zoom and being creative and I'm gonna let turn it over to Lynn and let you let him tell you about some of his successes thank you Chelsea good afternoon Madam Chair commissioners it's nice to see you again today since the last time we see and happy new year to all of you this past year have been a challenge year for all of us with the pandemic and the closure of the casino due to the pandemic during this difficult time our game sense team adjust very well by working from home and learn new skills we learn how to develop presentations through PowerPoints and also on subjects such as video gaming and sport betting and so many more and thanks to our leaderships that guide us to where we are since then our game sense advisor have not missed a beat since the casino reopening and and our whole team is taking safety very very seriously and we follow all the safety guideline and protocols that put in place and thank you to encore our staff for helping us clean up the set the the game sense center on the routine the routine trips we learn how to interact with yes safely and still have that personal approach when we interact with them and actually our game sense advisor have been great great at it so in the past three months you know in september october and november we conducted four new hire trainings at encore and we want to thanks the encore team for helping us to setting up these trainings and also at pbc we conducted one training and thanks thanks to pbc staff for setting up that training myself i also conducted one designated agent training during the month of october as the game sense two more kicks off the past year i am fortunate enough to have an important role in outreach to the communities around encore especially in the asian communities where you know we need to be more present in these communities my colleagues in amy cabrera you guys all know her she's reaching out to the seniors communities and charlie oddell is reaching out to the veteran communities and not just these three important communities but also all at risk communities that we are reaching out to either through phone emails or in person in person it's impossible now because due to the covid it is more challenging to reach out to organization during this time because there's a lot of organization that are still close or they're not allowing people to be at the centers but we managed to innovate ways to reach out to these folks to offer them that you know the service that we have available for them and also offer them the online presentation which we we have and we develop we have presentation that are translated into vietnamese chinese and this is a great the great tool for for folks to who does not speak the the english language to to be involved so i have reached out to many new organizations during these times and also reconnecting to the one that we previously have great great relationship with in the past and the feedback has been very very positive a lot of them are interested in having us to to bring the game sense measures to to to their centers and because of the technology there's a lot of members in the organization that have difficulty of using technologies they they want us to come back in person when allowed to to to do so and many expresses you know they want us our game sense to be part of their communities part of their organizations and i've been doing a lot of outreach uh through uh through since i've been in game sense and it's the relationship building that jody was touching on earlier that you know we we build relationship uh they understand who we are they they know what are we here to do for them and what do we have to offer them and it's i find it to be very rewarding when i'm i talk to uh people around the communities and they they know who game sense are you know they they know that the the works that we do in the community and also inside the casinos uh and we are here to help people and to to to have that option that you know if whenever they need the resources we can connect and do this resource that is available for them um i did a few presentations uh online through zooms uh is a new thing now so uh i did a presentation to a group of Vietnamese older adult uh at the Worcestershire new census um in october and they are very very happy to see us you know reaching out to them uh in this time because you know what this is the only thing that they can see us you know through uh through meetings like this and uh i have done presentation in the past uh at the centers um in person before covid um but now is uh we need to adjust to do it online and uh you know uh the relationship that we have during the past uh past years with them uh they very appreciate that you know we are still in touch with them call them and ask them what we can offer for them you know what can we do and they're very much appreciate that the you know the the outreach that we do into uh in the communities and i also did a zoom presentation to a group of uh our staff at the uh greater Boston Chinese Golden Age Center in Chinatown uh this organization we have great great relationship with that you know for for many years now and uh you know to explain that you know we are here we are available for the for for for you uh for the organizations um and they are very delighted you know that we are reaching out to them during these difficult times and uh they want us to be back in the center in person when when uh times allow or the safety protocols allow and that is the the thing that we we uh have built we built a lot of relationship uh with the previous organization and also the new ones for example the new ones that you know we uh i have reached out to is um the Asian American Civic Association in Chinatown also and i have scheduled two presentation next month with the group of students uh they are uh uh english second language students a group of 50 to 60 students that will be involved in this and some of the students are working at Angkor uh so this is a great opportunity for uh for me to bring the game sense uh brand and the message uh into these these uh group of folks there uh and you know i find it to be very very rewarding uh every time i'm doing it because you know um the more message we get out there in the communities uh the better it is to prepare the folks that if they decide to come to casino they are well aware that you know who we are in the casino and where to look for us and not just organization that we know in the past but you know uh also the new one that we are developing right now uh and a lot of them are interested in the program that we are are providing to them also um you know uh charlie did two presentation with mass hire uh in his uh area there and also Amy just did a great presentation at Sutton senior center uh on a local ss tv that available for uh to use by 120 times and you know i i saw that presentation that she did and she she did a phenomenal job on that um so not not just we offering people present a game sense presentation but i also involving in organization that i reach out to inviting me to join into their uh their meetings their online meetings or their webinar uh so this way i have to i can learn more about the people in the communities and also the communities uh uh what they've been through and what they're talking about you know so that way we have a better idea of who we reaching out to uh just for example of that is i you know i joined on a zoom uh with a vietnamese family event in doorchester and to meet the people in the community uh to hear about their stories uh how they deal with the the the pandemic and also some of the people bring up the story about gaming habits so this is the kind of uh involvement that we uh we uh involve in not just offering our game sense presentation but also offering ourselves uh our time uh to be involved in in the uh the in their communities and uh uh i know i'm very uh fortunate to work with a group of great great peoples and the leadership work that we have in places have been nothing but phenomenal um it is very rewarding for me to see people in the communities know about the game sense brand and the message of the game sense and and and when uh when they go into casino they see the good uh the game sense advisors they know that these advisors here are here to help them and to close this out is i remember when uncle first opened uh i met chair judge stein and also commissioner kameron on the gaming floor on that first day when they opened and i remember this sense that judge stein all uh say to me is boy i'm glad that you're the first person i see and that really make me feel good because i know i'm doing some good work and earlier when uh just i say oh game sense uh subject is up so i see this big smile on her face so i i really really love the love it so uh thank you very much for your support all right thank you win um so this is i'm a new learner who barely knows me told me i've been around long enough nobody needs to introduce me and i think she's right so anyway um i i'm acutely aware of the fact that um we are sitting between you and lunch so i just want to run through a few slides that we have um about the upcoming game um hopefully you all can hear me okay i am coming by video for my video about phone um for my audio um so we are really excited about a training that we've been working with jackie and her team over at edh on which is uh to do some in-depth training with um her entire staff and we're talking about doing a 30 minute training uh working with her staff member who was one of our game sense awardees richie mendoza and his team their training and professional development groups there on doing online learning modules that's going to be a 30 minute piece um and it's going to follow up to a game sense 101 training that tressa and richie and jenette over there and our team have been working hard on and then having some additional modules including one on resources for asian community so that's something that they're going to have all thousands of employees will be able to interact with that and then they can always follow up with our game sense team for more information so we're very excited about that in addition to that jackie has been great about offering us an hour with um all the uh hosts and marketing team that works directly with the asian community and wanting to have an interactive still virtual but a live interactive training with them around um you know what are some of the things that they see that are um concerning or questions that they have but also us being able to impart some of the the asian specific data that we have um to their team just have a dialogue about resources that are outside of the casino and then what can even our um inside casino what can our game sense do teams do to help them so um very excited about that we're really hoping that that will launch in mark for a costume awareness month so i'll tell you a little bit more about a few moments and um more on that as as we um as that unfolds next slide so augmented reality you've heard me say endlessly and you've heard commissioner ziniga and uh mark talk about game sense 2.0 this is certainly a part of game sense 2.0 um so augmented reality is kind of a is a you know a new project we launched last year and it was kind of a test case for like how can we take games that's to hold another kind of you know reality essentially um augmented reality is the concept and i'm you know i i bought a chair for my daughter at target and i was able to take through the app at target and see if the chair looked right in her room and you could put it in your space so it's that idea it's not virtual reality where you step into another reality that you take something and you put into your reality um we are um and we've kind of gone around and around in terms of what made the most sense and what looks best and we've been relying very heavily on our senior gsa's and our entire game sense team i think we're on a really nice track um what we're hoping to do is really explain house edge one of the things we went to our game sense um teams and said was what is hard to explain any very um short time period and house edge was by far and way what they explained they said it's a hard concept people don't really get it and they but they want to they want to understand but they don't it's but it's a hard thing to explain so we're hoping that this ar app is going to help us it's obviously a safe thing to do we're just going to use the monitors that have been installed in the three centers um as well as our ipads to be able to do that and we hope that it'll really engage patrons in a new new way and then the other neat thing is that if they're doing this on their own devices right on their smartphones they can take it home and they can continue to use it and they always are carrying it around with them versus a brochure which is hard sometimes to think that people are going to hold on to that or keep that in their back pocket um and that probably the most exciting thing is that it's it's a constant learning tool it evolves as you use it further um so it's really the more time you spend with it the more you'll learn so we really hope that um come april and our next quarterly report will be able to give you more information about that but we really think it's turning out nicely next slide please um so on the 28th uh your next public meeting we're going to come in and talk to you about positive play it's a concept you've all been hearing about for a while it's a concept that's in the responsible gaming frame with a massachusetts responsible gaming framework um but it's something that we haven't directly connected to massachusetts data and we've just completed a survey of 1500 massachusetts residents was an online survey um using the positive play that should say play not pay positive play scale and the problem gambling severity index and um i think the you're going to be quite um interested in the results i know i was i think there's a lot of real implications for the next steps um and directions that game sense can take in terms of having i think one of the things that we realized that game sense has made great strides that we haven't personalized this to our specific players one of things bclc did when they got this same data is that they were able to segment uh messaging to they had about five i think it was five to seven segments and they were able to segment their players into these different groups and then really target their rg messaging and their marketing to that those groups we're hoping to do the same so more on that from directly from the researchers that are going to come in um uh on the 28th uh the low risk gambling guidelines yet another thing that's come out of canada we keep trying to be innovative but somehow we can never beat out our canadian friends and we're so grateful to them for all their amazing work the low risk gambling guidelines is an effort from a group that had some americans and folks elsewhere involved but led by the canadian center on substance use and addiction around looking at just like drinking guidelines and they also have guidelines around cannabis use um how they can advise the public on how to keep their risk low around gambling so we will give you more guideline details on that and how we're rolling that out and i honestly think no mark and i are talking a lot about how positive play on low risk gambling guidelines go together um but there's some really specific um and i think useful um guidelines on what do you tell the average player when they walk into casino how they might keep their gambling safe um so again more on that in the future and the great news is that we have mass issues at specific data that was involved in the project to validate um these results and so dr rachel volberg and her team um included magic in that and then the last thing i just want to talk about is that certainly when we come back in April we hope to have a lot to tell you about problem gambling awareness month it's every march uh this march will be um the same however as chelsea alluded to we're really trying to um keep things safe and socially distant so it'll be on it will be unlike other marches in the sense that we won't be tabling the back of the house and we won't be doing those things but we will be um thinking about um how we replicate some of those efforts digitally we're going to continue to do some um trainings where we are hoping to release those low risk gambling guidelines and um and just doing as much um communication as possible one of the really cool things we're hoping to to roll out in march is geofencing for um employees and players so that they may hear more about um rg when they're in the casino and on social media um application so again more on that and the results of that um when we meet again next slide and then finally you know we got to say a personal goodbye because uh commissioner sevens joined us for one of our last meetings um but he is just um you know we just didn't want to miss the opportunity to say just how excited we are for him but also just how grateful we are for all his participation over the years um you know one of the original um commissioners uh he was with us from the beginning he's always joined us with great spirit and interest um always asked very thoughtful questions and I will say that you know it's always I always think it's awesome how each commissioner brings their own kind of um angle on how rg works at the commission and um commissioner sevens was that obviously he well represented western massachusetts wanted to make sure that we were really well connected out there um and did a beautiful job of that but he also made sure that um veterans were a key component of our work always asking the right questions connecting us there as well as with older adults so um you know we're sad to see him go but we're certainly happy for him in his next endeavor and um you know hope he continues to wear his game set socks even over the cannabis commission so um we're really uh pleased for him and just wanted to send a public thank you out to him he's not going to give those up early he won't give those up yeah I am sorry I hope not um so without letting this close and and say that um you know that they're very kind my team's very kind of keeping a segment of this but it's quite evident that they do this work beautifully on their own um they're very accomplished and I couldn't kind of be more proud of them um it's lovely to have Julie join us I think she hasn't been before the gaming commission a while and um you know she talks about being persistent and patient and that's two two words I couldn't think of any better words to describe Jody and um and Lynn's enthusiasm certainly came through so I'm gonna stop talking so you can ask my team some more questions but thank you again for an opportunity today thank you um I think we just need to have if you could take the slide down um that would be great so we could see our faces again thanks so much um this has been a very thorough presentation and so interesting and I only wish that time um wasn't against us because this very very interesting report but I do want to give each commissioner the opportunity to raise any questions this is a quarterly report um commissioner Cameron you're nodding your head did you want to make any comment I didn't have questions but I do have a comment um just how much I appreciate these you know we deal with so many difficult issues and you know difficult votes and um to always have the feel good from the game sense folks meaning the anecdotal stories the passion that comes from all the advisors and the really really important work they do um on behalf of the commission it's just refreshing and it's always one of my favorite presentations of the many many we have during a year so I just want to thank everybody for the good work it's so apparent that you're making a difference um and at the same time connecting with the licensees making sure it's partnership so I don't think there's another story like it around it certainly not in this country so so again thank you on behalf of the commission and uh just I know you'll keep up the good work so thanks no commissioner Zuniga yeah on the same lines thank you for the thorough presentation uh it's always good to see everybody um there's a there's a theme that arises in my view out of um out of your presentation uh and that is this adaptability to the conditions the changing conditions and the environment in which we operate and your ability to do the work that we always intended as you always intended in many ways again adapting to those uh conditions I had and and Judge Stein also attended uh prior to this I had an opportunity to uh attend a demonstration uh with Chelsea Teresa and Ray um of the process the detail process that was only outlined today uh for a voluntary self-exclusion being conducted entirely virtually including the details that go in uh ensuring the documentation is signed appropriately reviewed in conjunction with the person and it's understood um in many ways and I was really impressed at the the robustness of that process one that I think Chelsea correctly points out will be a benefit after uh when we're able to go back and do a lot of these interactions um you know without that risk without any restrictions this will be an option for people to have different hours or because their comfort level is one in which they would prefer to be done remotely so um thank you for the overview and thank you for all the work that you continue to do thank you miss Brian did you have a comment um just thank you it's always a very detailed presentation and that's always I'm always struck by the dedication of everyone that's associated with the program um I agree with everything that the other commissioners have said and I look forward to seeing you again on the 28th so thank you commissioners and again uh thank you for each element wa