MGC GPAC Meeting - May 12, 2026

I will then I'll start. So, good afternoon everyone. Appreciate we'll have a nice intimate discussion today. I appreciate everybody taking time to meet with us for our GPAC meeting today. Um, just to remind everybody, this meeting is conducted using remote collaboration technology in accordance with chapter 2 of the acts of 2025. If there's a technical problem with our remote connection, an alternative conference line will be noticed immediately on the gaming commission's website, massgaming.com. Uh, and as I said before, as a reminder, we will be recording this meeting for the purposes of writing up the minutes and that recording is underway. Uh, with that, I will take a roll vote. Uh so I'll start with uh masking commission chair Jordan Maynard. >> Good afternoon Ed Serpa chair Serpa in this um in this instance and um welcome everyone. Good to see everybody. Thank you. Um, Senator Feineold, Senator Fatman, and Representative Vaughn, and Victor Ortiz, >> present. >> Thank you. Commissioner Colton Harris. Thank you. Sorry, I was on mute. Present. >> Thank you, Commissioner. Mr. Pnelli, of course. >> Present. >> Thank you very much. Mr. McNeel, >> present. >> Uh, Miss Craig, >> present. >> Perfect. And I, Dean Serpa, am present. So, I believe that gives us seven attendees. Um, I guess I should mention before we go to the research agenda, which as you know is the main purpose for this meeting today, I do want to recognize um that one of our prior committee members is no longer with us, right? As some of you may remember, Representative Ann Margaret Ferrante passed away last November >> and um Representative Ferrante served uh the people of Massachusetts in the Cape area. I think it was for close to 20 years, two decades. And she was a founding member of the GPAC committee. She was born in Gloucester. She attended Tus University in Suffach Law School, so a real Massachusetts star. And um she actually started her career in service directly out of college. Um I looked it up. She was a legislative aid for Senator Bruce Tar starting in the mid 1990s. And so then she went on to serve the fifth ethsics district in the legislature being elected in 2008. She was chair of the house ways and uh vice chair of the house ways of means committee and sat on the house committee for post audit and oversight. So really a model and a role model for those of us who choose to work in public service. And I want to remember and thank um the representative for her service to us and remember her today. Is there anybody else on the group here who needed to or wanted to say anything for Representative Ferrante? All right. Terrific. Um we'll move forward. Um, I should mention I see on the screen we have Commissioner MGC Commissioner Skinner. Um, I I think I Yeah, there we go. Terrific. >> I'll just say a quick hello to everyone. Good to see you all. >> Thank you for joining us, Commissioner Skinner. And um I'm sure as director Vanderelin will will attest to, Commissioner Skinner is a thoughtful leader here at the commission, particularly when it comes to the research agenda. And so I appreciate her giving us her time today to hear Mark's presentation. >> You're too kind, Dean. Thank you. And um I should point out in case anybody on the committee here hasn't uh followed along um so we are joined by uh chair of the gaming commission Jordan Maynard a member of the GPAC and uh if if it if it hadn't been known uh chair Maynard was reappointed last month to his uh second term on the commission and then he was also reddesated at that time as chair of the commission. So that's his role. Uh Governor Healey made that appointment last month. Uh we're lucky of course to have Chair Mard leading the organization and I appreciate him being with us today to share his thoughts. Um Mr. Chair, before we get started, do you have anything you want? Any comments you want to share with the group? >> No, I just want to um thank you. That's a you are too kind, Dean. As uh as Commissioner Skinner just said, um just uh thank everybody for being here. This is important work. I think the work you're going to hear outlined today um shows that we are the thought leaders um in responsible gaming and research and uh policy in the United States. We recently were uh Spectrum Gaming pointed out that we operated as one of the best jurisdictions in the world when it comes to advertisements, for example. And so, uh, we're really proud of what we're doing and we're proud about what the next frontiers are and we look forward, um, to hearing, uh, your thoughts as we, um, continue to develop and in large part while we're here is because of of the work of this group. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Commissioner Skinner, did you have anything else that you wanted to add to the group before we move forward? >> Great. All right. Um, I should just say before we turn it over to Mark, you know, so this is my I guess this is my third chief ACT meeting. um beginning I just finished the second year here as uh executive director at the gaming commission and um I continue to be a impressed with the individuals that I work with here and their command of the material, the knowledge, their passion for making us one one of if not the leading jurisdiction in the country and in some cases in the world in the area of regulating this important industry and balancing the opportunity for economic development with um fair play fairness for our patrons. Uh but I've very much enjoyed working with people here, meeting the people here, and um I feel like I've I've fit in pretty well at this point. So I can say now that I feel like I belong and and I enjoy the challenges that come with each day but also in mastering the information. And so um that's my update for 2026. Uh so let's see our purpose today is to hear about the research or the the uh proposed research agenda for FY27. Um, I guess I need to remind everybody that our governing statute, chapter 23K of the Expanded Gaming Act, section 68, designates that our body, meaning the GPAC, discusses matter of gaming policy, advises, and makes recommendations. And so today we'll hear from Mark Vander Lindon, the director of research and responsible gaming at the commission regarding the potential research agenda for FY27. And as a committee, I encourage everyone on the line um to offer insight and input in in regard to what Mark has to brief us about today. And then that input provided here will be brought back to the full commissioners uh for their consideration uh as Mark puts his final recommendation together for the research agenda. Um with that being said, any questions before I turn it over to Mark for his presentation? >> All right, no questions. Great. Um Go ahead, Mark. Good afternoon um everybody. Thank you uh chair Serpa or executive director Sarapa as I know know you. Um so yes uh we are here today to talk about the proposed FY27 gaming research agenda. Um I will be uh egg teaming this with Dr. Bonnie Andrews who is the deputy director the division of research and responsible gaming at the the gaming commission. Just so kind of a general order of how we're going to approach this. Um we wanted to provide you with just a little bit of background. Um Bonnie will um describe some of the ongoing research that we have at the commission. Um and then I will launch into a description of what a proposed FY27 research agenda looks like. Um we welcome any and all feedback. um as we then move towards uh sharing that with a full commission um at a upcoming meeting. So with that um by way of background, it's with the advice of you all the gaming policy advisory committee that the gaming commission is carrying out an annual research agenda that comprehensively assesses the impacts of gambling in Massachusetts. And it's specifically chapter 23K section 71 or the expanded gaming act directs the research agenda to examine the social and economic effects of expanded gaming and to obtain scientific information relative to neuroscience, psychology, sociology, epidemiology, and ideology of gambling. Chapter 23N section 23 which is the act that regulates sports wagering extends the scope of this research to include the effects of sports wagering in the Commonwealth. So over the past several years as this research agenda has evolved, we've organized it into um into specific categories and the description full description of these categories is included in the the memo in your packet. So I won't go into great detail but it is important to understand that we organize it into economic impact research, social impact research, community engaged research, public safety, responsible gaming evaluation, uh gaming impact cohort, and finally data sharing. Um so I'm going to turn it now over to Dr. Bonnie Andrews um to talk to us a little bit about the ongoing and upcoming research um underway right now. So Bonnie. >> All right. Thank you, Mark. Um and good afternoon. Um it's wonderful to be here today to present the proposed FY27 research agenda. Um, and as Mark was saying, the proposed FY27 research agenda is taking place in the context of several research projects approved by the commission which are currently either underway or upcoming. Um, and these projects are from previous year's commission approved research agendas. And I'm going to do a very brief overview of this um, currently ongoing andor upcoming research um, just to give the context in which this year's research agenda will be taking place. Um and I'll be giving an overview of research in each category um that Mark just went over and the categories are also um described in the memo. Um so the first category is social and economic research. Um and the commission's contracted with Boston University School of Public Health um to conduct a multi-year social and economic research agenda with six overarching aims. Um so there's three social aims and three economic aims. And when Mark presents later, he's going to go into each of the aims in more detail as he reviews this year's proposed um research in FY27. Um an additional social social research that's being conducted aside from the um these BEu research projects includes three studies. Um the first is a study of student athletes conducted by UMass Ammerst and it addresses at risk gambling behaviors among college students involved in university sponsored club sports. Um the next one is going to be an upcoming study and that's a study of conversion of gaming to gambling. Um this project is going to be focusing on the conversion of gaming to gambling and um including social casinos, video gaming, loot boxes, tournaments, um free play games, um tactics used by gaming companies and any association with use of prediction markets or underage access to sports wagering platforms. And this stud is going to have a particular focus on impacts on youth and young adults under 20. Um as well as impacts on problem gambling. Um and the last project in terms of social research is a brief on VIP programs. Um and this brief carried out by Grio is focused on um VIP programs including structures and operational models of these programs um as well as impacts on player behavior and risk and implications for at risk and vulnerable populations. Um the next category is public safety research and ongoing and upcoming public safety research will include um a study assessing the influence of casinos and casino resorts on sex trafficking in the Commonwealth. Um as well as a study of gambling on the gray and illegal markets. Um the next category is community-gaged research. Um and the current community engaged research um involves four studies. Um the first one is youth perspectives on the legalization of sports wagering. Um this project's objective is to understand community perspectives on the social and public health impacts of legalized sports betting in Massachusetts. Um and NORC at the University of Chicago um is engaging a community advisory board to examine the legalization of sports betting in Massachusetts and its impact on young adults ages 18 to 25. Um the next study is a study of impact on paid media um impact of paid media on awareness and participation of sports betting among college students. Um and this study is being conducted um by Suffach University and focuses on the social health and educational impacts of the introduction of legal sports wagering on higher education students in Massachusetts particularly regarding their exposure to and participation in sports betting through paid media advertising. Um the next study is called Gambling on addiction recovery um community perspectives on the impact of legalized gambling in Massachusetts. And this project um is being conducted by Texas Tech University and aims to understand the impact of legalized gaming and sports um legalized gambling and sports betting on addiction recovery communities in Massachusetts. Um and the last community-engaged research study um ongoing is um a study in gambling in veterans. And this community-engaged research project is being conducted by technical ascent and examines how gambling affects veterans from diverse backgrounds across Massachusetts um as well as identifying strategies to support them and build research capacity in veteran serving communities. Um the last category is evaluation of responsible gaming initiatives and ongoing and upcoming studies include an evaluation of the voluntary self-exclusion program. Um and also a study of improving the uptake of play management tools on sports wagering apps. Um so again that was a very brief overview of the research context in which the FY27 research agenda is taking place. Um, and now I'm going to turn it back over to um, Mark Vanderlandon to give an overview of the proposed FY27 research agenda. Great. Thank you so much, Bonnie. Is there any questions before I launch into what we're proposing in FY27? It's a lot. I I don't have any questions um Mark, but I will just for everyone's gratification, this has been brought to the commission and the commission has really been thinking about these issues and how how they're moving forward. And for example, I can tell you that the VIP program came as a direct result of what we're seeing both nationally and locally when we're hearing from patrons and the fact that we want to find out if there's an opportunity for us to regulate that space better so that people are taken care of. And so, um, there's several items on there that the commission's already looked at. And I just want to make make clear that we're not, you know, this isn't we're not bringing this to you guys without having having at least thought about a lot of these issues and and how they fit into what we do on our day-to-day uh, operation. >> Thank you, chair. Um, this is a favorite part. This is like my favorite part of the year and thinking about where can this research potentially go um and what hasn't been explored and what could benefit uh the commonwealth and how we understand how gaming gaming and gambling is carried out in in the commonwealth. Um and so um I will run through this proposed research agenda for you and then the other exciting part of this is trying to understand from various perspectives all the seats that you sit in what are the areas that you think that the gaming commission should be considering so that we can then hopefully successfully bring that forward forward to the commission and represent your thoughts. So, with that, um, I'm looking at page five of of your packet. Um, and there is a a chart that goes on for a few pages called the proposed FY27 gaming research agenda. Um, we do our best to try to organize this in a succinct way um that calls out what the task or deliverable is, what the statutory or practical significance is, and where possible actually citing whether it's 23K or 20 uh uh 23N um sports wagering or uh expanded gaming act um where we are tying tying that to. So um I uh I will go ahead and and uh start walking us down that path. So the FI27 research agenda as proposed would be an estimated $2.77 million. Um this actually is an increase um over last year. And as I walk through this proposed agenda, I'll point out sort of a few of the the key drivers that u mark the increase here. Um so again as I talked about earlier the way that we organize our research agenda um into different categories. I'm first going to start off with social and economic research. And as um Bonnie pointed out um the main uh um institution that's carrying this out is Boston University. So the first several deliverables or tasks that are outlined um are actually coming out of uh uh Boston University. So um the first two deliverables relate to aim one as Dr. Andrews pointed out of the BEu project, which is a state representative survey of Massachusetts residents to assess gambling attitudes, uh, gambling behavior, problem gambling in the Commonwealth, and how these attitudes and behaviors have changed over time. It builds on pre previous MGC funded topics, but will also add to it such areas as sports wagering and AI. There's two deliverables that will come out of this. The first is a technical brief that will include documentation of the survey instrument, sampling design, waiting procedures, response weight, and data quality metrics. The more interesting one um will be a brief on key survey findings, which is uh a summary of key population survey findings designed for public facing communications. The next deliverable relates to aim three of the BEu project that will measure gambling advertising exposure and assess its effect on problem gambling behavior. The BEu team developed what's called the gambling advertising media exposure index or game index that will analyze media radar data um which is a specific data set that they have subscribed to and combine that with the um AIM one which is the uh general population survey. the um in FY27, we anticipate an inaugural report of the game index documenting volume of channels, seasonal patterns of gambling advertising in Massachusetts, as well as a first look at how that relates to um to the general population survey. The next deliverable relates to aim four of the BEu research project which provides surveillance of economic outcomes related to casino and sports wagering building again on previously previous previous research. It involves tracking trends in employment income spending and other measures over time. Differences in um geographic area will be assessed including by city and county and for casino host and surrounding communities. Key economic measures over time will be estimated such as casino employment as a share of the local economy, wage differences between casino and regional sectors and the proportion of spending on gambling relative to the total discretionary expenditures. So there there will be an annual performance brief will be produced which includes baseline and historical patterns of data provided by operators and public casino operators and publicly available data sets. Moving moving on down the line there are two deliverables. Uh the next two relate to aim five of the BEu research project which addresses the question of how have casinos shape the local and state economy and this will assess multiple input in inputs including county level labor markets sector specific employment trends and municipal finances. The deliverable for this will be a technical report including the longitudinal economic data sets for host and comparison communities um employment figures, wage data, commercial real estate indicators and municipal revenue and expenditure records. The second uh deliverable under this specific aim is an employment and wage brief which is a descriptive analysis of county level employment wage trends in host and uh neighboring communities in the years before and after casinos. Again, all relating back to this question of how have casinos shaped the local economy in Massachusetts, which um is is certainly one of the question key questions that um relates back to the the original formation of why there's a research agenda that's in place. The final two um deliverables um I had to choose two that I'm most excited about are these wii which uh relate to aim six of the BEu project um examining the association of sports wagering with financial well-being and social needs using the state representative sample as described in as in aim one. The two deliverables this year are one a financial well-being and gambling and gambling brief which is an analysis of the association of gambling behavior and financial well-being um indicators among Massachusetts residents using population survey data. The second is a social determinance of determinance of health analysis brief which is an exploratory analysis of the relationship between gambling involvement and social determinance of health including housing stability, food uh security, employment status and access to health care. Now those are what is what BEu has sort of on the docket for the next fiscal year. There was one aim aim two that I did not uh address only because there isn't a deliverable in the next year. Um but there's certainly a lot of activity that will be associated with that. Um which is a large-scale survey of college and university students. Um data will be collected through the annual healthy minds study to assess gambling behaviors and attitudes among this uh this specific group. The survey data will be used to understand the distribution of gambling behaviors and attitudes within the college student population. Um, newly added items on sports wagering and problem gambling will be examined as key predictors of social outcomes such as depression, anxiety, loneliness, academic performance and intention to persist to graduation. This is a huge study. Um even before we uh the gaming commission provided funding to BEu, it already involved 750 colleges around the country. Um last year there were eight um Massachusetts colleges and universities. There's currently nine and potentially more being added. That includes 950,000 uh students across the country. um the number of questions that be because of funding that um is provided to BEu the number of questions related to gambling has moved from three questions to 16 questions um and we're really fortunate there's three principal investigators one at UCLA one at University of Michigan and at Boston University we have Dr. Sarah Libson. So, um those are uh all of the deliverables that we are expecting from um from Boston University. There are a few additional um social uh deliverables that the commission is proposing and we certainly again welcome your feedback on this. The first is a study um exploring the relationship between gambling and suicide. Obviously an important issue um that has received a fair amount of attention in the past. There is a body of evidence, but we um are proposing a study that would look specifically at this issue in Massachusetts. The second is continue. We propose that we continue to support the Springfield Youth Surveys. Um in the past we provided funding to um the it Western Massachusetts Public Health Institute. For some reason, I'm drawing a blank on the the full name. I'm sorry, Victor. I'm sure you know. Um the intention is to continue to provide support for gambling related questions and the uh Springfield Youth Health Surveys. Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts. That's what it is. Just came to me. Um, so that winds up the proposed social and economic research. Moving on down the line into the next general category of research, which is a cohort study. So between 2014 and 2019, the gaming commission um provided funding to UMass Amherst to carry out what was called Magic, the Massachusetts Gambling Impact Cohort, provided incredibly valuable information on gambling behavior amongst a cohort of people over the course of time to understand how how gambling and especially problem gambling progresses um how and how it remits over time. Um what we're proposing and this is a one of the main drivers in the increase of of um funding um that is being requested is a cohort study specifically looking at young adults. Um the next category of research is public safety research. Um and Dr. Andrews spoke a little bit about um the safe exit initiative study looking at the connection or linkage between uh casino gambling and sex trafficking in Massachusetts. And so this project is an ongoing project and we're proposing that we continue to provide funding for this specific initiative. Um the next is community engaged research. Um we have we will be wrapping up a couple uh community engaged research projects and there are two that are will be ongoing and the first is of those is the gambling the project that includes gambling on addiction recovery um community perspectives on the impact of legalized gambling um and that's being carried out by Texas Tech University and the second um is we're working with a group called technical ascent on the project that explores gambling and the veteran community. Um in addition to supporting those two two um ongoing community engaged research projects, the commission is proposing um that we fund two additional um community engaged research projects. And again, the purpose of those community-gaged research projects is to um more deeply understand and address the impact of gambling um in Massachusetts communities. And specific the specific research topic, the specific research question isn't directed by um the GPAC or the gaming commission. It's it's determined by through a community uh process to determine what what is explored. Um the next broad category of research is sports wagering research. Um and we are proposing a study of underage access to sports wagering platforms and in addition to that determining what are the best practices for prevention. Um the next broad category is data sharing. Um and so we are proposing that we maintain the existing data sets in mode or as we call it mode it's the Massachusetts open data exchange and add additional data sets as they become available. In addition and this would be the the another driver and the increase of this budget would be the procurement of research using the player player data u player data from casinos. And so the FY27 research agenda would support one specific project using the anonymized casino player data um player data. This is a project actually that is just winding up um where all casinos are providing anonymized player data. It will be linked and we're working with the UMass Donal Institute to store and make that available broadly for research purposes. Um the next broad category is responsible gaming evaluation. Um last year we wrapped up a project with uh the UNLV International Gaming Institute. Um they uh produced a report titled AI and player risk identification and response. Um the study um provided some really interesting insight on how AI is being used within the gaming industry. Um included in that was a catalog of behavioral risk indicators. Um it also included what's what is called the bridge project or the behavioral risk um indicator database and gambling evidence. So that's a living database um of evidence that um can be easily used by the gaming commission, other regulators, industry stakeholders. And our proposal is that we provide ongoing support for this bridge database recognizing this quickly evolving the quickly evolving nature of AI and specifically AI as it relates to responsible gaming. Um just two more here. The next one is the research review. The gaming commission um has for a number of years used external re uh research experts in order to help us um kind of where needed. They primarily review any research project that that uh comes to us as a draft, provides feedback on it so that before it ever reaches you, reaches the commission, you can assure that it's essentially gone through a peerre process. Um the last one is knowledge translation and exchange. Um, we're proposing that in FY27, funding be directed towards the ongoing work of Grio as we seek to finalize and mobilize the revised responsible gaming framework. Um, so that's the uh agenda that was proposed to the gaming commission on April 9th. Now, there's a few things that have happened since April 9th that I think are important um to bring to this committee for you to understand. Um on April 9th, uh Dr. Andrews and I sought the advice of the gaming commission and there were a few items that came from that. And so recommendations from that meeting included adding an equity audit about responsible gaming and responsible gambling advertising as recommended by an MGC funded report a few years back called the Asian Cares Research Report. The commissioners noted the importance of youth focused research as well um as an interest in examining co-orbidities that may lead or contribute to gambling in order to inform appropriate development of services. Um the next uh so there were two two recommendations that came specifically from the commission and then um on May 4th we held a gaming research advisory committee. Now this um sounds similar to GPAC but it's it's a it's not a statutory body. uh uh basically um individuals who are interested in the research of the gaming commission um and have been over some time uh we meet on an occasional basis and they we shared with them what the proposed research um program was and sought their advice and they certainly had a fair amount of that. So the the next several items come specifically from the gaming research advisory committee and this uh the first was enhanced knowledge um dissemination and communication among researchers and stakeholders um including reconvening an annual conference in Massachusetts. The second was an examination of the effects of sports gambling on student athletes with the aim of informing policy and awareness and prevention of gambling related pressures. Um, another member recommended a survey of school principles and athletic directors in Massachusetts regarding their awareness of student engagement in gambling and in sports books. And the next was a study of the social benefits of gambling beyond participation in landbased and online gambling. Um the next would include an equity reflection in each major research brief outlining relevant equity limitations, the potential impact on interpretation of findings and community informed prevention and harm reduction implications. Um those were all included in your packet. There were we actually left left it as an open question and since we released um this memo to you, we had three additional recommendations from GRACK members come in. The first is a study that specifically focuses on the neurobiology of gambling. The second is a study of older adults and online gambling. And finally, a study of young adults. Um, we have a couple studies that focus on college and university students, but this uh the recommendation was a study that specifically focused on young adults that have not engaged or or are not attending college. All right. Um, that is the extent of it. Um in um thank you for your patience and attention to this. Um we covered a lot of ground. Um and I think Chair Serpa, I would turn it back to you to kind of lead the next section of this, I guess. >> Yes. Thank you, Mark. Wow. As usual, Mark, you've laid out an aggressive agenda of material for us to contemplate, but it's always well thought out, and I appreciate that. And so, let's start with our members right here. Are there folks who have feedback about Mark's recommendations, recommended projects, or other information that you wanted to ask about? Thank you, J. I'll I'll go if nobody else will. Um, go ahead. >> Um, I think I'm a bit of a um definitely brought this up before, but uh I gaming. It just feels like um you know, a potential wrecking ball. I don't know if it would fall into the economic and wage brief bucket. Um but just you know we we have data from other states. It's obviously devastated employment in those states that have approved it. Um is there something statutoily that we can't we can't look at I gaming here or the potential of I gaming? Well, I think we we can and have Mark, are we um isn't that on our is that update upcoming? >> Yes. Remind. >> Yeah. Um so it actually was a a study looking at the potential social impacts of I gaming was part of the annual research agenda in FY25. That report is complete and is set to be uh shared with a commission on um May 21st. Um that is a so and uh Jamie you that is a social look at potential social impacts there. your question seemed like it had more to do with sort of what are the potential economic impacts of of introducing I gaming and um I think that is also a really important question. Um, at the time that the the commission was looking at what are the potential impacts of eye gaming, there was just released a report in Indiana um that had done a pretty comprehensive review of what was what the potential um economic impacts be. Um, so we have not taken a look at that. So I I hear what you're saying there and I'm happy to also share with you the uh that Indiana Thank you. >> Can Can I Can I say just can we make sure Jamie has a link to that meeting? And um Jamie, we had we had Dr. uh Judith Glenn do that. She's like the Elvis Presley of research. She's awesome. And I think she's going to come do the um I think she's actually going to speak directly to us right on the commission via Zoom. and um you know she's not shy about like answering questions and what she knows and and so if there's you know anything you want us to pose too I'm sure we can we can throw that out there again understanding our job is not to create the legislation right uh our job is to inform the legislators so um but uh you I think you'll be really interested in what Dr. Glenn has to say. >> Thank you, chair. Other comments or questions? Uh, Victor or Paul, Caitlyn? >> No, no questions. Thank you, Chair. >> Sure. I you know I probably probably should have said it earlier but I should reiterate at this point that um the commission in the Commonwealth as evidenced by Mark's presentation every year the commission in the Commonwealth each year continues to benefit and we've been fortunate to be able to engage in this robust body of research each year and of course that was largely due to the foresight and wisdom of the members of the legislature who created the original legislation in the administration at that time that uh put those requirements into the statute. You know, by recognizing the value of uh continued and funded in-depth research, the legislature provided the commission with what's become a key tool for our success. And I think we we uh realize the benefit of it, you know, every day here uh when we work daytoday because we're constantly making our policy based on um well thought and and well well thought out and well researched material. Uh I think that's one of the main reasons we've turned into a leading jurisdiction um across the nation. So, I probably should have mentioned that at the beginning. And we have our representatives on the call with us today. So, I just wanted to mention that. Um, let's see. So, Mark, thank you very much for that. Anything else that's come up that people wanted to ask about or any other comments people want to make before we move forward? Okay. Um, well, I I guess I should check to see. I don't know. Do any of our committee members have updates that they want to share with the rest of the committee? >> Hey, no, we don't. >> Uh, chair Dean Serpa, Paul Pinelli. >> Yes. Go ahead. Um, I'm just trying to get back uh, you know, to the whole issue related to the community mitigation funds and how this committee is going to address uh, those uh, funds, you know, um, going forward. I know there's been some recent changes as it relates to the community mitigation funds and how that they are going to be spent in what areas. So, I didn't know what this commission was scheduled to um review going forward. >> Well, I can give a a a small update on the community mitigation fund. It is a program that some committee members will probably remember that we administer uh through the commission through a a different department here at the commission. There's been some changes made to the program uh in the past two fiscal years where the funding um was decreased. We've uh met with stakeholders frequently both in the communities and up at the state house to make sure they understood what we have been doing in the past with the community mitigation funds, what type of projects they funded. You know, of course, it's not our it's not our role to determine how much or or to what extent there should be a program, but we certainly do feel we've done great good with it in the past uh eight or nine fiscal years. It is uh contemplated in both the House and Senate version of the budget for FY27. and Paul, we could talk uh separately about, you know, the right type of people that we can communicate with as the budget process goes through. I know Chair Maynard has regular communications with individuals up the hill about the program and what we should do. And I believe um I believe the well I don't I don't want to put thoughts in in the legislaturator's head, but I I feel like uh the fund will the fund is in a decent position at this moment in time. >> Okay. >> I know Chair Mayard, if you had anything you wanted to add. just that it's in the House version, it's in a version of the Senate, and it was in the governor's version. That's all I'll say. So, it's it's landed in all three versions in some way, shape, or form. Mr. McD, >> and you know, we >> Okay, >> each of those versions is a deviation from the the fund at its at its peak. Um, but you know, we're going to have to make some choices about which projects are the ones that we target moving forward. But I think there'll be room for for the type of project and particularly in the host communities um you know that rise rise to the um importance of what the community mitigation fund was originally intended for particularly in the host communities that are um recognizing the impact or uh uh of having those facilities in the in their city and town. >> Okay. So, would this be something that this committee would be making recommendations on to the uh gaming commission and then having the gaming commission send it to the legislature? Is that >> a role that the GPAC uh performs? Mark, you could correct me if I'm wrong. And there may be a subcommittee I should look into if there's a second subcommittee of the organization that makes recommendations on the community mitigation fund, but I don't believe it to be the GPAC. >> Okay. >> So, I'll look into that, Paul, and I'll I'll let you know for sure how we can do that. >> There is a fine subcommittee of the GPAC Okay. >> We'll always take feedback, Paul. That's you know what the pipeline is. We'll we'll figure out and Dean will get back to you. But we will always take your feedback on on either structurally, you know, how you know how we're approaching it or or project by project even. We're happy to take feedback. >> All right. Terrific. Thank you. Yeah, I'll look into that and I'll connect with you separately. Paul, >> thank you. >> Other questions or comments? >> Chair Sera? >> Y >> um just like with uh I'm sorry. Um I just wanted to say thank you to this group to you um for the opportunity to to share this and get feedback. Well, thank you for saying that, Mark. And, you know, we continue to to want to support you and the work that your team does with Dr. Bonnie Kayla who's joined us for her first call as newest member of our research team. Thank you three for your work. Um, all right. That being said, I unless anybody has anything they wanted to add at the moment, I want to thank everybody for taking just just about maybe just over an hour out of your day dedicating it to our activity. Certainly feel free to contact me at any point in time with additional follow-up questions or if you have information that that you heard from Mark today that you want more information on, please get a hold of me or Mark and we'll make sure we get you more information, additional information. And if there's no further comments, Paul, did you have a question? >> No. Okay, good. So, do we have a motion to adjure? >> Make a motion. >> We have a second. >> Second. >> And I guess I'll do the roll. Chair Mayard. >> Hi, >> Victor. I >> I believe we lost Commissioner Harris >> Pauli. >> Hi. >> And Jamie. >> Hi. >> Kaitlin. >> Hi. >> And I vote yes. So I believe that gives us seven votes. >> Okay. Thank you very much everyone. >> Thank you Dean. >> Thank you everyone. Have a great day. >> Great to see you all.