MGC Public Hearing - May 1, 2025

Love being here. Love being here in Planeville. And before we started, uh I was um talking to a few of you. I I uh in my old job used to come here in 2018 and went to town hall and a little bit different than this one. Such a beautiful facility and I love being here. With that, we're going to go ahead and start the hearing today. Today is Thursday, May 1st, 2025. Um, this is a public meeting of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. We have only one item on our agenda for today and that is to offer an opportunity to interested part members of the public to share comments with us relative to the renewal of the category 2 gaming license held by uh, Plainville Gaming and Redevelopment LLC doing business as Plain Ridge Park Casino. I will refer to the license holder as Plain Ridge Park Casino or let's be honest, I'm going to call you PPC. This is a supplemental meeting to a forthcoming adjudicatory hearing that the commission will hold on May 14th, 2025. I'm Jordan Maynard. I serve as the chair of the commission. And since this is a public meeting, I will now take a roll roll call to ensure that all the commissioners are present. Commissioner O'Brien, I am here. Commissioner uh Skinner uh was unavailable today, but she will review uh the recording and uh will be participating. Uh Commissioner Hill here and Commissioner Broer here. All right. This public hearing is intended to provide the commission with the opportunity to obtain public input regarding the renewal of the category 2 gaming license currently held by PPC. PPC's license is subject to renewal after every 5 years of operation. This would be PPC's second renewal after its first renewal which was approved in 2020. That was a whole different world, wasn't it? This meeting will mostly be a listening session for me and my fellow commissioners. No votes will be taken. No decisions will be made at this hearing. It's simply a chance for me and my fellow commissioners to gather information and gauge public sentiment related to the renewal of the application. Before we begin taking public comments, I would like to lay out the process and establish the ground rules we will follow. This meeting is intended to afford an opportunity to offer input and comment on PPC's renewal. Momentarily, we will open the floor to public comments. To make the best use of all of our time, we ask that any member of the public proceed as follows in addressing the commission. First, if you pre-register to speak at this meeting, your name has already been added to the speaker list. I will begin calling names from that list. If there is time remaining, after we have heard from all the pre-registered individuals, we will open the floor to comments from any other individual who's interested in offering comment. Second, when I call your name, please state your name and tell us where you are from or who you are affiliated with. Third, to ensure that everyone who wants to speak gets an opportunity to do so, we will limit individual comments to 3 minutes. Comments must also be relevant to the subject at hand. Plainidge Park Casino's lure. If your comments exceed 3 minutes or are off topic, we will ask you to seed your time to other members of the public that are present. Fourth, this is not an opportunity for members of the public to ask questions of PPC. If you have questions, please address them to the commission and we will determine how to proceed from there. Of course, any commissioner may ask any question of any commenter at any time. In some we wish to thank you in advance for taking the time um and being with us. Do any of my colleagues have any additional remarks or any questions before we begin? No. other than to say I was part of 2020 and you are right this is very very this is lovely happy to be part it's nice to be here all right let's begin um with uh PPC I believe that North will be leading a short PowerPoint presentation Miss Grouseel thanking uh thank you commissioner Maynard and other members of the commission so I'm joined here today by uh with my executive team. We're going to share just a little bit of the um progress that we've made over the last 5 years since our last relicicensing hearing. I want to start by just saying we understand that licensing within the Commonwealth is a privilege and not a right. Um and that a lot of trust has been placed in us. Um and we are always acting in a way uh we hope shows that we are worthy of the trust you placed in us. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to Heidi Yatesaba. She's our VP of finance. She's going to take you through through some of the numbers and then she'll pass off to the rest of the team and I'll close up. Heidi, thank you. So, just to start with, uh, this is just a look back of some of the property updates that have happened over the course of the last 5 years. Of course, 2020, as Commissioner O'Brien alluded to, was uh, she was here um, when we did this during COVID. That was our COVID year. It was also our recovery year. And then we went on to do some fun things like the new digital signage that we have out front, the rebrand from uh My Choice to Penplay. In 2023 was a big year for us in bringing on the sports book as well as replacing the carpet. There are several people in this room that would say that was their most favorite project. Uh and then uh also in 2024, right at the beginning is when we did the re uh model of our uh food court, including Wallburgers, and then we did some big uh improvements on our paddic. Next slide. I'm also pleased to present to you a 5-year financial lookback. Uh during which time we uh generated 338 million in tax revenue for the Commonwealth, 276 million in slot tax revenue, 62 million in racing. We'll touch a bit on the racing piece uh and and how that operation has benefited from that tax revenue. Uh and then 800,000 in retail sports wagering tax revenue uh for the Commonwealth. We've spent 25 million in capital improvements, which is uh some of those fund projects that we just talked about. The biggest ones being um the space formerly known as Fluty's remodeling that into what is now our ESPN vet. And uh it includes the sports wagering piece uh in that venue. Uh the remodel of the um food court and then the casino carpet and the the paddic improvements are a big piece of that 25 million. Uh we've contributed over 56 million to charities. We've honored our host community agreement to the town of Planeville uh to the tune of 11 million uh as well as uh our host and surrounding community agreements uh with a spend of 1.1 million. Uh we have met or exceeded our diversity spend goals over the course of this time and uh surpassed the total goal for us which is 21% annually but I've I've put them all together in a a five-year look back for you where we have uh hit that at 25%. Uh the uh women's spend we met at we met at 12% that is our goal. We've surpassed the minority spend at 7% that goal is 6% and the veteran spend which is at 5% and the goal is 3%. So that is a financial piece look back on the 5-year and I just wanted to really touch really quickly on some um lifetime data. Um we are the first lency in the state of Massachusetts which we're really uh proud to be and proud to uh also say you know we've generated over the course of that lifetime 696 million total in tax revenue for the state of Massachusetts uh 568 million of that was in slot revenue slot tax revenue 128 million in racing uh 32 million in capital improvements we've done uh we've contributed a million35,000 in uh charities and our host community fee the lifetime is 23.1 million. Uh and our host and surrounding community agreements is 3.1 million lifetime. Okay. And then over the course of that time, we've uh raced 5,119 races in our racing operation and honoring our agreement with the horsemen. Raced 52 days that has generated 77 million uh total payout in purses and just shy of 77.7 billion in lighle. And I will turn this over to Joe. Hello everyone. My name is Joseph Hunzel. I'm the vice president of operations at Planebridgeidge. Um so just going to take a quick look back at what we did for on the gaming floor. So um we've uh gone through and reimagined our floor. Uh brought in a lot of new product. Did a really big reinvestment across the floor with the different gaming product. Uh we've been able to bring in uh sports book and and sports batting also. Uh and then uh we enhanced our gaming experience. Uh, one of the things we did have from CO was we had all those plastic dividers. We've been able to get rid of those and actually um get all those off the floor, bring everybody back together and, you know, make it a much better gaming experience for our people on the floor. Um, we've had some uh collaborative efforts. We work very well with GameSense. Uh, they are part of our team out there. Uh, and just, you know, make sure we're doing responsible gaming for everybody else. That's all I have. I'm going to bring it off to Kathy now. Thanks, John. Good morning. Had to check the time. I'm Kathy Lucas with Plidge Park Casino BPS HR and I'm just going to take a look back at what we've done over the last 5 years and in probably just ongoing from the employment side with our team members and our staff. So, um just in reporting out on a quarterly basis, you know that we have exceeded our diversity and veterans goals. Um over those years we have worked aggressively hard to make sure that we meet the goals for our women and our our local hires and uh we're we're getting back to our numbers prior to co which we're really proud about. Uh 62% of our employees are um Massachusetts residents and then uh 63% of our employees are full-time. when we talk about you know those team members and what talent can we offer them in regards to their career and developing them we have so many great programs uh that we have utilized to to help folks so uh LEAP which is our leadership excellence at Penn um it's a program that we allow uh college students who are interested in going into a hospitality or gaming career right now we have two participants that are returning for their second year in the program and then we've have seven graduates. Uh PEN women led by Heidi over the last two years um is a program that we have for our management team or our um salary salary team women team members that are women to be able to develop their skills to uh get to that next level whether it's management um director positions or even executive at the VP level. uh we have 18 participants currently and we have 20 graduates um over the last three to four years. We have a program which celebrates aces of Penn. So these are team members who go above and beyond. Um they provide innovation to us. They work in the community. We recognize them as the best of the best and we have had 18 winners of this prestigious award which allows them to have um compensation which is a dollar amount of $1,000 and then they they also get the opportunity to be cited as best of the best at the property. We have put 138 of our managers through diversity um inclusion and equity and belonging training. Uh we have 16 team members who are emerging leaders. So those team members have been designated by their managers as um individuals that have the opportunity to grow with us at the property. We're with Penn. We have had eight interns come through in the various departments including IT, uh culinary, uh HR, finance, and marketing. We have three team members who are in a culinary apprentice program. So learn culinary skills to be executive chefs or sue chefs. And then we currently launched a program within this last year which is a management leadership program. It's taking a manager who is in one department and allowing them to cross trainin in another department that's completely not um aligned to the skills that they currently have to allow them the opportunity to grow and get more experience. uh we have a team member that's doing this kind of shadowing work um with marketing came out of food and beverages going into marketing and we have a team member that's in HR that's doing this in security. So our our investment in talent is uh probably one of the most important things for me on the HR side. I think of the other things that uh embody our team members to stay with us are the benefits. So, we have spent $165 on our scholarship fund. Our scholarship fund does not go to the current team members. It goes to their children. So, they're eligible to apply for a scholarship to help their children with buying down the cost of them going to school. So, within the last two years, we've paid out 100, no, I'm sorry, three years, we've paid out 165,000 for that. We have a program that's called PPC CARES that allows us to bring in donations to help our team members in their times of crisis. Um we spent $35,000 on that. We had 11 team members that we did pay tuition reimbursement for and that was $50,000 in this time period. We have 14 of our team members that are going through ESOL to help them with their language skills to allow them to continue to grow with the organization. We just launched uh a um a program that will help our team members with their finances and that's Dave Ramsey's smart dollar program. It'll help them with saving and investments um again outside of the organization for their home. And then we are very proud to say that all of our team members are eligible for benefits on day one. there is no waiting period when they start if they're enrolling in our benefits because they're not on you know the state or not on their uh spouses or family benefits. Um day one if it start for them and the last two things that I want to share um when our team members do well the property does well and when the property does well we're able to give back to the team members by insensing them and then paying them off for for bonuses. So they get we spent $125,000 on providing bonuses to our hourly team members who are on the floor actively engaged with our guest making the experience at Plane Ridge awesome. So very proud of that 125 but even 174,000 we spent on acknowledgement of their good and welfare by the manager. So, we have another program which allows us to recognize our talent when they're doing things that go above and beyond their their actual job description. And within that time period, we spent about $174,000 rewarding our team members. So, really excited about that. I think the next slide is you turn it over to Stephen. Thank you. Good morning. Steven Bradford, VP of marketing. uh excited to talk about our uh contributions to uh the local charities. So, we've supported over 50 charities and communities um both hosting and sponsoring uh events and causes. Some highlights we have some folks here uh include Habitat for Humanity, Lenor's Pantry, uh North Attabaro, Planeville Rotary Club, and then Planeville Lions Club. And then we we do have one coming up, one of our favorites the end of this month, Rolling Thunder, which benefits PS and MIA. We also host uh seasonal guest and staff events uh that include uh uh donations for pet supplies, toys during the holidays and then back to school. Uh next slide, please. So 2020 2021 uh we focused on ensuring that uh we provided offerings that were both safe and healthy. We offered drive up wagering. Uh we hosted outdoor events and movies on the patio. We continued our partnership with uh Fenway Concert Series in TBC Boston. We grew our partnership with Gillette uh offering an excitement option for our guests to to view sport and events concerts. And then we also leveraged our penplay database uh to bring in new guests from our sister properties at Missouri, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Maine. And then in 2023, Heidi touched on it, but we rebranded to uh Pen Entertainment and then we introduced Penplay. uh we deployed our penplay app which was uh uh made account access convenient so people could interact view their account right in the palm of their hands and then this past year the most exciting one was our new sportsbook venue now rebranded as ESPN Bet we've hosted uh various events exciting experiences for sports fans uh that included 985 the sports hub on site to broadcast their various programs we hosted watch parties for major sporting events and we had special appearanc appearances from sport uh key sports figures and legends from our local sports teams. Very exciting. And with that, I'll hand it back to North. Thank you. So, thank you team for uh presenting. Look, we're proud of our record. Um we think that uh we've done a lot uh to live up to the commitments that we've made. Um but I think the thing that I'm most proud of is just the partnerships that we formed here in the community. And so hopefully you'll hear from some of those folks today. Um but none of this could be done without our team and then without the support of the community and the other folks who uh help um make this a really good um situation for all of us. So I'm going to sit down and uh that concludes our presentation. Thank you. Thank you. So we are next going to call the Planeville Town Administrator, Mr. Brian Noble. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the commission u for the opportunity to speak before you today in supporting the relicensing of our valued partners at Plane Ridge Park Casino. More than a dec decade ago, this commission made a wise and forwardthinking decision in awarding the Commonwealth's first casino license to Penn National. It is hard to believe that 10 years has passed since then. And in that time, Plain Ridge Park has proven to be a positive, responsible, and valued member of our community. As you will hear from many of the officials that will speak after me, there have been virtually no adverse impacts on Planeville since the casino opened. From our perspective, the facility has operated in full partnership with our town and with the utmost professionalism. The economic benefits to Planeville have been substantial. Revenue from our host community agreement enabled us to finance and construct our new facility here and is an achievement that has been uh nearly impossible to duplicate anywhere else without a tax increase to the residents of the town and across the state. So, this has been a big improvement for us as you probably remember as you visited our town hall in the past. Beyond that, Plane Ridge Park has created hundreds of jobs, preserved and revitalized the legacy industry of harness racing, and supported the broader equin and agricultural economy. The resurgence of the breeding industry has not only created economic opportunity for farms, suppliers, and vendors has also preserved critical open space not just here, but across the Commonwealth. In addition to supporting the local industry, the facility has generated millions in tax revenue and am economic activity in the region while also successfully recreating gaming dollars that might otherwise have gone south. This has strengthened our local tax base and our neighboring communities as well. But let me be clear, this is not just about Planeville. Communities throughout the region have benefited from the jobs, the revenue, the economic vitality that Plain Ridge Park brings. Your decision to license Plain Ridge Park was not only the right one, it has been transformative. And just as importantly, it has been your stewardship of that industry along with the strong partnership between this town, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, and Penn National that has made this success possible. There is no ambiguity. Your standards are high. Our expectations are high. And this operator has consistently met and exceeded both. That is why with great enthusiasm and full confidence, I respectfully urge you to approve the renewal of this license. Before closing, however, I would like to raise a concern about the future, one that I know may fall beyond your immediate authority, but nonetheless is critical to the ongoing viability of this facility. From our position on the Rhode Island border, we are acutely aware of the competitive pressures from across the state line. While Planeidge has been remarkably successful, it has also done so while operating under significant statutory constraints, particularly when compared to nearby competitors such as Twin Rivers. It is in many ways fighting a two-front battle with one hand tied behind its back. The law that created the casino framework in Massachusetts 23K was appropriate at that time, but the landscape has changed and it will continue to evolve as new competitors and gaming formats emerge. It is time to revisit that law with an eye towards the future, towards fairness, competitiveness, and our continued economic growth as a state. Ideally, we should be positioning Plane Ridge to create even more jobs um to recapture even more of that revenue from Rhode Island and compete on a level playing field. We understand that statutory reform lies with the legislature, but we believe it's important to raise these concerns in a public forum. We want to ensure that Plane Ridge and our town, in fact, our region are not left in a competitive disadvantage. We are proud of the relationship with Penn National and with Plain Ridge Park Casino. They have been exceptional partners for our town and for the region. We respectfully request your support in renewing renewing their license today and when the time comes, your continued support of our efforts to ensure this facility remains competitive in the years ahead. Thank you again for your time, your past support, and your commitment to the economic well-being not just of Planeville, but of the county. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, administrator. We are now going to call the select board chair, uh, Brian Kelly. Thank you very much. Uh, wanted to come up as a board here. Um, and I think at least from my perspective, I want to echo Mr. Noble's sentiments exactly. Um, a lot of what he said I can uh see have come from conversations that he and I have had uh not only about what a great partner Plane Ridge has been to Planeville. Um, but about what the future holds uh for both Plane Ridge and the state of M Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Um, it's uh obviously a critical business for our town. U as you mentioned the new digs here uh in town hall. It's all due to our relationship with Plaid Ridge uh and the host community agreement uh that brought them uh here and brought that revenue to Planeville allowed for this uh this building to be built and for that bond payment to get paid and we've got I think about 14 more years on that. So, we are keenly interested in keeping that business open and thriving uh not just for all the other benefits that Mr. Noble alluded to, but because we've got skin in the game here as well. Um uh we thank you very much for for your support in the in the past. Um we are um we couldn't have had a we couldn't have a better relationship uh with the casino. They're a great partner. Um and the the elephant in the room though at each one of these public hearings that I've attended in the past six years is always about the future and the fact that as Mr. Noble stated uh they're running such a great business with essentially one hand tied behind their back given all the competitive pressures they've got within the state and uh and out of the state um and also some other potential projects within the state that may significantly impact uh Plane Ridge. So I just want to make sure that um we're cognizant of that. I know it's not in your direct purview, but if there's anything that we can do together to help to make sure that this business uh not only stays open, but continues to thrive, we would certainly appreciate it. Thank you for the time. Thank you, Mr. Kelly. Looks like we're going to hear from vice chair. She and I talked before. Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the commission. Um, my name is Maggie Clark and I'm a member of the select board. I'll keep remark my remarks brief as I'll be um reiterating what's already been said and what I'm sure will be said to come. Um, but I didn't want to take my chance take a chance to miss my opportunity to share my perspective on um what this partnership has meant to our town. Um, first, thank you for holding this meeting here in our town hall. This building along with our public safety complex, as has been said, stands as a visible and lasting symbol of what our partnership with Planebridge has made possible. These buildings are not just brick and mortar. They represent real tangible progress for Planeville. When preparing these remarks, I tried to recall any negative impacts Plane Bridg's presence has had on our community. And honestly, from where I sit, there have been none. While our public safety chiefs can speak more directly to data on traffic or crime, I've seen no issues formally or informally that raise concerns. In fact, the positive impact on plane plane of plane, sorry, reaches far beyond the required financial contributions. Whether it's supporting our PTO, sponsoring programs at the senior center or helping organizations like the Spirit of Planeville, Plane has consistently shown up as a generous and engaged community partner. Their involvement is steady, meaningful, and appreciated. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today and thank you to Plane Ridge for being such outstanding neighbors to the town of Planeville. Thank you, Vice Chair and Mr. Johnson. Good to see you again. See you again. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the gaming commission for allowing me the chance to speak. Uh my name is Jeff Johnson. I've been a member, a resident of Planeville, excuse me, for 34 years, a member of the select board for over 7 years. And one of the great pleasures of these last seven years has been the opportunity to work with Planeville Gaming and Redevelopment as a partner to our town. I'm obviously here to recommend their application. I could go on as I have um often for the last seven years before you as to the benefits and what a tremendous partner they are and they are a tremendous partner, but it almost feels boring in a way and it would be boring except it's so important. It's so critical that partners for our commonwealth and partners for our towns be encouraged and motivated and given the opportunities to do the things they do so well. Whether it's creating jobs, creating economic vitality, revitalizing an industry, these are the things that Plain Rich has done since 1999. If I go back to 1997, um, when I had only been here a few years, I saw the arrival of horse racing with a little trepidation. If I go back to 2012 and 13, I had the same sorts of concerns. Uh when it came to uh the casino coming, in both cases, my concerns were poorly founded. Uh I would say that that they have always exceeded every commitment they've made to us. They have not had any of the negative impacts that many people feared. Uh we could not have a better partner. The Commonwealth could not have a better partner. So I would urge you to uh renew this application. Uh and thank you again for coming to appointment. Thank you Mr. Johnson. It takes a a lot of lot of gumption to say that one has an evolution in opinion. I know it's tough for me sometimes. Um do we have any member of any surrounding communities? All right. I will say that we did Oh, yes. Oh, hi. Are you moving in order? I'm sorry if I missed that or I just Well, who are you? My name is Sorry. Um, I'm Lee Fonts and I'm from a surrounding community. Oh, please. Okay, great. Thank you. Morning. Thank you for having me as well. I'm as you just called out from the surrounding communities. I'm the CEO of the Adelar Norton YMCA in Adabor Norton. Um we've been very lucky to work with Plainbridgeidge Park Casino since they've opened and um they're a valued community partner. They've been supportive to our annual campaign in many ways as far as um financial donations as well as gift and kind. We've also been very lucky to have the general manager on our board for quite a few years now. I think three or four years, three years maybe. So I'd like to acknowledge that support. So we have a um good good support with the people that we have and we have a good support with the the partnership in the community. It helps our families and our seniors and really generally the the broader community than just Planeville. So, I appreciate the opportunity. I'm very lucky to be uh in partner with Cl Park Casino and your day. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Lee. We appreciate that. Anybody else before I move on from surrounding communities? Tim. Oh, please. Uh thank you for allowing me to uh to speak. I just want to speak on behalf of the local communities. Um I'm very involved with Lions both on the both as a rental lion state uh level as well and as a board of director member for the Mass Lions Eye Research Fund. I see charitable events occurring throughout the state all the time. But what I really recognize is the support and sponsorship that is necessary for a lot of events and fundraising to occur. Okay? And I'll give a quick example. Uh the the local towns of Plainville, Renom, and Norfolk uh run a polar plunge to raise money for eye research every spring. This is a $50,000 event. Okay. We couldn't do this without the support and help not only of the casino but also the standard bread owners association. Okay. They are an important and consistent supporter. They are a headline sponsor and donor and one of the employees of the uh facility actually sits on the committee that we have to run the event. Okay. This just goes to show the local and and really statewide impact they've had with regard to uh Lions and just charitable uh events overall. I would also say this, I live 2 miles from the stadium. My parents live uh lived in Vegas. I've been around casinos a long time. Okay, I get it. There's there can be a negative connotation. That is not the case here. Okay, we I I go there quite often with friends. We meet. It's a great place to to go watch sports, listen to live music, go watch the trotters out at the track, have a bite to eat. It's fun. It's enjoyable. There's there aren't any problems there. Okay? It's not like, you know, we see at some of the casinos in Vegas. Uh but it's just a fun, enjoyable experience. And I just say that uh I think that speaking for the local communities, what I see in Retum, what I hear from a lot of people, I have two neighbors who are police officers. They don't hear of anything negative going on at the casino. Um and I just think that there's a value ad provided by the casino and the standard bread owners association. Um that that just provides a a real fun atmosphere. So, I would like to just uh throw in the support and and hope that you take this in as you renew the license. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Man, did you do the polar plunge? I have been I will say this for those of you who want to plunge next year. The temperature the other we did a couple weeks ago, the outdoor temperature was 38. The water was 38. On the surface, a foot below is down to 36. 2t below is down to 35. It was cold. Mr. Chair, I've been a I've been a plunger and a donor. North donating is way better. We'll see you next year then. Thank you very much. The work alliance if you don't mind me take not you know I'm sure in this community in my home community across across the state has been amazing. I just want to note that and appreciate your efforts there. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you Mr. Man. Um, I will note to the commissioners, by the way, anytime you have questions, just jump in. Um, I've not been asking after every every person, but feel free. Um, any so, uh, anybody else from surrounding communities? I do have a list of folks to call. All right. Um, the ILVs, we received a letter from the representative of the ILVs that we will consider. Was there anyone else that wanted to speak on behalf of that issue? All right. Um, we have Mr. Link from the United Way Chamber of Commerce. It's good to see you again. Nice to see you again. Yeah. Thank you again for coming up to speak with us. I enjoyed it. Good afternoon or good morning, I should say. My name is Jack Lank uh and I serve as the president of the United Regional Chamber of Commerce that serves the 16 communities that uh surround Planeville and Planebridge. Thank you for allowing me to speak uh on in favor of renewing the casino's license to operate here in Planeville. Since before its opening in 2015, Plainidge Park has been a tremendous community partner for our region. Even before they put a shovel in the ground, they had their representatives up here for over a year. And fortunately for me, one of the first places they came was my office. And we brought them, uh, Jeff Morris was the gentleman who came up originally. Um, we brought him around and introduced him to a lot of the folks where he made a lot of these deals, uh, not deals, I'm sorry, partnerships, uh, sorry, wrong, uh, partnerships with a lot of the restaurants and a lot of the places in the area, uh, that have really enhanced this region. Uh they've also uh provided over 400 jobs for local residents, contributed over $300 million to the state tax revenue, and they've proven their value many, many times that they bring here to this region. Additionally, they allocated $69 million to support the horse racing industry. Plane supports the racetrack, which supports 150 families that live and work here in this area. They support many of the local charities that you've already heard and human service organizations in our region, including ours, the United Regional Chamber of Commerce. Even during the CO 19 pandemic, when the world was basically shut down, the casino demonstrated the commitment to the community by continuing their monthly payments to the town of Planeville, ensuring financial stability for all the local services. I also serve uh on the mass gaming vendor advisory team and Planebridgeidge has strong focus on diversity and inclusion constantly meeting and exceeding the goals of minority business enterprises for women and veteranowned businesses especially. The local merchants, the convenience stores, the coffee shops, the restaurants have all seen a huge increase in their revenue because many of the visitors to the casinos stop at a variety of restaurants in the area. And we all need to grab milk and bread on the way home. So why not stop local before you go? Through these efforts, Plainidge Park Casino exemplifies the role of a responsible and engaged community partner, contributed positively to the economic and social well-being of this region, and we strongly encourage the Mass Gaming Commission to renew their licensing for Plane Park Casino. One of the good things about my job is when they need something up there at the casino, they pick up the phone and call. And I'm just going to give you a quick example. All the bar stools and the stools that you see up there over 800. They needed somebody to refinish them. We found them somebody right here in North Attboro that just finished. I think they've finished 800 of them so far and there's more to go. So, they support all of the local vendors that they can. Uh they're the first place that they look before they ask for anything. But thank you for allowing me to speak and we truly hope that you will renew their license. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lang. We are now going to call up um from the standard bread owners of Massachusetts uh Nancy Lombardi. Good morning commissions. I'm Nancy Longabardi, secretary treasurer for the standard bred breeders of Massachusetts. Just a couple words in support of the relicicensing um which has been kind of the force behind the success success of our breeding program. Um just in the last 5 years we've had 650 resident brood mares and given away over $12 million in our steak race purses. Um the success has also allowed us to uh make donations to local organizations as as you heard and also to the um with the track and with the harness horseman's association to the standard bred transition alliance which is a very important um for the retraining of the um standard breads after their racing career is done. So that's which is very very important issue. Um and also um just would be in support of our continuing our success and our growth with the um relicensing of the track. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Yes. I still talk questions. That's okay. The dog. This is going to be I love that dog. Um this is going to be the most important question that we ask today. I can assure you. Oh boy. So, we still talk about the tour that you gave us. We loved it. Okay. At that tour, we were told there were going to be two new additions to the family. We have one. Okay. We have one. We're waiting. We're waiting on one more. Probably within about a week. Okay. We have She's two weeks old today. Send us some pictures, please. Oh, yeah. She has. We will. I show I showed Commissioner O'Brien one already. He's adorable. Anytime. He could come back anytime. We've been waiting patiently to see. Yeah. Really, really pretty. She's beautiful. I got to tell Nancy this one. I was at the track a couple weeks ago for opening day and people were talking casually and they said, "Dom, such and such." I said, "Big Dom or little Dom?" I said, "You've been here too long." So, there you go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I'm thinking the same thing, obviously. star. So, I'm gonna butcher this last name, I'm sure, but from the AAM union, Michael uh Verdeian. That was amazing. Gave it my best shot. That was really good. Good morning, uh, Chair Maynard, uh, commissioners, board of commissioners. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak here today, uh, for the renewal for Plane Park Casino. Um our our relationship with um Penn Nationals started about 11 years ago when we uh got a call from the racetrack at the time when they had bought the racetrack. We got a call that some members were interested in forming a union and we approached pen national and they were yeah I know that it's the law that the people can unionize but they were more than open for um us to go and talk and they gave us neutrality to go speak to the workers and if they wanted to unionize they would give us a voluntary recognition. That doesn't happen too often. Okay. usually uh you know companies are are extremely resistant to a unionization and I will tell you that we have gone not just we've grown our relationship in that 11 years to really considering uh partnership really and and that's really an unusual thing to say as a company and a union often we u will have disagreements and we do but we always resolve them they're extremely respectful to the workers there. They're good paying union jobs. We have negotiated several contracts with them now. The la the latest being November 1st of last year. We're in a three-year contract with them and we've got a very good contract that was very well ratified by the membership. Our members enjoy working there. I enjoy working with the uh leadership over there at the casino. They are all respectful. They sit down. They talk through any issues that we may have. and we always come up with a resolution that we both can be uh satisfied with. So, um also I I noticed all the charities that they give to. I want to also say that they've been a partnership in a charity that we give to every year uh that we actually the machinist union runs which is the guide dogs of America which provides guide dogs to the blind uh aut uh guide dogs to children with autism and guide dogs to or service dogs to PTSD. uh wounded warriors and they are partners in that. Uh we raise probably about close to 100,000 a year in this area for the guide dogs of America and they are very much a partner in that and uh very gladly donate and um we run a golf tournament and so on that they attend and uh sponsor. So I would encourage you to renew their license. We've got hundreds of uh union good paying union jobs at stake and they are a good employer and I would um hope that you would consider renewing their license. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. We appreciate that. So the next person is Steven Vicaro. Steven Vicaro here. All right. I believe now we're going to kick it over to Marlene Warner. Was that a good a or a bad good? Uh, good morning. I think it's still morning. Um, I don't normally come here to these type of events. Um, but I was pleased to be asked to do so and I will say that I'm still neutral on the issue of legalized gambling, but I have a lot to say as it relates to Planebridgeidge Park Casino. So, thank you for the opportunity. Um, as I was driving, actually, I usually don't pass the casino in Planebridge, but I was driving further to get here. And, um, it was occurring to me that it was a fairly late night meeting um, prior to the casino opening when we were talking about traffic and problem gambling, right? The two issues that come up most of the time when there are um, public meetings, prior to a facility opening. And what I appreciated from day one was the um attention and and focus that Planebridge Park Casino and their team members even at that time paid to those um concerns and how that has not stopped till to today. Um, you know, it's nice to see Steve and Dominic um they are the the folks from day one that were with me um prior to the again the facility opening and um who have been partners. They really have been partners in addressing not just issues here in in this part of the state but really statewide. We originally had a group called the Mass Partnership on um responsible gambling. They were both active members of that. So, you fast forward to today and it's not unusual for North to text me when he sees an article or he um something occurs to him and he wants to make something better, he just picks up the phone and calls me or texts me. And I think that's really indicative of of the partnership we've had from day one. Um Lance George, who was the original GM here, um man, I think about all the things that he was willing to test out here. Um cuz this was the first property, right? We talk about Play My Way. We talk about GameSense as if it's something that's just normal. It's not normal. It's not happening anywhere else in the US. And uh and this company was willing to be the guinea pig over and over and over again. So to invite a nonprofit in to run services 16 hours a day, 7 days a week to help patrons uh near adjacent to a gaming floor is kind of unheard of and and Penn was willing to do it. Um I will also say that in addition to you know testing play my way here testing the voluntary self-exclusion program and I think one of the things that I loved is that um North called me and said we have some patrons who keep coming in violating their voluntary self-exclusion program. We want to do this right. Help us do this right and help us show care and compassion but also hold up our end of the bargain as an operator to keep people out. And I think we struck the balance. I hope we struck the balance. And I think the other thing that we're doing is always trying to tweak things. And I think that's one of the things that is amazing. I also want to just kind of give a heads up that Lisa has been with us every step of the way. Lisa's another one who calls and texts me all the time and says like, "I've got this idea or um I really want to support, you know, um problem gambling awareness month. How about I buy this or do this or engage my team in this way?" Really thoughtful and not just meeting the bare minimum. They're going way beyond. I guess the last thing I just want to offer is that my staff love working there. My staff really love working there. So, I thought this meeting was at the casino. So, I had the good fortune of getting to hang out with my team for a few minutes. And um they were talking as they walked up. Actually, they were talking about um help me with the name of the motorcycle thing. Rolling Thunder. Rolling Thunder. Hey, are you going to do Rolling Thunder? I'm going to do Rolling Thunder. They love it. They love everything about the community aspects. They love being able to connect with the patrons, but also the team members. Um, they love that they're included um in terms of the the the major racing days and being able to be included. It's never we're never an afterthought and I think that's one of the things I really appreciate about um Penn and Plane Ridge Park Casino. So, with that um I guess I'll just end saying you know they were the first casino to train their staff in mental health first aid. They're not just talking the talk, they're walking the walk. Um, first casino in Massachusetts to train their staff around question, persuade, and refer as it relates to suicidation, suicidal ideiation, and um, the first casino to recognize that as a lottery agent, as one of the largest lottery agents in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, that they really own some responsibility to be a part of the give a toy, not a ticket and um, gifting responsibly. So with that, I thank you for the time. Thank you, Marlene. We appreciate the council's perspective on that. The next person on the list um is from the old colony, Habitat for Humanity, and that's Kim Thomas. Love Habitat for Humanity, by the way. Morning. Thank you very much. I do too. I'm here today to speak in support of the continued operations of the Plainbridgeidge Park Casino as they seek renewal for their gaming license. Old Colony Habitat for Humanity has had the privilege of partnering with the um Plainbridgeidge Park Casino for for 10 years. I've had the honor of working with them the last four years. We've built a home in Adelboroough alongside them. They did Mansville prior to my coming on board as well as Norton and Taton. So, we have group um team build days and we have the um employees coming out on from the casino from all different departments and really enjoy when they come out to do the bill day and they have a really great time. We also have um board members. Um Dom's on our board right now which we're thrilled to have his background and expertise and committee members um as well. So, we're really grateful for the partnership and we're very small Habitat. We serve 24 communities in Bristol and Northfor County. I have myself and two other part-time people. So relying on the Planebridgeidge Park Casino and volunteers and helping us is huge to really uplift families in the community for affordable housing. So I'm going to see what else I have here. So um their engagement really goes beyond a transactional relationship. They're true community partner invested in the well-being of our neighbors. Play Park Casino consistently demonstrates its commitment to being responsible corporate citizen. Their involvement with local nonprofits and civic initiatives shows a pattern of long-term investment in the area and I'm very grateful to have their support and on behalf of the old colony Habitat for Humanity I strongly support the relicensing of the Plainbridgeidge Park Casino and urge the commission to approve the renewal of their license. So, thank you for your time. Appreciate you. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. The last on the list and then we'll open it up to the floor. Um, last but not least is uh Dale Boravine. He's last but not least. You say the last the best of the last. Don't need no speech, pay for nothing. Say, I'm going to speak from the heart. Buckle up. First of all, hey, first of all, I'd like to thank everybody who came out to support this town. This is a fantastic town. I want to tell you why. I've been here 67 years my whole life. I was a original member of the committee to help support um coming. It was u it was a mixed role in the beginning, but it turned out well. There's a great team here, the partnership along with our select board, town administrator, the police chief, fire chief. You can't I just this is just a great community. I recommend anybody who'd love to live in this community to come because it's just great. But um just a little story. When North moved to North Attboro, he was only here a couple days and I got a phone call and he says, "My name's North Griswall, right? Is it Griswall?" Growel. So there we go. So I know Go ahead. Is Wayne Newton here? That's all. I always like Dominic Lombat, you know, it's it's always wrong. I told you save the best for last. He personally called me and he said, "Jeff Morris, he was only in town a couple days, needs to see you. You're the unofficial mayor." And I'm like, "Okay." I was nervous as hell going to see him. We sat down and we talked. And I tell you, I've never met such a genuine person in my life. He brought a pad, a paper. He had Steve and Dominic with me. um he just wanted to know the concerns of the community and I raised a couple issues with him and I think within months he he he resolved any concerns I had. I asked him about electronic billboard and it was he he immediately I said where can you go with a casino there's no electronic billboard out front you know he addressed it you know I don't see my name flashing across for any credit but you know genuine person Steve O Steve and Dominic I met them in the beginning they are just top quality human beings along being you know employees everything else I pick up the phone I have North he calls me on something I'll call him what a great team what a great partnership for this community. You know, I'm not going to go on and on and on, but I just genuine people who really care. You know, I called North the other day about something and uh he immediately responded and I just think that's just wonderful as just a simple resident in this town and he responds and he's just it's been great. And Steve and and the rest of the team up there, they've been really good. So, I hope you renew the license and uh hopefully I'm still living here in 5 years or alive and we're back to see you. Amen. Thank you. I'll have to say, Dale, I told you in October that you always make me think that Halloween's coming, but now May, right? We're in May. So, cuz I see him every October. North is so genuine. He came to a couple of my Christmas parties and I'm not beating on him, but I had a top comedian named Jimmy Cash and uh I'm still trying to get him up there to go. Have you ever heard of Jimmy Cash? He's phenomenal. He's the most up and rising comedian. I have just a little barn party with like 200 people. I have a live band and he comes and attends and I just my all my friends couldn't believe that a GM from the casino would come and and you know break bread and and just listen to the comedian. So he's a genuine person. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. So that's uh the list that we have of people that registered either today or before. That said, uh is there anyone else that would like to offer up comments? if you would like to please please come and you probably need no introduction but if you'll stick your name for the record. I I I kind of do some people because I don't know some people here but that's the interesting thing about the casino that's here. Um and that goes to Penn National and everybody else and Joe's not recognized but there are a lot of people here that make this facility run. And we talk about business, we talk about community. Um we're actually dancing a fine line between community and family at this point. The casino talks about uh team all the time, but they really treat him as a family. Um, and I think that's you can't ask for anything more than that with a business. Um, whether it be Lisa with regulations, which I still struggle with all the time, and that's a good thing. Um, Steo Tool with racing, uh, North Gwald. Um, with just a simple operation, you're going to go down for me. t-shirt and and the one person that doesn't get a lot of recognition is Dominic kind of stands behind the scenes and and and does a lot of different things up there. Um but it is really important to understand that it is a fabric of our community and they've woven themselves into it. Um and it's not often that I can actually say this, but even the commission has woven themselves into our community and I appreciate that. It's not often that a police chief can say I have every single one of the commission in the back of a prison transport pan. I can say that. I wrote up front with you. Um I was in the back illustrate the point more with the commission being part of our family um although still a regulatory authority and and in and running um gaming across the state. Um even commissioner Hill talks about the baby pitches. So to say that you know when you look at uh a facility like this it's really important to see how closeknit the community businesses and even our regulatory officials impact us. Thank you. Thank you chief. Thank you. Anyone? You going to go in the back of the wagon now? Yeah, we got to go in the back of the wagon. That's a different story. And we also got to do the simulation and the shooting. And I will say for the record, Commissioner O'Brien um had the most kills. You were a close second though. Yeah, I was close second. Um and so with that, anyone else that would like to offer comments? All right. So, this is officially a meeting. So, I have to ask, uh, are there any commissioner updates besides the fact that North's name has ever been? We're just changing. It's just easier. Any other business that u we didn't anticipate? Do we have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Thank you. Second. Thank you, Commissioner O'Brien. We do all at once, can't we? Oh, yeah. We can do it as voice. I'm not used to doing voice votes. I. All in favor? I I All opposed. All right. Eyes have it. Thank you indeed. Thank you all for coming.