ORDER-2017-7 : Communication from Massachusetts State Lottery Commission regarding KENO To Go License at Franklin Market, 463 Franklin St., Melrose, MA

Transcript (~13 min @ 6:35)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 6:29 Speaker 6: Order 2017-7, communication from Massachusetts State Lottery Commission regarding keynote to go license at Franklin Market, 463 Franklin Street, Melrose, Mass.

▶ 6:41 Speaker 3: Alderman McAteer-Margolis.

▶ 6:43 Speaker 7: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

▶ 6:45 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: I rise to request immediate consideration for this order.

▶ 6:48 Speaker 3: Alderman McAteer-Margolis seeks immediate consideration of order 2017-7. there an objection to immediate consideration? There is not. You're moving

▶ 7:03 Speaker 3: to suspend the rules. Second the motion to suspend the rules. Alderman McAteer-Margolis moves to suspend the rules in order that we might discuss order 2017-7. The motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer on the motion to suspend the rules. All those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. The rules are suspended. The order is before you and hopefully everybody has seen a letter from Michael R Sweeney executive director of the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission to mr. Van Kampen dated June 27th 2016 I'll Mac Tam our goal issue of the floor thank you

▶ 7:39 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: mr. president just to refresh the committee's memory and for the public

▶ 7:51 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: this was originally submitted by the lottery December 7th 2015 and on December 23rd this board duly voted to object to this application in the agreement and at that point we did not hear back from the lottery until the most recent letter that you have referenced yeah well we actually had a

▶ 8:13 Speaker 3: a letter sent at the direction of the board indicating that we were not in favor of this application and now we have right December 23rd yep which I

▶ 8:20 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: have a copy of if anybody's interested so the order is before you it does seem

▶ 8:35 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: as though this particular establishment did have a keynote to go I believe prior

▶ 8:44 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: to the new ownership and my thought is that that's why the lottery is pursuing

▶ 8:51 Speaker 3: it again Thank You Alvin chairman cozy yes thank you I think historically in

▶ 8:54 John N. Tramontozzi: the past this board has objected to these keynote the goes to go licenses throughout the city so I don't see any reason why we should change that position however my question is whether or not in spite of the date of this letter that we need to renew our letter submit a new letter I know we did submit an objection that was submitted prior to this letter wasn't it well the

▶ 9:25 Speaker 3: letter that was sent to us by the director of the state lottery indicates that we don't if we do not act on this it will pass by operation of law due to

▶ 9:38 John N. Tramontozzi: our failure to vote on it so then I would make a motion to send the letter in optical opposition to the keynote to go license second that motion Alderman

▶ 9:47 Speaker 3: Tremont ozi moves that we indicate that the we the board indicates that the board is not in favor of the grant of this license at this location the motion seconded by Alderman Mortimer, is the discussion.

▶ 10:04 Speaker 3: Alderman McAteer-Margolis.

▶ 10:05 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Just again to let the committee know, I believe there are nine current licenses of Keno to go in Melrose. They are not Keno parlors, they don't have a video screen and they don't, by their statement in the letter, they are not intending that at this time. So I'm not sure that we're preventing a lot of, it's not like they're not in existence in the whole community.

▶ 10:37 Speaker 3: Thank you.

▶ 10:38 Monica C. Medeiros: Alderman Medeiros. Thank you, Mr. President. And I am certain that we have sent letters objecting to these licenses in the past, and I think that the state may have gone ahead and granted these without, despite our objections. i would like to amend if alderman Tramontozzi is is willing to include with our letter of objection copies of some of the prior letters of objections for various locations um just for informational purposes to send back to the the lottery along with our objection well i don't think

▶ 11:23 John N. Tramontozzi: i don't think i hear any problems with that um maybe maybe i just need some clarification if if to you mr president to anybody who knows uh um there's a difference between keno the go and just regular keno right so they there are establishments in the city that can do keno

▶ 11:40 Speaker 3: if i might i think the gentleman from the lottery um i don't know where he would ever get the impression that we don't know what we're what we're talking about but um i i think that uh he feels that the board must think that this is a license for a keno parlor so I think that he sent this letter just to make certain that that the board understood that they were not licensing a keno parlor with a display screen and this was just a keno license I only throw that out to you because that's

▶ 12:13 John N. Tramontozzi: what mr. van Kampen indicated to me thank that that's great that's a good clarification so maybe our objection could be the objection to any idea or use of the premises as a keynote power as they refer to it again keeping in

▶ 12:32 John N. Tramontozzi: line with that with the the city as a whole effect if there are keynote licenses that other establishments have then why should then this one not have it similar to existing licenses in the city as opposed to extending it to this um keynote power

▶ 12:52 Speaker 3: power description okay are you withdrawing your original motion alderman trim and tozy i think

▶ 12:55 John N. Tramontozzi: i will withdraw the original motion uh in deference to the water alderman i will withdraw my second

▶ 13:05 Monica C. Medeiros: thank you alderman medeiros i'd like to move for a two-minute recess uh as i know we have other items coming forward at eight o'clock uh to review our records and see if in fact we have objected to prior keno to go licenses because i believe we have yeah i don't think there's any

▶ 13:23 Speaker 3: dispute that we have in the past um so you're moving to table this order and proceed with the business of the board uh then why don't we do that are you very are you moving towards this

▶ 13:40 Speaker 3: or a two-minute recess Alvin Medeiros moves for two-minute recess there a second second on the motion for a two-minute recess all those in favor not anyone opposed motion passes the board stands in recess a board is back

▶ 14:16 Speaker 3: from from a short recess we're continuing our considering one of 2017

▶ 14:33 Monica C. Medeiros: dash seven the order is before you father medeiros since alderman trey matusi's withdrawn his motion i would like to make that motion that we send a letter objecting to this license you know just because the state has acted without our approval doesn't mean it hasn't been our intention that we over the course of several years my time on the board i can't recall that we've ever not objected to one of these license applications um so therefore i would like to move

▶ 15:07 Speaker 3: to object i'll second the motion alderman medeiros is moving that we send a letter to the lottery commission indicating that the board does not approve of the grant of the license at that location the motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer is there any

▶ 15:27 Scott M. Forbes: discussion on the motion Alderman Forbes thank you mr. president I just wanted first some clarification if somebody could just enlighten me if you were to get a keynote a go ticket what is the difference getting a keynote a go ticket going on you're going on a device putting in the game number and see if you won what is the difference between that and buying any one of the 50 scratch tickets that are available at a gas station or a Powerball ticket or any type of quick pick that is available in the community I don't understand the negative part of it so if somebody could if if there is any feedback on that I would greatly appreciate it but I just don't understand if this is just yet another game that's being commissioned by the Massachusetts State Lottery why we would be objecting to it I'm just looking for a little bit of clarification for my peers thank you Thank You Alderman Forbes Alderman

▶ 16:14 Michael P. Zwirko: So just to answer your question, Alderman Forbes, I do agree with you in principle there is very little difference between a Powerball ticket and a keynote ticket. What I would say the difference with the keynote to go is the keynote is I believe every two or three or four minutes. So it can, although scratch tickets arguably can do the same thing, allow for loitering on premises due to the frequency of the keynote games. So now while you're not seeing the results on a monitor via Kino2Go, they are available through many other personal devices, and one could purchase a ticket for 10 games, allow time to expire, reenter the premises. So it could certainly encumber loitering of some area of the premises. I think that's the difference. But to your point, yes, keno with a TV monitor, generally those are done in facilities that have seats for individuals to play, et cetera. But that is the only distinction that I can make between a scratch ticket and a keno and a Powerball, et cetera.

▶ 17:26 Speaker 3: MR.

▶ 17:27 Monica C. Medeiros: DeRose. MS. Thank you. That and, you know, because of the frequency, there is a risk to those who are susceptible that they can spend perhaps more money than they can afford. I mean, gambling is an addictive, to some people, pastime. And you can easily, certainly that can happen with the scratch ticket, with the other kinds of tickets, like the daily number and things like that. They're happening maybe once a day, twice a day, sometimes with the daily number. happen every few minutes is a much greater frequency also i would say that we're supposed to as municipalities receive you know so much of the proceeds back from the lottery and unfortunately we're not seeing that come back to the cities and towns in the way that the law is is promised so it's not necessarily that we're seeing so much of a benefit

▶ 18:29 Speaker 3: for the potential risk thank you anything further on this motion Alderman McAteer-Margolis.

▶ 18:34 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Just in reviewing some of our minutes from the past meetings, it does, we do have an indication from this past January in reference to the previous request for this same license that there were currently nine keynote to go licenses in Melrose.

▶ 18:56 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: That would be including this one, which had not yet been approved because of the previous owners, but they did have one at that site previously.

▶ 19:05 Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think there's any dispute that there are licenses, but I also don't think there's any dispute that we haven't authorized a new one sometime. Right. Anything further on the motion? All those in favor of the motion to send a letter of objection, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Opposed. Okay, it looks like the motion passes.

▶ 19:30 Francis X. Wright Jr.: Do we have any- Mr. President, I make a motion for reconsideration in the hopes that it fails.

▶ 19:34 Speaker 3: Alderman Wright is moving for reconsideration the vote in hopes that it fails second this seconded in the event that you vote

▶ 19:45 Speaker 3: for reconsideration a an affirmative vote is that you wish to reconsider your vote if you wish not to reconsider your vote you vote against the motion or nay all those in favor of the motion for reconsideration please indicate by