1 BEFORE THE MISSOURI GAMING COMMISSION
2 STATE OF MISSOURI
3
4
5 MONTHLY MEETING
6
7 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
8
9
10 December 12, 2003
11 9:00 a.m.
12 Missouri Gaming Commission
13 3417 Knipp Drive
14 Jefferson City, MO
15
16
17
COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT:
18 Commissioner Floyd Bartch, Chairman
Commissioner Jack
Gant
19 Commissioner Judith Sutter-Hinrichs
20
21
REPORTED BY: Monnie S.
VanZant, CCR, CSR, RPR
Associated
Court Reporters
22 714 W. High Street
Jefferson City,
MO 65102
23 (573) 636-7551
24
25
1
1 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
2 CHAIRMAN BARTCH: Call the roll.
3 MS. ANGELA FRANKS: Chairman Bartch?
4 CHAIRMAN BARTCH: Present.
5 MS. FRANKS:
Commissioner Hinrichs?
6 COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: Present.
7 MS. FRANKS:
Commissioner Gant?
8 COMMISSIONER GANT: Present.
9 MR. KEVIN MULLALLY: Mr. Chairman, if I
10 might, before we -- is this on?
11 MS. FRANKS:
Yeah.
12 MR. MULLALLY: Before we begin into
13 the business in the Commission book, make a
14 couple of comments, some observations I was
15 able to make last week. As you know, I was a
16 presenter at the National Center for
17 Responsible Gaming's Fourth Annual Conference
18 on Problem Gambling in Las Vegas earlier this
19 week. And one
of the things that was rather
20 stunning, frankly, about that conference was
21 that in almost every -- I think, save one,
22 every presentation that I attended --- and
23 there were a number -- and this was a
24 collection of about 450 people I think were
25 the number of attendees at this conference.
2
1 This year, they had a business in government
2 track. So,
traditionally, it's a track that a
3 lot of academics and clinicians that deal in
4 the problem gambling, either treatment and
5 research and some regulatory and industry
6 members. But
this year, much -- much larger
7 representation from industry and from the
8 regulatory community.
9 In every one of those presentations, save
10 one, Missouri was prominently mentioned as a
11 standard of excellence in some manner or
12 another. And
not just in the areas of problem
13 gambling. The
new compliance directive that
14 we've come up with came up in one of the
15 sessions. Some
of the things that we've done
16 in the way of starting a new discussion on
17 performance measurement for regulatory
18 enforcement agencies came up. And -- and it
19 was not that we were mentioned in a laundry
20 list with a whole bunch of other states.
21 These comments were made almost to the
22 exclusion of the other state regulatory
23 bodies.
24 So for an agency that's only been around
25 for -- we just had our 10th anniversary. To
3
1 have achieved that level of stature versus
2 other states that have been around for decades
3 like Nevada and New Jersey -- and even the
4 Midwestern states have been around
5 significantly longer than us such as Iowa and
6 Illinois and Mississippi. I thought it was
7 quite remarkable and worthy of comment and
8 very indicative of the quality of the work
9
that folks have done here
and -- and the
10 policies that this Commission sets forth and
11 your predecessors.
12 So I was -- I was quite proud of that.
13 Probably even more gratifying was the opening
14 of the Argosy Casino Wednesday night and the
15 work that our staff did there. Person after
16 person after person that was associated with
17
the opening of that
property came up to -- to
18 Steve Johnson and I and mentioned the
19 professionalism and competency of our staff
20 and how hard-working they were and -- and how
21
dedicated they were. I mean, we
have people
22 that have given up the past several weeks and,
23 in many cases, months of their lives. Larry
24 Buschjost has been there -- has lived at that
25 property. Todd
Nelson and Blaine Preston are
4
1 two technical people that handle a lot of the
2 slot equipment
things have been there as well.
3 I mean, you know, Larry's a grizzled old
4 veteran. And
for him to be away from home, his
5 wife is just eating ice cream on his side of
6 the
bed. But Blaine and Todd are both one
7 year or less newlyweds with beautiful young
8 wives. And so
for them to be away from home
9 I'm telling
you, is a giant sacrifice. And
10 you know, the entire --
11 MAN IN CROWD: Well, Larry's about
12 -- over 40.
13 MR. LARRY BUSCHJOST: I'd just like to
14 know if he's been at my house.
15 COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: Ask him what
16 flavor it was.
17 MR. MULLALLY: The new one or the
18 old one, Larry?
19
MR.
BUSCHJOST: Either.
20 MR. MULLALLY: But the -- the entire
21 Patrol contingent, Lieutenant Bob Zubeck
22 and Sergeant Eric Tilford and his entire unit
23 there did a great job.
Eartha Taylor, the
24 auditor that was assigned to that project, did
25 an outstanding job.
And there's a whole bunch
5
1 of other people that I'm leaving out, but
2 those were the principal folks and really an
3 outstanding effort and worthy of comment.
4 So --
5
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS:
6 Congratulations to all.
7 MR. MULLALLY: They did a good job.
8 CHAIRMAN BARTCH: Certainly.
9 Congratulations.
And, you know, Kevin, I'm
10 relatively new at this business as the other
11 Commissioners are.
And I would say this, that
12 of all the comments that -- that I've had in
13
the last year or so,
they've all been positive
14 about the Gaming Commission. They've all been
15 good and how hard everybody works and the
16 things that are being done. So that
17
reputation is well-deserved by everyone.
18 Thank you.
19 COMMISSIONER GANT: I've heard a lot
20 of people say she really keeps you on the
21 ball.
22 MR. MULLALLY: If you hear it a lot,
23 it's usually accurate.
Mr. Chairman, there
24 are three sets of minutes in Tabs A, B and C
25 that start the action here.
6
1 COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: I'll move
2 that we approve the September 12th minutes.
3 COMMISSIONER GANT: Second.
4 CHAIRMAN BARTCH: Please call the
5 roll.
6 MS. FRANKS:
Chairman Bartch?
7 CHAIRMAN BARTCH: Approved.
8
MS.
FRANKS: Commissioner Henrichs?
9 COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: Approved.
10 MS. FRANKS:
Commissioner Gant?
11 COMMISSIONER GANT: Approved.
12
MS. FRANKS: By your vote, you've
13 adopted the September 12, 2003 minutes.
14 COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: I'm just --
15 I'm on a roll here.
Move that we approve the
16 October 9th, 2003 minutes.
17 COMMISSIONER GANT: Second.
18 CHAIRMAN BARTCH: Call the roll.
19 MS. FRANKS:
Chairman Bartch?
20 CHAIRMAN BARTCH: Approved.
21 MS. FRANKS:
Commissioner Hinrichs?
22 COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: Approved.
23 MS. FRANKS:
Commisisoner Gant?
24
COMMISSIONER GANT: Approved.
25 MS. FRANKS:
By your vote, you have
7
1 adopted the minutes of the October 9, 2003
2 minutes.
3 COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: I move that
4 we approve the October 28, 2003 minutes.
5 COMMISSIONER GANT: Second.
6
CHAIRMAN
BARTCH: Call the roll,
7 please.
8 MS. FRANKS:
Chairman Bartch?
9 CHAIRMAN BARTCH: Approve.
10 MS. FRANKS:
Commissioner Hinrichs?
11 COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: Approve.
12 MS. FRANKS:
Commissioner Gant?
13 COMMISSIONER GANT: Approve.
14 MS. FRANKS:
By your vote, you've
15 adopted the minutes of the October 28, 2003
16 meeting.
17 MR. MULLALLY: Mr. Chairman, the
18 next item on the agenda involves Sallie Lane.
19 As you may recall, at an occupational licensee
20 hearing -- who had some proposed discipline
21 issued against her.
And we brought it up at
22 the last meeting and were unable to resolve
23 the issue and tabled it. Mike Bushmann has
24 prepared a memo for you and is here to make
25 the presentation.
8
1 MR. MIKE BUSHMANN: Good morning,
2 Mr. Chairman, Commissioners. At the last
3 Commission meeting on October 28th, you
4 considered the hearing officer recommendations
5 in the case of Sallie Lane. That
6 recommendation was to suspend Ms. Lane's
7 temporary license for two weeks and then to
8 grant her a Level II license.
9 Director Mullally questioned whether or
10 not the Commission has the authority to do
11 that, and you requested that that issue be
12 researched and then brought back up at a
13 future meeting.
14 My purpose here today is not to recommend
15 what kind of decision that you should reach in
16 that case because that would be improper. But
17 I'm only here to explain what I think your
18 options are in getting to that decision. In
19 your books, I provided a memo citing a statute
20 and administrative rule which lead to my
21 conclusion that the Commission is not
22 authorized to suspend a temporary license in
23 the manner suggested in the hearing officer
24 recommendations.
25 Ms. Lane is an applicant for a license,
9
1 not a licensee.
Therefore, the Commission has
2 two options, either to approve or to deny Ms.
3 Lane's license application. Also, in your
4 books, there are two resolutions for you to
5 choose between.
Resolution 03-087 denies a
6 license. And Resolution 03-088 grants a
7 license.
8 The hearing officer findings attached to
9 the resolutions have also been amended by
10 changing paragraph 19 only to correspond to
11 the proposed outcome.
My suggestion would be
12 to weigh and balance the facts of the case
13 and then to choose between the two proposed
14 resolutions.
15 MR. THAD MCCANSE: Mr. Chairman,
16 respectfully, the -- I think it's agreed that
17 she has a temporary license. I don't think
18 that anybody has raised that question. I did
19 some looking, and while the rules initially
20 provide for a temporary license for a
21 supplier, they do not provide for a temporary
22 license for a licensee. However, one rule
23 does say that the temporary licensee may renew
24 the license. So
by inference, they must
25 recognize the fact that a -- the Commission is
10
1 authorized to grant temporary licenses. As a
2 practical matter, it's in excess to do so
3 because it takes time to investigate people
4 and to
put them on hold, so to speak, until
5 the investigation is complete.
6 The statute that I think applies, then,
7 assuming that there is such a thing as a
8 temporary
licensee, is Section 313.805,
9 subsection 6, which authorizes the Commission
10 to assess any appropriate administrative
11 penalty against a licensee, including, but not
12 limited to, suspension, revocation and
13 penalties, monetary penalties. That's pretty
14 broad. And if
there is such a thing as a
15 temporary licensee, it would seem to me that
16 under that statute the Commission would be
17 authorized to suspend a temporary license as
18 well as a permanent license. I don't see any
19 distinction.
20 I
haven't seen a copy of Mr. Bushmann's
21 memo. The --
the statutes of the river --
22 concerning the riverboat do not speak to
23 temporary licenses in any manner. So it's by
24 rule that we have produced under the
25 assumption that you can have a temporary
11
1 license. And I
think it's conceded that she's
2 wearing one now.
So the question is, under the
3 facts of this case, should she just be denied
4 or should she be found suitable or should she
5 be punished in some respect?
6 My conclusion was that due to her own
7 confusion and the way it came up where they
8 said that there would be no record of this
9 when she was arrested some ten years before
10 the hearing that a person of her background,
11 not a legal background, could be confused as
12 to whether or not she had been arrested or
13
whether she should list
it. You don't have to
14 adopt that position.
I found that she would
15 be suitable because for the past ten years
16 she's had no other record and she's been
17 working
-- apparently the casino doesn't have
18 any problem with her work as a cashier.
19 Of course, the Commission can decide on
20 their own whether or not the facts
21 indicate a deliberate refusal to answer the