Public Health Trust Fund Executive Committee holds first public meeting
- October 07, 2014
- by MGC Communications
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A message from Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Steve Crosby
On Monday, October 6th, the first public meeting of the Public Health Trust Fund Executive Committee was held, which I co-chaired along with Department of Public Health Commissioner Cheryl Bartlett. The Public Health Trust Fund is a legislatively mandated fund, made up of assessments from the expanded gaming licensees (casinos and slots-parlor), for the purpose of funding the gaming research, responsible gaming programs and problem gambling mitigation for the Commonwealth. At full operation, the Public Health Trust Fund is projected to have $15-20M annually available for these purposes, an increase of 10-15 times over the resources available for problem gaming in Massachusetts previously.
During this meeting, the committee adopted a $4M budget for research and problem gambling in FY15, discussed the responsible gaming framework previously approved by the Gaming Commission, and voted to adopt the GameSense Responsible Gaming strategy originally developed by the British Columbia Lottery Corporation. GameSense is a marketing and branding package intended to engage players and the public with responsible gaming and problem gambling information and tools while removing the stigma often associated with accessing these resources.
The other members of the Public Health Trust Fund Executive Committee are Ms. Beth Bresnahan, Executive Director of the Massachusetts State Lottery; Rebekah Gewirtz, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association; Anne Powers, Undersecretary of Law Enforcement, Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. The Committee is staffed by Mark Vander Linden, Director of Research and Problem Gambling for the Gaming Commission and Stefano Keel, Director of Problem Gambling Services for the Department of Public Health.