The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) today selected Loretta Lillios as Director of the Investigations and Enforcement Bureau (IEB). The MGC’s four commissioners voted unanimously to approve the hiring of Ms. Lillios, who has been with the MGC since 2014, serving first as Deputy General Counsel and then as Chief Enforcement Counsel/Deputy Director of IEB. Most recently, she has served since September 2020 as Interim Director of IEB.

As Chief Enforcement Counsel and Deputy Director, IEB, Ms. Lillios’ work focused on protecting the public interest and ensuring the integrity of legal gaming in Massachusetts. She has been responsible for overseeing suitability investigations of applicants for gaming licensure, monitoring the ongoing suitability of corporate casino qualifiers, and overseeing the preparation of enforcement actions involving licensee noncompliance with gaming requirements,

“On behalf of my fellow commissioners, it is my great pleasure to congratulate Loretta on her appointment as Director of the IEB,” said Chair Cathy Judd-Stein. “In addition to her track record of accomplishment as Chief Enforcement Counsel and Deputy Director of the IEB over the past five years, Loretta’s meticulous attention to detail throughout the course of the global COVID-19 pandemic has served both our licensees and the public as she worked to ensure compliance with the regulations promulgated by the Commission to support a safe and sustained reopening for casinos in the Commonwealth.”

Lillios participated in a competitive hiring process that was led by Chair Judd-Stein and included Commissioner Gayle Cameron, Executive Director Karen Wells and Director of Workforce, Supplier and Diversity Development Jill Griffin.

The Expanded Gaming Act created the Investigations and Enforcement Bureau within the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. Under the statute, the IEB is responsible for the investigation of all licensees. The Director of the IEB has supervision over four divisions within the bureau: the Licensing Division, the Gaming Agents Division, the Financial Investigations Division and the Chief Enforcement Counsel’s Office.

The Director of the IEB also has supervisory authority, in conjunction with the Colonel of the State Police, of the Gaming Enforcement Unit of the Massachusetts State Police, and works with local police departments, the Attorney General’s Office and the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission relative to public safety as well as regulatory and criminal enforcement matters.

The bureau is a law enforcement agency and its employees have law enforcement powers as necessary to effectuate the purposes of M.G.L. Chapter 23K, including the power to receive intelligence on an applicant or licensee under that chapter and to investigate any suspected violations of the gaming laws in the Commonwealth.

Prior to joining the MGC, Ms. Lillios most recently served in the office of the state Attorney General (AGO) as an Assistant Attorney General, where she was assigned to the MGC an investigator. In that role, her duties included reviewing and evaluating reports of State Police investigators and consultants regarding suitability of applicants for gaming licenses. Earlier in her tenure in the Attorney General’s office, she served in the Government Bureau as Special Advisor on Gaming. Her duties included drafting the AGO’s initial Enhanced Code of Ethics and developing an ethics training program for employees of the AGO’s Gaming Enforcement Division; serving as the AGO’s liaison to the Gaming Commission on regulations drafting; and drafting memoranda on tribal issues, such as the Governor’s Compact with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the historical underpinnings of aboriginal hunting and fishing rights.

From 1998 to 2012, Lillios served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office. During her tenure there, Lillios specialized in appellate advocacy, and from 2010 to 2012, she served as Chief Legal Counsel where she was responsible for advising the District Attorney on legal, ethical, policy, and legislative issues.

Prior to her legal career, Lillios worked in publishing and served as the director of conferences for Weingarten Publications.

Lillios is a graduate of the School of Law at Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she earned her Bachelor of Science Degree. Lillios is a graduate of Girls’ Latin School/Boston Latin Academy.

About the Investigations and Enforcement Bureau

The Massachusetts Expanded Gaming Act created the Investigations and Enforcement Bureau within the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) under M.G.L. ch.23K Section 6(a). “There shall be within the commission an investigations and enforcement bureau which shall be the primary enforcement agent for regulatory matters under this chapter. The bureau shall perform such functions as the chair may determine in relation to enforcement, including the investigation of all licensees under this chapter. The bureau shall be under the supervision and control of the deputy director of investigations and enforcement [“Deputy Director, Director of Investigations and Enforcement Bureau”]. The deputy director shall be the executive and administrative head of the bureau and shall be responsible for administering and enforcing the laws relative to the bureau and to each administrative unit of the bureau. The duties of the deputy director as provided in this chapter and in any other general or special law shall be exercised and discharged subject to the direction, control and supervision of the chair.”