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Speaker 1: And she joins me on the line. Right now, the

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Speaker 1: new general manager is Avril Bains. Good morning to you, Avril, Good.

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Speaker 2: Morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners. Avril.

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Speaker 1: This is a great move obviously. Like I said, you

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Speaker 1: are a thirty year Northern Territory and you've been here

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Speaker 1: for a long time, and I know that you're incredibly

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Speaker 1: passionate about the territory coming in at a fairly tough

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Speaker 1: time though as the GM, aren't you.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it certainly still a lot of challenges ahead for

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Speaker 2: the property. So I'm very confident though that we have

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Speaker 2: the right team around us to make sure that we

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Speaker 2: can navigate through those effectively. Avril.

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Speaker 1: There's been a few people get in contact with us

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Speaker 1: this morning wondering at the moment what parts of the

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Speaker 1: resort are opened at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Okay, So we have all of our gaming areas, so

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Speaker 2: the main part of the casino is open. We also

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Speaker 2: have the sports bar open that's under its normal trading hours,

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Speaker 2: and the View restaurant is open as well, but that

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Speaker 2: is no longer a buffet now. We've moved away from

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Speaker 2: the buffet offering just because of the concerns around safety

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Speaker 2: and COVID risk and we have a fantastic new distro

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Speaker 2: menu that's available in there now, and we've also just

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Speaker 2: recently reintroduced our seniors meals offerings because seniors meals were

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Speaker 2: very popular leading up to the closed down, so we've

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Speaker 2: managed to introduce those back, which is fantastic. So of

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Speaker 2: course most people would be used to the casino being

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Speaker 2: a twenty four to seven operation, it's no longer that

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Speaker 2: at this point in time. So the property is open

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Speaker 2: from ten am until four am.

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Speaker 1: And Avril with the actual resort side of things, so

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Speaker 1: with the hotel, accommodation and the other parts of the resort,

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Speaker 1: when do you anticipate that they may be able to

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Speaker 1: get reopened?

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Speaker 2: Look, Katie, good news. We did actually have a bit

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Speaker 2: of a soft opening of a small part of the

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Speaker 2: hotel just over the last weekend. And so what we're

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Speaker 2: planning on doing is just having a limited number of

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Speaker 2: rooms available on limited nights they're covering on those weekends,

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Speaker 2: and then that gives us an opportunity to gauge demand

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Speaker 2: and see whether we can start to look at opening

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Speaker 2: up some additional rooms. At this point in time, the

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Speaker 2: resort isn't open.

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Speaker 1: Ok, We've had quite a few people get in contact

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Speaker 1: this morning about that, just wondering when it may open.

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Speaker 1: So it's obviously something that people are missing missing at

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Speaker 1: the moment and they want to get back there.

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Speaker 2: Look, it's very popular, It's always been very popular for staycations,

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Speaker 2: and we certainly know that and nothing would make me

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Speaker 2: happier to be able to sit here and share with

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Speaker 2: the listeners that we were fully reopening as but obviously

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Speaker 2: we need to be very conscious of the fact that

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Speaker 2: the COVID environment still lacks a lot of certainty, so

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Speaker 2: it's really difficult to set definite dates around the reopening

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Speaker 2: of other areas of the business. And we're also coming

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Speaker 2: into that low season as well, you know, traditionally this

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Speaker 2: is when things wind down. But we do have the

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Speaker 2: Infinity Pool open, which is a great spot for those

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Speaker 2: people who are sort of looking for that Bali experience.

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Speaker 2: So the Infinity pools open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and

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Speaker 2: that's always been hugely popular and still is with the

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Speaker 2: locals looking for that kind of beach club experience.

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Speaker 1: And Avril, as you touched on, you know, we know

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Speaker 1: that there has been a lot of uncertainty as a

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Speaker 1: result of COVID, and it's something that I just don't

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Speaker 1: think anybody you know, ever really saw coming. And for

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Speaker 1: a big employer like the Mindle Beach Casino Resort, it's

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Speaker 1: been a difficult time for you guys, hasn't it.

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Speaker 2: Look it has been very difficult. It's one of those

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Speaker 2: things that I remember well leading into the twenty third

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Speaker 2: of March, which is when we officially had to close down,

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Speaker 2: that the landscape, this COVID landscape, was changing almost hourly, Katie,

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Speaker 2: and it was something that nobody could be prepared for

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Speaker 2: and nobody had any idea how to manage. So it's

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Speaker 2: one of those things that we've the same as the

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Speaker 2: rest of the industry. We've all had to learn from

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Speaker 2: our experiences as we go along, and we're just doing

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Speaker 2: the best we can to stay up to pace with

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Speaker 2: the changing economic environment, but also our commitment to care

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Speaker 2: standards that we're set in in ensuring that we're keeping

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Speaker 2: our staff and visitors to the property safe from COVID

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Speaker 2: and Avril.

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Speaker 1: As I said at the start, you know, obviously you're

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Speaker 1: taking over the role as general manager. You've been living

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Speaker 1: in the territory for thirty years, and you know many

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Speaker 1: people will know you as a long term territory and

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Speaker 1: you must be pretty proud to be taking over this role,

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Speaker 1: even though it is in you know, a difficult period

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Speaker 1: as such as COVID.

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Speaker 2: Oh look I am I'm so honored and proud to

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Speaker 2: have been selected to lead the team. You know, it's

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Speaker 2: a real indication that Delaware North acknowledges the importance that

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Speaker 2: this property has with its connection to the community. It's

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Speaker 2: the first company that's sort of recognized that and as

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Speaker 2: a result appointed the GM from the local community. So

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Speaker 2: I could not be prouder. And I've got a wonderful

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Speaker 2: team around us. And I was just chatting this morning

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Speaker 2: as I was coming across the gaming floor Katie to

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Speaker 2: one of our staff members who have been here since

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Speaker 2: day two, nearly thirty seven years.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, it's a long time, isn't it. And

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Speaker 1: Dick does go to show you that, you know that

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Speaker 1: they're at Mendel Beach Casino and Resort, there are people

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Speaker 1: that have worked there for an incredibly long time, and

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Speaker 1: it does sound like it's a close knit team.

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Speaker 2: It's a very close knit team. There's me and there's

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Speaker 2: families amongst the bigger family as well, so you know,

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Speaker 2: we went a hospitality's largest employers and we do consider

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Speaker 2: ourselves to be a big family. And then of course

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Speaker 2: you know your restaurants have their own smaller families. And

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Speaker 2: it's an absolute pleasure to come to work every day

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Speaker 2: and know almost everybody by their first name and be

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Speaker 2: able to have that genuine engagement with people who share

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Speaker 2: the same commitment and passion to providing an exceptional guest experience.

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Speaker 1: And Avril, are there any priorities that you sort of

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Speaker 1: want to get stuck into when taking on this new role.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think the key priority needs to be, Katie,

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Speaker 2: is doing what we can do to set ourselves up

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Speaker 2: before what is hopefully going to be post COVID. Of course,

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Speaker 2: we're not there yet, and until we have sort of

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Speaker 2: vaccine or potentially a cure, we're going to be left

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Speaker 2: with some restrictions such as social distancing and other sorts

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Speaker 2: of requirements along those lines. So for me, it's about

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Speaker 2: providing great leadership to the team that are here and

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Speaker 2: making sure that we are setting ourselves up as best

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Speaker 2: we can to emerge from the COVID.

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Speaker 1: Avril, I have just got a message from one of

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Speaker 1: our listeners and it says, would you be able to

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Speaker 1: ask Averril about the redundancies, will you hire any back?

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Speaker 2: We would like to be in a position that we

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Speaker 2: can hire the redundancies back. Unfortunately, I mean one redundancy,

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Speaker 2: as we know, is too many. We were very fortunate

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Speaker 2: that job Keeper did provide us with a support so

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Speaker 2: that ultimately we only made twelve people redundant, which was

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Speaker 2: significantly less than we thought we might be looking to do.

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Speaker 2: As I said, job Keeper really assisted us with that.

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Speaker 2: What we have done is provided the stuff have been

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Speaker 2: made redundant with appropriate support. So we've paid for career

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Speaker 2: transitioning and resume writing and other sorts of supports for

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Speaker 2: them to try and put them in the best possible

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Speaker 2: position to get suitable employment for them now, because that's

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Speaker 2: what's critically important to them is being able to get

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Speaker 2: employment and get wages and salary coming back into their families.

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Speaker 2: We would love to have anybody that was made redundant

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Speaker 2: return to the workforce if we are in a position

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Speaker 2: to do that at.

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Speaker 1: Some point, yeah, averl. One of the other things that

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Speaker 1: was announced last week is obviously the government came out

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Speaker 1: and said that they're going to introduce well I guess

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Speaker 1: you'd say greater measures to be able to do that

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Speaker 1: contact tracing. So, whether it's the QR codes or whether

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Speaker 1: you actually have to fill in your details when you

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Speaker 1: enter different locations, is that something that the casino obviously

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Speaker 1: is supportive of.

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Speaker 2: Oh, we're very supportive. Event We've been working very closely

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Speaker 2: with the government and the Department and Health to partner

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Speaker 2: with them in the best possible way we can to

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Speaker 2: ensure that in the event that there is a positive

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Speaker 2: COVID case somewhere in Darwen, we would be able to

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Speaker 2: provide any support for them that they would need to

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Speaker 2: track that down well.

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Speaker 1: Avril Baines, the new general manager at Delaware North at

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Speaker 1: Darwin Mindle Beach Casino Resort. Lovely to speak with you

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Speaker 1: this morning. Congratulations on taking.

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Speaker 2: On the role. Thank you, Katie. Always a pleasure.

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Speaker 1: Good to talk to you. Thanks Averril,