Imposes the duty to buy and use an identification scanner upon alcoholic beverage licensee found to have given such a beverage to a person under 21

1 Co-sponsor

• David Carlucci

BILL NUMBER:S6434

Title of bill

An act to amend the alcoholic beverage control law, in relation to penalties for the provision, by a licensee, of an alcoholic beverage to a person under the age of 21

Purpose or general idea of bill

The purpose of this bill is to incentivize for licensees that sell alcoholic beverages to the general public to purchase and utilize identification scanners to help curb the sale of alcohol to persons under the age of 21.

Summary of specific provisions

Section 1: Amends Alcoholic Beverage Control Law (ABC)section 3 to add a new subdivision (9-b) that moves the definition for a "scanner" that reads a driver's license to determine if such potential purchaser of alcoholic beverages is of legal age to purchase such beverages from ABC Law section 65- b which exclusively deals with underage drinking and has it apply to the Alcohol Beverage Control Law as a whole.

Section 2: If a licensee that sells alcoholic beverages is determined to have sold alcohol to a person under the age of twenty-one, the State Liquor Authority may, alternatively, require a licensee to purchase a scanning device that can assist such license to ensure that alcoholic beverages are not sold to persons under the age of 21, instead of imposing a civil penalty for selling alcoholic beverages to a minor. The purpose of this provision is to encourage those licensees that have sold alcoholic beverages to a minor to obtain and use scanners to reduce the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors.

Section 3: Amends ABC Law section 65-b to move the definition of scanners from this section to section 3 of the ABC Law

Justification

Modern false identification documents or cards, or Fake IDs, are notoriously difficult to detect and traditional methods of detection of such fake IDs may not catch many modern fakes. Modern Fake IDs are often created professionally by businesses, often overseas, for about $75 to $100 per ID. This legislation is aimed at incentivizing businesses to catch up in the technology race. Under this bill, a licensee that has been found to have been selling alcoholic beverages to a minor may be given a choice by the State Liquor Authority to purchase an identification scanner instead of paying the civil fine for having sold alcohol to a minor.

This does not mandate that businesses buy a scanner immediately. If there is no history of selling to under-aged persons, then there is no problem to fix. It is designed to close points of access to places from which minors procure alcohol.

Prior legislative history

Similar to S. 7126 of 2012

Fiscal implications

None

Effective date

180 days after the act shall have become law; provided, that, effective immediately, any rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions of this act on its effective date are authorized and directed to be added, amended and/or repealed on or before such date.