Protect Your Business from Age Verification Fines and Penalties
By Maria Jones, Product Manager
Heartland Payment Systems
If your business sells alcohol, tobacco or other age-restricted items — or you operate a bar, nightclub, casino or theater that requires customers to be of legal age to enter — be sure you have an age verification system in place. Use it every time you need to check a customer’s identification to help ensure you don’t serve underage patrons. It will also help protect you from federal and state law enforcement agencies’ fines and penalties — which can range from losing your sales license to closing your business.
Did you know that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a principal law enforcement agency within the Department of Justice (DOJ), requires state police departments to set up decoy operations? During a decoy — or “sting” — operation, a minor enters your business and attempts to purchase prohibited items or be served alcohol. If your business doesn’t check for proper identification and/or sells products to underage patrons — and you fail more than one decoy operation — you may lose the right to sell alcohol and tobacco products. Your liquor license can be revoked after three convictions for serving alcohol to minors. And, in many states, you are liable for serving minors who subsequently injure themselves. Failure to check a patron’s identification can also cost you thousands of dollars — even on a first offense. On top of this, you could spend thousands more on fines and court costs and may even have your business license suspended. Penalties differ by state. Some states may require you to install an age verification system after failing the first decoy operation.
The easiest way to avoid fines and penalties associated with improper age verification is to use a point-of-sale (POS) based age verification system or barcode reader. The barcode on a driver’s license provides information — such as date of birth, license number and expiration date — that can be swiped or recorded with a POS system. This system takes seconds to use. It can be installed in your credit card terminal so you can quickly swipe a license or ID card to verify age and determine if it’s a valid license.
A barcode scanner can also be used instead of a POS system. A POS-based age verification system or barcode reader also allows for special reporting — so you can provide proof that a specific license was checked if authorities request this information later.
Protect your business — and reduce the chance of fines and penalties — by having the right age verification system in place and training your employees to use it.
Maria Jones is a product manager for third-party products such as Age Verification, and is responsible for checks, and gift cards at Heartland Payment Systems. Heartland, a NYSE company trading under the symbol HPY, delivers credit/debit/prepaid card processing, payroll, check management and payment solutions to more than 250,000 businesses nationwide.
Heartland is the founding supporter of The Merchant Bill of Rights, a public advocacy initiative that educates merchants about fair credit and debit card processing practices. For more information, contact Heartland Payment Systems at 866.976.7207, or visit www.HeartlandPaymentSystems.com and www.MerchantBillOfRights.com.