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This week, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s (DBPR) Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco opened the entry period for the 2020 Quota Beverage License Drawing. For the 2020 entry period, entry forms will be accepted until the filing deadline on September 30, 2020.
Quota beverage licenses authorize the holder of the license to sell beer, wine, and distilled spirits, either for package sales only or for consumption on and off the licensed premises, depending on the license series elected. The Florida Beverage Law limits the total number of quota alcoholic beverage licenses by county population estimates, authorizing the Division to issue no more than one license for every 7,500 residents within a county. Each year, the Division analyzes population data in Florida’s 67 counties, and if one or more on the licenses are eligible to be entered into the drawing, opens the drawing process for a 45-day period beginning the third Monday in August.
The 2020 drawing entry period will include 62 new quota beverage licenses available for issuance in 30 counties, including: Brevard, Broward, Calhoun, Clay, Collier, Dade, DeSoto, Duval, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Lake, Lee, Leon, Levy, Manatee, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Sarasota, Seminole, Sumter, Volusia and Walton.
Once the entry period closes at 5 p.m. on September 30, 2020, the Division will process qualifying entries and announce the winners during a public drawing at a later date. Entrants selected from the drawing will be awarded the right to apply to hold one of the available licenses in the county from which their entry was selected. During the 2019 entry period, for which rights to apply for available licenses were recently awarded following the public drawing, the Division received more than 23,500 entries for 51 licenses in 27 counties.
Entrants can apply by using DBPR’s online portal to pay by credit card. To enter and pay by check or money order, applications and payment can be mailed or hand delivered to the following address:
Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco
Attn: Quota Beverage License Drawing
2601 Blair Stone Road
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1019
For more information about the Quota Beverage License Drawing entry process, interested entrants are encouraged to contact a local Division of Alcoholic Beverage and Tobacco District Office or visit our website by clicking HERE.