This week, the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco announced that they will accept Quota Beverage License Drawing Entry Forms for forty five days, beginning on the third Monday in August. The entry period began August 20, 2018, and runs until October 3, 2018 at 5:00 P.M. The lottery winners, drawn at random from the pool of applicants, will have the right to apply for alcohol beverage retail licenses which they can either use themselves to open an alcohol beverage retail establishment or resell to an interested buyer. The only way to obtain a quota license is by winning the lottery or buying one on the private market from someone who has already won one, so factors such as supply and demand and location can translate into a potential profit of over $100,000 for lottery winners willing to sell their license on the private market. Quota licenses authorize the sale of beer, wine and liquor and they are limited in the number permitted to be issued by county. Florida is one of seventeen states with quotas on the number of liquor licenses issued to applicants and for every 7,500 people residing in the county according to the census bureau, one quota license may be issued. However, the county must allow the sale of intoxicating liquor in order for a quota license to be issued within that county. For a new quota license, there is an annual license fee which varies by county, and a one-time Hughes Act fee of $10,750 which is slated for alcohol and drug abuse education, treatment and prevention programs. Applications, along…
