Can you give alcohol away as a prize?

[Chris-TT]

Does anyone know if you are allowed to give away bottles of bubbly as a prize (not to be drunk on the premises) without an alcohol license? If not are there any loopholes to giving away free bottles of bubbly?

How to schools fetes etc.. get away with it?

 

[.Spiralling.]

When I was at uni I worked in a Haagen Dazs restaurant. At one point we had a promotion in which a certain ice cream dish was served with a free Bailey's miniature. We didn't have an alcohol license, so couldn't sell it the Bailey's but we could give it away (but only, IIRC, to over 18s)

 

[estwig]

Not sure about this one Chris, difficult to be certain.
If you could send me a sample, I am sure I could clear it up for you!!!!

 

[An Oasis]

I'm with Keith on this one Chris a very dodgy idea without having an expert opinion, which I normally charge for, however, as you are a UKBF member that charge will be waived.

 

[wanderer1825]

It's perfectly OK to give booze away.
Send some to me please

 

[Richie N]

Yeh champagne is always a good gesture

 

[estwig]

Gesture this way then Richie!!!

 

[Richie N]

Gesture this way then Richie!!!

LOL I'm still waiting on yours Keith...

 

[Chris-TT]

Lol, ok cheers guys, not 100% certain if that's a yes or a no though… Just to clarify how we would be giving it away…
Corporate events, we would give a bottle of bubbly to the overall winner. Obviously we charge for they event, but would give a complementary bottle to the winner, this ok?

 

[da8iwr]

There are loads of places which have got around the licence laws by doing "Raffles" which means you could win a drink of your choice.

You buy a ticket and hey presto it wins a drink of your choice. The tickets cost the same as the drink would, and every ticket is a winner. But you are still buying a ticket, not a drink, which means you don't need a licence.

There was a club in Sunderland riddled with drugs
http://www.sunderland-echo.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?SectionID=1107&ArticleID=1616153

It was closed down, the owners then lost their licenses and opened a music venue, where you pay to enter, but get free drinks all night. Hence no license required.

I'm not a lawyer, or a licence holder, but I'm pretty confident on this one.

 

[Alby10]

There is no specific law about giving alcohol away, that i am aware of, we often give away gifts/incentives, the only thing i can think of is that you may be age restricted

 

[Delboy]

as long as you can garentee that it can not get in to the hands of an underage person, and its purely a game of luck, then yes you can.

 

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They used to hold beach parties in Newquay a few years back. There was a group of lads that seemed to be there every year who sold lollipops for about a £1 - you got a free can of beer with each lollipop.

They were stopped from doing it after a few years (although I don't know whether that was because of the booze or whether the police used another law to stop them).