Last updated on March 19th, 2024 at 02:45 pm
At the end of 2023 on December 14th, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed House Bill 1096, which is now being referred to as Pennsylvania Act 49. This new legislation is an amendment to the Liquor Code from April 12, 1951. This new act went into effect 60 days after the bill was passed, so as of February 12, 2024, Pennsylvania Act 49 is now active.
New Legislation
Pennsylvania Act 49 establishes that amusement parks may sell liquor and malt or brewed beverages from 11:00AM – 11:00PM, when appropriately licensed. An amusement park that holds a public venue license shall utilize a transaction scan device to verify the age of an individual who appears to be under thirty five years of age before making a sale of liquor and malt brewed beverages.
ID Scanning Requirements
As defined by the law, the transaction scan device must be capable of deciphering, in an electronically readable format, the information encoded on the magnetic stripe or bar code of an identification card. In other words, you need an ID scanner that can read and parse the data into an easily readable format.
PII and Data Retention
Pennsylvania Act 49 specifically states that an amusement park may not sell or share any data from the use of a transaction scan device. The licensee is, however, allowed to retain the data from said scans to show the enforcement bureau of the board that they remain in compliance with Pennsylvania Act 49.
Solutions to Ensure Compliance
We offer an extensive suite of options to ensure your business remains compliant. Our wide range of ID Scanners, combined with our VeriScan visitor management software can allow your business to catch up to 95% of fake IDs. We offer both handheld and desktop solutions, which can be customized to meet your specific needs. Our VeriScan software is also configured to allow complete customization of what data your business stores, and for how long. VeriScan also creates a unique visitor profile after the scan of an ID, so the data and history are easily retrievable in the event that you need to show your data to the enforcement bureau. For more updates surrounding Pennsylvania Act 49 or other Pennsylvania ID scanning laws, be sure to visit our ID scanning laws page!
