NABCA Awards
Mississippi Department of Revenue
Mississippi Automated Revenue System (MARS)
Award Year
2015-2016
Education Award $10,000
Focus Area Regulatory | Enforcement
The Mississippi Department of Revenue’s Office of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) used its award to provide statewide training to permitted businesses on ABC laws and the recently updated Mississippi Automated Revenue Systems (MARS). MARS is Mississippi’s statewide system for conducting ABC business, from placing liquor orders to permit applications and renewals. Interfacing with ABC through MARS is key for permittees to remain in compliance with state and local law and regulation and to successfully conduct business involving ABC-regulated wine and spirits.
The Mississippi ABC is tasked with maintaining fair and equitable enforcement of local alcohol laws that vary by city and county to promote safe and responsible alcohol sales, service and consumption. ABC imports, stores, and sells 3 million cases of spirits and wines annually, collaborating with Mississippi’s 2,000 retail outlets. Like many states, permits can vary, and ABC-permitted businesses must be familiar with these nuances in addition to local law on alcohol sales and services to maintain high compliance rates.
To encourage compliance with ABC laws and regulations, the ABC trained permittees using Mississippi’s Guidebook for Alcohol Permit Holders, which outlines the permit application and renewal processes and provides guidelines for different permit types. The two-part training focused on guaranteeing that all ABC-permitted businesses and staff are knowledgeable about ABC regulations and comfortable using MARS. Thirteen (13) different training sessions were conducted across the state to approximately 500 attendees in nine different cities. The trainings provided technical assistance on regulatory compliance and routine operations.
“We are committed to working with our retail community to make sure they have the necessary education and resources to maintain compliance with the ever-changing state and local laws and regulations,” said Chief Pat Daily, Bureau of Enforcement, Mississippi ABC. “The resources from this award provided us the opportunity to bring a valuable resource to the state which would not have been possible without this support.”
Sales to Intoxicated Patrons Assessment
Award Year
2019-2020
Supplemental Award $50,000
Focus Area Regulatory | Enforcement
Mississippi frequently ranks as one of the states with the highest DUI rates, and one of the contributing factors may be the overservice of alcohol—service of alcohol to people who are already visibly intoxicated. The Mississippi Alcoholic Beverage Control Bureau of Enforcement (MS ABC) used an award from NABCA to assess the prevalence of sales to intoxicated individuals to help inform its training and enforcement efforts moving forward.
The MS ABC worked, in partnership with Responsible Retailing Forum (RRForum), to conduct the S-STOP ("Stop Service to Obviously-impaired Patrons") program by implementing the "Pseudo-Intoxicated" Mystery Shopper (P-IMS) inspections at a random sampling of retail licensees throughout Mississippi to assess how prevalent overservice is among the retail license community. S-STOP employs paid actors to help identify if licensees are overserving alcohol to patrons. These actors, while portraying visibly intoxicated patrons, attempted to purchase alcoholic beverages. The operation employed various scenarios to obtain a broader picture of the issue.
The results revealed a gross overservice of alcoholic beverages and beer to visibly intoxicated patrons with 76% of on-premise establishments (e.g., bars, restaurants, casinos) serving beer or alcoholic beverages (defined in Mississippi as distilled spirits or wine) to the pseudo-intoxicated actors, and 82% of off-premise establishments (e.g., package retailers) selling alcoholic beverages to the pseudo-intoxicated actors.
The high rate of noncompliance indicates more training is needed to educate both licensees and their employees of the visible signs of intoxication and the criminal and civil consequences of violating these laws. MS ABC used a portion of its NABCA award to create a training video to educate licensees on preventing service of alcoholic beverages to visibly intoxicated patrons, highlighting signs of intoxication and emphasizing the ethical and legal consequences the employee and licensees face if an illegal sale is made to a person who is visibly intoxicated. Additionally, a 2021 law change provided for graduated sanctions for licensees when an illegal sale to an intoxicated individual occurs, reinforcing the importance for ongoing enforcement and education of the updated law.