I am a student currently studying at Birmingham City University. As part of my business cource I am investigating the possability of starting up and running a public house that had types of vending machines instead of bar staff that would serve beers and wines etc. to customers. It is thought that this could cut down on queue lengths and times.

If there were doormen checking people's ages before they entered the premisis, would there still be legal implications on the fact that a machine would be serving alcohol to the public rather than a person? Also, are there any other legal implications I should be considering?

Thanks

I hate to tell you this, davidctkeeling, but your idea doesn't have too much merit because there is too much room for human error. Just having doormen checking people to see if they are of legal age just doesn't add up to zero tolerance. What if they let 'just a few illegals in' and they get booze from the machines. You are liable.

Now if you said you had a new type of machine that would take ID and serve liquor, then that would be different. You are eliminating the human error factor.

You would have to get approval from the liquor board first. And if it works the same why where you are as in Ontario, getting a liquor licence isn't all that easy.

tickle isn't there just as much room for error by the bar person as the bouncer?

David, have you looked in for the regulations for cigarette machines? How does the law work with those?
Perhaps someone could be in the bar area to check no-one underage was using the machines? ID could be checked at the door or by the bar supervisor?

Sorry if my last post was unclear.
In general when places have self-service machines they have someone supervising them in case one of the machine goes wrong.
e.g. in somerfield and in asda they have cashier-less checkouts but there is someone supervising the group of machines.
That person could also be looking out for underage people.