SB650

SB650, the Deshawn Jagwan Act, requires visual ID inspection and electronic age verification for covered alcohol sales for off-premises consumption. The sale must occur on licensed or permitted premises. If the driver’s license, commercial driver’s license or identification certificate cannot be scanned, its information may be manually entered into an electronic reader. This is not a universal scanning rule for every bar, restaurant or alcohol transaction. Section 109.61(a-1).

Exceptions cover sales on the premises of distillers/rectifiers, wineries, brewers, brewpubs and mixed-beverage permit holders; restaurants and the specified food-and-beverage-certificate restaurants; authorized sellers at qualifying entertainment-facility events; the specified wine-shipping and licensed delivery arrangements; and outdoor pickup on the retailer’s premises of manufacturer-sealed containers for off-premises consumption. The final law does not retain a blanket package-store exception. Complete list of exceptions.

Three agency-discipline protections must be kept separate. A connectivity failure is protected when the seller visually checks the listed ID. A covered license or permit holder is protected from agency discipline for a sale to a minor when the required electronic access was performed and the device identified the ID as valid and the purchaser as at least 21. And the commission may not discipline a holder for violating the new checking requirement in sales made before September 1, 2027. That last provision expires September 1, 2028. These protections address agency discipline, not blanket immunity from every lawsuit or criminal charge. Sections 109.61(a-2)–(a-4).

The section retains its Class A misdemeanor provision and adds defenses specifically to prosecution for failure to access the electronic information: a preventing internet/data connectivity problem, or a purchaser who was at least 40 on the purchase date. Age 40 is a defense to that charge, not a general exemption written into the scanning duty. The final law also prohibits retaining information accessed under the section, removing the former commission-required-retention exception. Sections 109.61(b), (d) and (d-1); Earlier retention and offense provisions.

The bill became law without the governor’s signature on June 22, 2025, and took effect September 1, 2025. Implementing rules are due by September 1, 2027. The act’s effective date is not postponed to 2027: the temporary protection concerns the specified agency discipline, and does not expressly postpone the criminal provisions. History; Sections 3–4 and temporary protection.