Montana State Legislature
Alcoholic Beverage Control Division
ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL DIVISION
of Department of Revenue
Division Leadership
Becky Schlauch, Division Administrator
Brendan Beatty, Director of Department of Revenue
Appointed by the Governor
Division Website
Division Overview
The Alcoholic Beverage Control Division oversees the manufacture, sale, importation, and distribution of alcoholic beverages within the state of Montana. The division consists of two bureaus:
- The Licensing and Compliance Bureau is responsible for licensing alcoholic beverage businesses, and overseeing compliance with the state's alcoholic beverage laws with respect to the manufacturing, distributing, and retailing of alcoholic beverages, as provided for in the Montana Alcoholic Beverage Code (Title 16 of the Montana Code Annotated)
- The Liquor Distribution Bureau is responsible for overseeing and managing receipt and distribution of alcoholic beverages in the state through agency liquor stores and by operating the state liquor warehouse.
Legislative Audits
- ABCD is audited with the Department of Revenue's regular audits. The most recent (2020) audit of that department did not specify any concerns about ABCD.
September 2022:
The committee authorized the following agency proposed legislation. The agency noted that several of these bill proposals will be combined, so the proposals reflect ideas rather than individual bills:
- Revise premises suitability for airport licenses
- Clarify alcoholic beverage license applicant vetting
- Clarify alcoholic beverage tax requirements
- Remove competitive bid requirement of an irrevocable letter of credit
- Eliminate beer connoisseur license and create a direct shipment endorsement
- Remove wine amendment
- Revise catering requirements
- Create a beer wholesaler and table wine distributor license
- Revise foreign winery registration
- Restaurant beer/wine license clean up
- Revise agency liquor store laws
- Revise agency store quantity and location
- Revise alcoholic beverage distributor agreement requirements
- Revise Title 16, Chapter 1
- Title 16, Chapter 2 clean up
- Title 16, Chapter 3 modernization
- Clarify fingerprint requirements
- Clarify renewal requirements
- Distillery and winery storage warehouses
- Remove unused tribal licenses
- Premises inspections for all licensees
- Transfer of alcoholic beverages
- Update temporary authority
- Academic brewers license
- Title 16, Chapter 4 cleanup
- Title 16, Chapter 6 cleanup
- Shorten five year premises moratorium for denied applications
- Title 16, Chapter 3 cleanup
- Beer advertising regulations
- Prevent prospecting of licenses
Non-Red Tape Initiative Related
- Revise statutory guidelines regarding death of a licensee
- Remove RBW license restrictions
- Revise criteria for seasonal license status
- Prevent prospecting of licenses-license use requirements
- State sponsored industry trade shows
February 2022:
