Alaska liquor board weighs renewing one of three approved alcohol server courses

Alaska's Alcoholic Beverage Control Board is set to decide Tuesday, Nov. 17, whether to renew TIPS, one of three courses that the state's bartenders, servers, liquor store clerks and ID checkers can take to meet a state training requirement.

Anyone who sells or serves alcohol or checks IDs at most licensed businesses must pass an approved course within 30 days of starting work and renew the card every three years, under state law.

Under Alaska law, an employee who, through criminal negligence, serves a drunk customer or lets one stay or keep drinking can be fined $500. Servers, like the businesses they work for, can also be held liable in civil court for injuries caused by a customer's intoxication if they illegally served a customer who was drunk or under 21, state law says. A licensee who knowingly lets employees serve drunk customers can be charged with a misdemeanor.

People testifying before a House committee in March said Alaska has the worst rating in the country for liquor liability insurance and that premiums had tripled or quadrupled. A bill from Rep. Zack Fields that would have made overservice claims harder to prove never left that committee.

State regulations list 16 subjects every approved course must cover. They range from checking IDs and spotting a drunk person to the criminal negligence standard, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, local option laws that let communities limit or ban alcohol, and gambling, drugs and prostitution. A sample certificate in the application lists the on-premise TIPS course at three hours.

The board has to review each approved course at least every three years. Joe Hamilton, a special investigator with the Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office, reviewed the classroom and online versions of TIPS. "After making corrections to the course, it does meet the requirements," he wrote to the board March 24. His letter doesn't say what was corrected.

The renewal application, from 360training, the Austin, Texas, company that runs TIPS, was stamped received by the state on March 28, 2025, nearly 20 months before Tuesday's meeting.

The form asks how rural businesses will be served. "This will be an online (webinar) course and will be available as requested," the application says. State law requires the board to consider rural licensees' access and to allow courses online or in person. The office's course list says TIPS offers webinar and in-person classes around the state.

The other two approved courses are Training for Alcohol Professionals from Alaska CHARR, offered by webinar and in person, and Alaska Responsible Serving of Alcohol from Rserving, offered online only.