Checking Identification and Preventing Sales to Minors
Domain 2 - Checking identification and preventing sales to minors. This domain tests the mechanics of age verification: which IDs you may accept, how to read Indiana's under-21 credential, how to compute age, and when a minor may lawfully be on the premises.
Acceptable ID
Indiana guidance recognizes government-issued photo identification: an Indiana driver's license or state ID card, another state's license or ID, a U.S. passport or passport card, a foreign passport, and a U.S. military ID. Expired credentials are not acceptable. A student ID, a photocopy, a photo of an ID on a phone, or a membership card is not proof of age.
Reading the credential
Indiana issues vertical licenses and ID cards to people under 21, marked in red with an under-21 banner; a horizontal card indicates the holder is 21 or older. Check the photo, date of birth, expiration date, and physical features (holograms, ghost image, thickness). A card that has been altered, punched, or re-laminated is a refusal.
Doing the math
A person turns 21 at 12:00 a.m. on their birthday, not the day after the party. Fast method: subtract 21 from today's year. Anyone born after today's month and day in that year is still 20.
Worked example: Today is June 15, 2025. The ID shows a birth date of June 20, 2004. 2025 minus 21 is 2004, and June 20 falls after June 15, so the customer turns 21 in five days. Refuse the sale; 'it is basically my birthday' is not an exception.
Where minors may be
A minor may not sit at a bar counter where alcohol is served, and minors are barred from tavern and bar areas except as the statute allows; in a restaurant a minor may be seated at a table. Employees aged 18 to 20 may serve on-premises but may not drink.
Traps that cost marks
- Accepting an expired license because the birth date looks right.
- Using the issue date instead of the birth date.
- Treating a fake-ID app as legal proof; it is a tool, not a substitute for judgment.
- Selling to a minor who is with a parent - parental permission is not a defense in Indiana.