COAMs and your liquor license

Yes, in some circumstances. State law lets a county or city pass an ordinance that suspends or revokes an alcohol license, or any other local license, as a penalty when a location owner or operator is convicted of certain violations of the COAM criminal statute. It also allows penalties for violating the local ordinance itself. Any suspension or revocation has to follow the due process rules for alcohol licenses (O.C.G.A. § 50-27-86).

Whether this reaches you depends on what your own city or county adopted. The state law allows these ordinances; it doesn't write them.

Not simply by banning them outright, at least in the situation the Georgia Supreme Court reviewed. In 2016, the court reversed a conviction under a Clarkston ordinance that barred certain package alcohol retailers from having coin-operated amusement devices. It held that the state's COAM laws preempted the ordinance, at least as applied to COAMs as the state defines them (Gebrekidan v. City of Clarkston).

That doesn't mean local rules don't matter. Local caps, licenses and penalties that state law authorizes still apply. And a separate state-level limit applies here: the Georgia Lottery says it won't issue a Class B license to a retailer of distilled spirits (GLC guide).

They vary, which is why you need to read yours. Three examples:

• Floyd County caps game rooms at six Class B machines, and its ordinance provides for suspending or revoking an alcohol license after a conviction, with a hearing process (Floyd County ordinance).
• Thomasville says package liquor dealers can't permit machines operated for amusement on their premises (Thomasville code, section 3-77).
• Dalton has a similar rule in its alcohol code (Dalton code, section 6-22).

Savannah's ordinance also allows the city to suspend and revoke an alcohol license for violations (City of Savannah). Atlanta's code has its own rule on machines at package liquor stores: see Atlanta's rules. How Gebrekidan affects any particular local rule is a question for an attorney.

The basics are the ones the state enforces anyway: no cash, only allowed prizes, staff who know the rules, the required notices, and keeping your business sales above the line set by the 50% rule. See COAM machines for Georgia bars and restaurants for how the pieces fit.