Likelihood of Illegal Alcohol Sales at Professional Sporting Events

To prevent alcohol-related problems, states have made it illegal for alcohol license holders to sell alcohol to patrons who appear obviously intoxicated or not of legal age to purchase alcohol. Research has shown that despite these laws, alcohol establishments still sell alcohol to intoxicated and underage patrons; however, no research has been conducted regarding prevalence of illegal alcohol sales at professional sports stadiums. To assess the likelihood of illegal alcohol sales at sports stadiums, we conducted pseudo-underage (persons age 21 or over who have been judged to appear under 21) and pseudo-intoxicated (professional actors displaying signs of obvious intoxication) alcohol purchase attempts (n=159) at professional sporting events (football, baseball, basketball and hockey games) in seven metropolitan areas in the U.S. between September 2005 and November 2006. Following a strict protocol, the pseudo-intoxicated buyers were able to purchase alcohol 74% of the time, with sales to buyers more likely when the seller was male. Pseudo-underage buyers were able to purchase alcohol 18% of the time, with sales to buyers more likely when the attempt was conducted in the stands versus at concession booth. Results from numerous bivariate and multivariate analyses will be presented and implications of all results will be discussed.