The Florida quota liquor license lottery
Last verified: August 15, 2026 against 6 primary sources.
You want a full bar and you have been quoted six figures for the license. Before you find that money, there is a $100 way into the same license, and it opens once a year for six weeks. That is the Florida liquor license lottery.
Florida caps how many full liquor licenses exist in each county. That cap is why a bar license trades for so much, and why once a year the state draws lots for the new ones. If you want a full bar and you are not running a restaurant, the drawing is one of only two ways in.
The 2026 entry period opens August 17, 2026 and closes September 30, 2026. That is six weeks. Entry is $100 per entry, and there are 63 licenses across 30 counties in this cycle (DBPR notice of the 2026 quota drawing entry period).
What is a quota liquor license in Florida?
A quota license is a full liquor license, beer and wine and spirits, that is not tied to running a restaurant. It is the license a bar or a nightclub needs.
The catch is in the name. Florida limits how many exist in each county: one license for every 7,500 residents of the county (Fla. Stat. 561.20(2)(a)4). New ones appear only when a county's population grows enough to earn another. That is why they trade for so much, and why the state has to run a drawing rather than simply selling them.
The annual fee once you hold one is the ordinary liquor schedule, $624 to $1,820 a year by county population (Fla. Stat. 565.02). The fee has never been the expensive part. Getting hold of the license is.
When is the Florida liquor license lottery for 2026?
Everything in this section comes from the department's own notice for this cycle (DBPR notice of the 2026 quota drawing entry period). Check it yourself before you file, because these dates change every year.
| Entry opens | August 17, 2026 (12:00 A.M. EST) |
|---|---|
| Entry closes | September 30, 2026 (5:00 P.M. EST) |
| Entry fee | $100 per entry |
| Entry form | FORM DBPR ABT 6033, online or from any district office |
| Licenses available | 63 in 30 counties |
Entry forms have to reach the Division before the deadline, not just mailed by it. Payment is by check or money order if you mail it, or card if you enter online (DBPR notice of the 2026 quota drawing entry period).
Which counties have licenses this cycle
Only these 30 counties are in the 2026 drawing. The notice is blunt about what happens if you enter for a county that is not on the list: the form is refused and your money comes back (DBPR notice of the 2026 quota drawing entry period).
| County | Licenses |
|---|---|
| Alachua | 1 |
| Brevard | 3 |
| Broward | 4 |
| Charlotte | 2 |
| Collier | 1 |
| Dade | 5 |
| Duval | 3 |
| Flagler | 1 |
| Franklin | 1 |
| Hillsborough | 3 |
| Jackson | 1 |
| Lake | 3 |
| Lee | 2 |
| Leon | 1 |
| Manatee | 2 |
| Marion | 2 |
| Okaloosa | 1 |
| Orange | 3 |
| Osceola | 4 |
| Palm Beach | 2 |
| Pasco | 2 |
| Polk | 5 |
| Santa Rosa | 1 |
| Sarasota | 1 |
| St Johns | 3 |
| St Lucie | 1 |
| Sumter | 1 |
| Suwannee | 1 |
| Volusia | 2 |
| Walton | 1 |
When is the drawing itself?
We are not going to give you a date, because DBPR has not published one. The notice sets out the entry window and nothing else, and neither the notice nor the drawing page says when the draw happens or when results go out (DBPR quota license drawing page, DBPR notice of the 2026 quota drawing entry period). If you need to know, the division lists an address for exactly this: ABT.QuotaDrawing@myfloridalicense.com, or 850-488-8284.
What does it cost if you win the Florida liquor license lottery?
The $100 buys you a place in the draw, nothing else. If a license is actually issued to you there is a one-time fee of $10,750 on top (Fla. Stat. 561.19). The $10,750 is charged once when a new quota license is issued, not at renewal. The money goes to alcohol and drug abuse education, treatment, and prevention programs.
You may see that figure called the "Hughes Act" fee. Those words appear nowhere in the statute. It is section 561.19, and it applies to new quota licenses only and it is not charged on a restaurant SFS license, whatever you read elsewhere. More on that mix-up on what a Florida liquor license costs.
Can you buy a Florida quota liquor license instead?
Existing quota licenses change hands privately, which is the other way in. We are not going to quote you a price.
The state does not set, publish, or track what a quota license sells for. Every figure in circulation comes from brokers who earn a commission on the sale, or from sites that label their own numbers as estimates. Repeating them would make this page look more useful and be worth less. If you go this route, get real quotes and treat any published range as an opening position.
Where people lose weeks
Missing a six-week window that only opens once a year
The 2026 entry period runs August 17, 2026 to September 30, 2026 (DBPR notice of the 2026 quota drawing entry period). Miss it and the next opportunity is a year away, which for a lease already running is not a delay you can absorb.
Entering for a county that is not in the drawing
Thirty counties are in this cycle. The other thirty-seven are not. An entry naming a county that is not on the list is returned along with the payment (DBPR notice of the 2026 quota drawing entry period), and you find that out by mail rather than at the time.
Waiting on a lottery you never needed
This is the big one. Plenty of people planning a restaurant assume a full bar means a quota license, then wait a year for a drawing they had no reason to enter. If the dining room meets the size and revenue test, there is a license that skips the wait entirely.
Let us prepare the entry form
The state charges $100 to enter. We prepare your entry so it isn't bounced for a paperwork mistake. Winning is luck; entering clean is not.
You can fill this form in yourself. It is one page, it is free to download, and nothing here is hard. What it is, is unforgiving. Every field has to be filled in or marked N/A, every person you list has to sign it in ink, and the county you write in Section 2 has to be one of the thirty on the list. Get one of those wrong and the envelope comes back, or the state mails you a deficiency letter and starts a 14 day clock you did not know was running.
The 2026 window closes September 30, 2026 and the form has to reach Tallahassee before then, not just be postmarked (DBPR notice of the 2026 quota drawing entry period). If that is close, the mail is the part to worry about, not the form.
What $99 gets you
- Your ABT-6033 entry form prepared and completed
- Every field filled or marked N/A, the way the state asks for
- A filing sheet: where to mail it, who signs it, when it has to be there
- The deadline rules written out plainly
One flat fee, paid one time. No subscription. Covers one entry in one county. That is the state's rule, not ours: one entry form per county, and one entry per entrant in any county.
What it does not get you
- The $100. That is the state's fee and you pay it directly, by check or money order made out to the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco. It never passes through us. It is not refundable, win or lose.
- Mailing it. You sign it in ink and you mail it. We tell you where.
- Picking your county. We show you the thirty counties the state published and how many licenses are up in each. Which one you enter is yours to decide, and so is who you list as an interested person.
- Better odds. Nobody can sell you those.
Restaurants: you probably do not need this
A restaurant with at least 2,000 square feet of service area, seating and capacity for 120 people, and at least 51% of its food and drink revenue coming from food and nonalcoholic drinks can hold a full bar without a quota license at all (Fla. Stat. 561.20(2)(a)4). Same drinks, same annual fee, no drawing, no six-figure purchase.
That is the the 4COP-SFS restaurant license, and for most people opening a restaurant it is the answer to this entire page. Worth reading before you post a $100 check.