WI: New Wisconsin law allows bartenders to apply for “statewide” alcohol-server licenses

WCLO News Talk
By bigradiopush
April 28, 2025

A new Wisconsin law allows bartenders to obtain a license that allows them to work all over the state.

The new law means that bartenders who work in multiple cities statewide no longer need to obtain separate bartender licenses in each municipality they work in.

Over the last couple months, the city of Janesville’s liquor board has wrestled with at least one bartender license seeker lying on their application for a city license.

Janesville liquor board chairwoman Heather Miller says she thinks the state’s new licensing process is aimed at urban bartenders who float between multiple bar-tending gigs throughout a broad geographic region like the Milwaukee metro.

Miller says she is not aware of any bartenders working in Janesville who have skipped the city’s bartender licensing process in favor of the new, statewide process.

Miller says bartenders with spotty records probably won’t be able to use state licenses to try to duck being vetted by a city liquor board.

She says the state’s vetting process, managed through a division of the state Department of Revenue, would be at least as stringent as a city’s process.