R.I. Gen. Laws § 3-8-5

This is the official text of R.I. Gen. Laws § 3-8-5, part of Rhode Island’s Gen. Laws — part of the compiled statutory law of Rhode Island, published by the state as "Gen. Laws." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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§ 3-8-5. Penalty for violations relating to underage persons.

Official statutory text

Any person who sells or suffers to be sold or delivered any beverage to a person who has not reached his or her twenty-first (21st) birthday either for his or her own use or the use of his or her parents or any other person, or allows any person who has not reached his or her twenty-first (21st) birthday to drink beverages on premises licensed under this title or suffers or allows any persons who have not reached their eighteenth (18th) birthday to sell or serve any beverage on the premises shall for the first offense be subject to a fine of two hundred fifty dollars ($250); for the second offense, be subject to a fine of five hundred dollars ($500), and for the third and any subsequent offense, be subject to a fine of seven hundred fifty dollars ($750). In the event that there are no offenses in three (3) successive years from the date of the last offense, then the next offense shall be treated as a first offense. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to prevent licensees from hiring any person who has reached his or her eighteenth birthday.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.