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Florida's 2026 quota liquor license drawing: 63 licenses, 30 counties, entries close Sept. 30
Florida caps the number of quota beverage licenses in each county by population and releases new ones through a yearly random drawing. The 2026 entry window is open until 5 p.m. on Sept. 30. Here is what is on offer in each county, how many people entered for the same counties in the last two drawings, and how the drawing works.
The 2026 entry window
- Dates. Entries are accepted from 12:00 a.m. on Aug. 17, 2026 until 5:00 p.m. on Sept. 30, 2026, and must be received by the Division before the deadline. (DBPR notice)
- How to enter. Online through DBPR Online Services, or on form DBPR ABT 6033 by mail or hand delivery to the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco in Tallahassee. (DBPR notice)
- Fee. $100 per entry, by check or money order by mail or by credit card online. (DBPR notice)
- County matters. An entry naming a county that is not on the 2026 list is not accepted; the entry and payment are returned. (DBPR notice)
Licenses by county, with the last two years of demand
The 2026 column is the Division's published allocation. The 2025 and 2024 columns come from the Division's applicant summaries for those drawings (2025, 2024), which list applicants and quota licenses per county. "Per license" is simply applicants divided by licenses in that year. A county that was not in a given year's drawing shows "not offered".
| County | 2026 licenses | 2025 applicants | 2025 licenses | 2025 per license | 2024 applicants | 2024 licenses | 2024 per license |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alachua | 1 | not offered | 786 | 1 | 786 | ||
| Brevard | 3 | 1,305 | 2 | 652 | 1,315 | 2 | 658 |
| Broward | 4 | 989 | 1 | 989 | 1,011 | 1 | 1,011 |
| Charlotte | 2 | 1,028 | 1 | 1,028 | 993 | 1 | 993 |
| Collier | 1 | 1,011 | 1 | 1,011 | 1,014 | 1 | 1,014 |
| Miami-Dade (listed as Dade) | 5 | 1,030 | 1 | 1,030 | 1,086 | 1 | 1,086 |
| Duval | 3 | 1,662 | 2 | 831 | 2,344 | 4 | 586 |
| Flagler | 1 | not offered | 944 | 1 | 944 | ||
| Franklin | 1 | not offered | not offered | ||||
| Hillsborough | 3 | 1,636 | 3 | 545 | 1,388 | 2 | 694 |
| Jackson | 1 | not offered | not offered | ||||
| Lake | 3 | 1,566 | 4 | 392 | 999 | 2 | 500 |
| Lee | 2 | 1,472 | 3 | 491 | not offered | ||
| Leon | 1 | not offered | 1,205 | 1 | 1,205 | ||
| Manatee | 2 | 1,396 | 2 | 698 | 1,410 | 2 | 705 |
| Marion | 2 | 988 | 2 | 494 | 1,020 | 2 | 510 |
| Okaloosa | 1 | not offered | 856 | 1 | 856 | ||
| Orange | 3 | 2,040 | 3 | 680 | 1,609 | 1 | 1,609 |
| Osceola | 4 | 1,172 | 2 | 586 | 1,130 | 2 | 565 |
| Palm Beach | 2 | 1,347 | 2 | 674 | 1,384 | 2 | 692 |
| Pasco | 2 | 1,454 | 3 | 485 | 1,190 | 2 | 595 |
| Polk | 5 | 1,722 | 7 | 246 | 1,596 | 7 | 228 |
| Santa Rosa | 1 | not offered | 1,175 | 1 | 1,175 | ||
| Sarasota | 1 | 1,417 | 2 | 708 | 1,514 | 2 | 757 |
| St. Johns | 3 | 1,583 | 2 | 792 | 1,768 | 2 | 884 |
| St. Lucie | 1 | 1,025 | 2 | 512 | 1,390 | 3 | 463 |
| Sumter | 1 | not offered | 941 | 2 | 470 | ||
| Suwannee | 1 | not offered | not offered | ||||
| Volusia | 2 | 1,058 | 1 | 1,058 | 979 | 1 | 979 |
| Walton | 1 | not offered | 1,279 | 1 | 1,279 | ||
| Statewide total | 63 | 31,904 | 52 | 614 | 37,491 | 54 | 694 |
A few patterns in the Division's own numbers. Orange County drew the most applicants of any county in 2025 (2,040 for 3 licenses). Polk had 7 licenses in both 2024 and 2025, the most of any county, and has 5 in 2026. Miami-Dade has 5 licenses in 2026 after 1 in each of the previous two drawings, and Broward has 4 after 1 in each. 3 of the 2026 counties were in neither the 2024 nor the 2025 drawing: Franklin, Jackson, Suwannee. Past demand is not a forecast of 2026 entries; it is only what the Division recorded.
Statewide, 31,904 applicants competed for 52 licenses in 2025 and 37,491 for 54 in 2024, according to the two summaries.
How the drawing works
All of the following comes from the Division's quota drawing overview.
- Why licenses become available. The drawing is held under sections 561.19(2)(a) and 561.20(1), Florida Statutes, and Rule 61A-5.0105, F.A.C. The number of licenses per county is set from the Florida population estimate published by the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research. In most counties a quota license is added for each increase of 7,500 residents. Special acts set different thresholds in five counties: 4,000 residents in Polk, 7,500 in Nassau, and 5,000 in Duval, Lake and Leon.
- Entry period. Each year the Division accepts entry forms for 45 days beginning the third Monday in August.
- Deficient entries. If an entry form is deficient, the applicant gets a deficiency letter and 14 days to supply the missing information, or the entry is excluded. An excluded applicant has 21 days to request a hearing under Chapter 120, F.S.
- The drawing. Nine numbered balls drawn from a machine form a nine-digit seed that starts the Division's drawing program, with a law enforcement officer verifying each number. The morning of the drawing, the Division posts the list of counties with applicant counts and the list of applicants by name.
- If you win. Winners are notified by certified letter within five days of the drawing and must complete and file a license application within 45 days.
Past results, entrant lists and applicant summaries back to earlier drawings are on the Division's archives page; the 2025 winners are in this list. Current active and inactive quota license listings and the transfer fee computation are on the quota licenses page.
Why operators watch this
States that release capped licenses do it in different ways. Pennsylvania sells expired restaurant licenses to the highest bidder; we compiled every result in Pennsylvania's 15 license auctions. Florida uses a lottery for new quota licenses, so the entry fee is the same for everyone and the constraint is the number of other entrants in your county. The 2017 Restaurateur News overview of the restaurant liquor license covers the basics.