Refusing entry to banned patrons

Licensees, crowd controllers and staff should understand the different patron bans and how to handle situations when banned patrons try to enter your premises.

Refusing entry to people with court or police bans

You must refuse entry to a patron who is identified by your networked identification (ID) scanning system as having a court or police ban for your premises.

You must also remove banned patrons from your premises if you become aware that they're banned after they've entered.

As the licensee, you can decide whether to allow a person to enter your premises if they have a court or police ban for another premises.

For example, if John Smith is banned by police from entering or remaining in all licensed premises in Mackay and:

  • your regulated premises is in Mackay, you must stop John Smith entering your premises
  • your regulated premises is in Townsville, you don't have to refuse John Smith entry as he is only banned from licensed premises in Mackay.

Reporting a court or police-banned patron

The networked ID scanning system will automatically send an email to the Queensland Police Service (QPS) when a banned patron tries to gain entry to your premises.

The QPS asks licensees to also notify them immediately through:

  • Policelink on 131 444
  • any linked radio with real-time QPS monitoring in a safe night precinct (SNP).

To assist the QPS, your staff or crowd controllers should note the person's description and direction of travel if they leave.

By law, you can't detain a banned person or confiscate their ID.

If you're using a manual ban list (because the ID scanner has failed for some reason), contact the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation (OLGR) with the:

  • date and time of the detection
  • personID (this is located on the manual ban list)
  • nicheID (this is located on the manual ban list)
  • premises' name.

Registering licensee or venue bans

If you ban someone from entering your licensed premises, you'll need to register the ban on the networked ID scanning system.

To register a licensee ban, enter these details:

  • the patron's name
  • their date of birth
  • the timeframe of the ban
  • the reason for the ban
  • their photo.

Your approved operator can give you more information about how to do this.

Managing the entry of people with licensee or venue bans

You can decide whether you're willing to admit someone who's subject to a licensee-issued ban—there's no obligation under the Liquor Act 1992 to stop them from entering.

For example, if John Smith has a licensee ban for a premises in Townsville, each licensee in Townsville (including the licensee who issued the ban) can decide whether to let John Smith into their licensed premises.

Other reasons to refuse entry

You must refuse entry to your premises after 10pm (when scanning is required, unless certain exemptions apply) if:

  • the patron fails to produce valid photo ID
  • a licensed crowd controller (or staff member supervised by a licensed crowd controller) of the regulated premises doesn't scan the photo ID using a networked ID scanner
  • in the case of an ID scanner system failure, a licensed crowd controller of the regulated premises (or staff member supervised by a licensed crowd controller) doesn't check the photo ID against the manual ban list.

Also consider...

  • Last reviewed: 3 Jan 2024
  • Last updated: 4 Jan 2024