Happy hours are here again?

if they don't pass this or something similar, casinos would be found to be in violation of the current law the same way Groupon was.

Cheap food means the bill is reduced, but only if you were going to eat anyway. Then again, eating with drinking is a good way to stay sober.

What I would like to see are laws that made sense rather than laws made by reactionaries with A Grand Theory. There is mounting evidence that an 18 drinking age would make more sense, for instance. Also, what's up with the limits on the total number of licenses? Letting them be issued at the town/city level? Those would be good areas for investigation and possible reform.

As for happy hour, an evidence-based approach should guide policy. For instance, MA abolished happy hours, but some neighboring states have them. So ... did drunk driving diminish when this anti-happy law was put in place or not? Do we have less drunk driving in MA as a result or not?

Lets see some statistics on that.

ALSO, we have a state where murdering somebody with your car while drunk and driving without a license means you spend at most overnight in jail, and get released on your own recognizance ... like that worked the first time. Wouldn't it make more sense to hold repeat drunks with suspended licenses for trial in jail, and to have a minimum prison sentence that raised with each offense (including "reckless driving" offenses, to prevent plea bargaining)?What about putting prevent repeat offenders and those who drive without a license due to drunk driving or reckless driving in for a long sentence in Walpole?

I'd rather have responsible adults enjoy happy hour than irresponsible adults enjoy freedom.

Since at the time I first looked the regulations up I was only concerned with "why not Happy Hour?", I totally forgot part (a) of the "Prohibition of Certain Practices" in the ABCC regulations:

204 CMR 4.03
No licensee or employee or agent of a licensee shall:

(a) offer or deliver any free drinks to any person or group of persons;

(b) deliver more than two drinks to one person at one time;

(c) sell, offer to sell or deliver to any person or group of persons any
drinks at a price less than the price regularly charged for such drinks
during the same calendar week, except at private functions not open to
the public;

(d) sell, offer to sell or deliver to any person an unlimited number of
drinks during any set period of time for a fixed price, except at private
functions not open to the public;

(e) sell, offer to sell or deliver drinks to any person or group of
persons on any one day at prices less than those charged the general
public on that day, except at private functions not open to the public;

(f) sell, offer to sell or deliver malt beverages or mixed drinks by the
pitcher except to two or more persons at any one time;

(g) increase the volume of alcoholic beverages contained in a drink
without increasing proportionately the price regularly charged for such
drink during the same calendar week;

(h) encourage or permit, on the licensed premises, any game or contest
which involves drinking or the awarding of drinks as prizes.

Sooooo, I don't know how a casino is going to be allowed to serve free drinks based on 4.03(a) "no free drinks"...let alone how bars would cope with this by not having Happy Hour for the reasons I mentioned before (4.03(c) and (e)).