Why are IDs with vertical interfaces not accepted in some places?

@Blackberry I’m not sure what you mean by vertical in reference to the ID.

@Adirondackwannabe When you get your first drivers license its orientated vertically

Like the information is on the card, when the card is held upright.

In our state (USA) that kind of card denotes an underage person. If the rest of the ID looks suspicious or tampered then the bartender can refuse it even if the birthdate reads the person has now reached 21yrs or older. Bartenders also know most people are going to go and update their ID’s as quickly as possible once they turn 21.

OK, you’ll have to let me slide. I’m old.

Yeah, like uberbatmans example lol. I’m so bad at explaning things, how would one describe that?

@Neizvestnaya Oh ok, cool. He said he just turned 21 the other day, that makes sense.

But the license, in most states that use the Vertical, requires it be turned in for a Horizontal. And the liquor server has to see a Horizontal for insurance purposes.

I didnt change my ID from vertical to the normal horizontal one until about 6 months after my birthday. I also didnt really have any problems with the vertical either.Most people looked at it a bit longer because of that but still allowed me to buy alcohol. I just told them I was lazy thus havent gotten around to doing it yet.

Actually, it’s up to each bartender to decide whether or not they want to serve someone at the legal drinking age. One, they get a lot of phony cards…so they don’t want to be ticketed by the police. Two, depending on the group of people the young adult comes in with and how responsible they are acting…they can decline to serve.

The vertical card is usually the tip off that the individual may need to be watched more closely.

Instead of “vertical” say that it’s laid out in “portrait” mode on the card instead of “landscape”. More people will know what you mean then, I think.

The bartender may have had other reasons than the appearance of the card to deny entry, or he may have been bad at math, or he may have just been too busy to even do the math (except don’t most places that serve or sell alcohol have signs that “your birthdate must be earlier than today’s date in [today’s year – 21]”?

I can’t imagine all of the reasons that people have for screwing things up. They’re so gosh-darned imaginative in the ways that they do that!