Wow sly, that is harsh and ridiculous. Clearly, someone in their 50s is not under 21.
" I don’t expect other people to do it on my behalf."
No expectations from our group were made. However, it was appreciated. Since the person was not underage and since it only illegal to serve to those underage, no harm, no foul, no rules or laws broken here. In many states, who to card is at the discretion of the establishment. Obviously, in this case the establishment felt comfortable with it given the passport scan and probably because of the multigenerational mix of the group dining. Low risk. Again, common sense. Had they said no, we’d have been okay with that as well as it was understood it was the individual’s fault for forgetting their license.
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Sometimes rules are just ridiculous.<<
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Stadiums and arenas card EVERYONE. That’s often a law (not just a rule or policy) when the venue is publicly owned. Same with limiting the purchase of drinks to 2 per person. My 83 year old mother got carded at a liquor store recently. It’s the policy of that store to card everyone. No exceptions.
Several people have posted that state have laws that allow businesses to accept vertical IDs or military IDs, but nothing says those businesses HAVE to accept those IDs.
“sly123: We were 120 miles from home for a concert and decided to have dinner, they are both in their 50’s and were refused a glass of wine with dinner. Sometimes rules are just ridiculous.”
That’s hilarious. You have GOT to be kidding me. They thought those 50 year olds might be underage? ha ha ha
“twoinanddone: . My 83 year old mother got carded at a liquor store recently. It’s the policy of that store to card everyone. No exceptions.”
Now that is just beyond ridiculous, as the intention of the law is to keep alcohol out of the hands of minors.
Sure, businesses/stadiums can have their rules to card everyone. But we can deem them ridiculous because they are. 
As far as getting the meal to go, I’ve seen many restaurants that offer birthday freebies explicitly state that it’s for dine-in only.
I can’t blame a restaurant that checks every ID. If servers don’t have to make judgement calls, the owner doesn’t have to worry about servers making bad judgement calls.
Honestly I don’t blame the restaurant for not accepting a facebook birthday. A person can go in and edit the birthday on facebook at any point so can make any day his/her birthday. The waitress could have wished him a happy birthday when you left, but that is about all I think you could hope for. Unfortunately too many people try to “get away” with things and the restaurant has every right to ask for some kind of reasonable ID when giving a free meal. If I went with a younger child on his/her birthday and wanted a free meal I’d bring a passport/birth certificate or something like that as proof.
FWIW it may just be me, but I don’t think I could leave the house knowing my wallet was misplaced – I’d rather be late to the restaurant and find my wallet (and my credit cards).
Still doesn’t get you a drink.
“Plus they hopes drinks will be ordered which where the profit margin is!”
It looks like I was drinking when I typed this. 
#-o
“FWIW it may just be me, but I don’t think I could leave the house knowing my wallet was misplaced – I’d rather be late to the restaurant and find my wallet (and my credit cards).”
I’m the same way. And I am really pretty laid back about things compared to my husband I misplace things pretty often, but I can’t imagine going out without my ID, unless I’m going somewhere I know I don’t need it–like when I walk to the gym.
Don’t men keep their wallets in their pants pockets anymore? I envy men because they have pockets for everything, but we women have to carry a purse. We only have daughters, so I may be out of touch. But where do young men keep their wallets? (My husband either has his wallet in his pants pocket or on the dresser. Those are the only two places.)
Many kids, male and female, keep their ID in a pocket on their phones.
And how often do kids go anywhere without phones? I’m still just having trouble wrapping my mind around going out for drinks and not having my ID with me. Especially when I was younger and knew I was likely to get carded. But even now–most of the places I go where I don’t have my purse with me are places where I KNOW they will tend to card everone (concerts, festivals, etc).
And while it’s true that women’s clothes often doesn’t have pockets, I make a concerted effort to find pockets and I only have a handful of pants/skirts/dresses without them.
“Don’t men keep their wallets in their pants pockets anymore?”
Have you seen the skinny pants some men wear these days? I bet some can’t squeeze much into those pockets. 
“And how often do kids go anywhere without phones?”
Mine will at times. They don’t like being constantly plugged in but they’re probably in the minority.
I often will go somewhere without one because I don’t want to carry a purse around and I know my husband is going to pay. Of course, it is obvious I am well over 21 and I don’t care if I can’t drink.
That may look ridiculous in that specific case, but the store may not want to rely on an employee’s judgment of the buyer’s age to decide whether to check ID (consider people who look like they are in their 20s). So a blanket “always check ID when buying alcohol” policy is easier to have from the store’s point of view than relying on employee judgment that could increase the risk of selling alcohol to underage persons.
^^ Oh, I agree. Just treat all buyers the same and check IDs for all.
And don’t pick and choose IDs. A blanket statement like “we don’t accept foreign passports as IDs” or “we don’t take vertical IDs as the dates on DLs are too hard too see” can open up a bunch of cans of legal worms, IMO. Imagine a Canadian citizen and a Tulalip tribe member walking into a bar in Bellingham and showing their passport and tribal registration cards as their respective IDs only to hear that the bar doesn’t accept those…
I look at it this way- if a restaurant offers a free meal to a B-day man or woman, well, then that is a meal intended for the b-day man or woman. It may not be specified, but the policy sure doesn’t say that “anyone” gets a free meal if someone has a b-day. “Can” he take it away and then give it away is not the question. That would be a legal question and would not be the reason I told of this experience.
It may not be a legal difference- I don’t suppose the police were called- but it sure is a moral one. If a b-day guy goes in and orders a meal that he knows is not for him, intending to give it to a guy not there, then he has circumvented the policy. The policy isn’t there as a free meal for the friend of a b-day person. And in that scenario, the guy who didn’t have a b-day got a free meal because the in-person customer tricked the restaurant.
Here again, I don’t mean fraud in the legal sense, but rather in the moral sense. The difference between the policy saying b-day people get a free meal- compared to- the friend of a b-day person gets a free meal is clear to me. It sure isn’t illegal, but it was a deliberate ploy to get a free meal for someone that Wasn’t the b-day person. I see a distinction in this example between one’s legal behavior compared to principled behavior.