Registering a vending machine

If you run a business with a soda machine, a snack machine, a jukebox, a pool table or even an ATM, the law requires you to register it and put a digital sticker on it. It is one of the cheapest and fastest procedures any Puerto Rican act publishes: five to fifteen dollars per machine, once, and the sticker is issued within twenty-four hours of the inscription being filed. What is expensive is not doing it: fines run from five hundred to five thousand dollars per violation, and up to twenty thousand where there is a pattern of recurrence. And there is one line worth reading twice: registering the machine is not obtaining a licence or a permit for it, nor does it validate that it is legal.

Article 4 lists which machines must enter the Registry: those dispensing snacks or food, drinks, sweets, toys, films or video games for rental and cigarettes, among others, in exchange for coins, bills or credit, including those dispensing information on weight, health, horoscope and other entertainment information; automated teller machines; jukeboxes, pool tables and coin- or token-operated pastime machines or devices, mechanical, electronic or video, for children and young people, where the player’s skill significantly affects the outcome; video and electronic game machines with violent or sexual material under the same condition; and Adult Entertainment Machines under Act 11 of 1933. Excepted are machines governed by Act 221 of 1948 and Act 83 of 1987, which we did not read and about which we therefore say nothing.

• Each individual machine subject to the Registry must carry its digital sticker adhered to it (Article 3).Verified against the official source
• Notify the agency of any change in the machine’s locality or location within a period no longer than seven days (Article 3).Verified against the official source
• Register a new machine within thirty days of its installation or start of operation (Article 5).Verified against the official source
• Adult entertainment machines and video and electronic game machines must display the visible notice whose text the Act sets (Article 3).Verified against the official source

• Every licence, certification, patente, permit or document required to operate or carry out the commercial activity, with its effective, issue and expiry dates, which form part of the digital sticker (Article 3).

1. 1

   Step 1: Check whether your machine is covered

   Article 4 is broader than people assume. Besides food and drink machines, it covers automated teller machines, jukeboxes, pool tables, children’s and young people’s pastime machines where the player’s skill affects the outcome, video and electronic game machines with violent or sexual material under that same condition, and the Adult Entertainment Machines of Act 11 of 1933. Even the machine that gives your weight or horoscope for a coin is named. Machines governed by Act 221 of 1948 and Act 83 of 1987 fall outside.

2. 2

   Step 2: What goes on the digital sticker

   Article 3 sets the minimum: the machine’s unique identification number; the name of the place where its location was authorised; the exact location within that place; every licence, certification, patente, permit or document required to operate or carry out the commercial activity, including effective, issue and expiry dates; the machine owner’s name and telephone; and anything else the agency judges necessary. The sticker’s size, display, placement and technology are set by the agency by regulation, which we did not read.

3. 3

   Step 3: What it costs and how long it takes

   Here the Act is unusually precise. The agency “may only impose a cost fluctuating between five (5) and fifteen (15) dollars per machine and covering all costs related to the inscription, digital sticker and every other expense related to the Registry.” That charge is levied once, unless the machine changes locality or another particular circumstance requires a new registration. And the sticker “shall be issued by the Permit Management Office within twenty-four (24) hours of the filing of the inscription.” If you have several machines, registration and obtaining the sticker may be filed as a group where they belong to the same natural or juridical person.

4. 4

   Step 4: The two deadlines to respect

   Article 5 sets them. One was a start-up window: a ninety-day moratorium from the Registry coming into force so machine owners and owners of the businesses housing them could complete the procedures without penalty. That period ran and we cannot confirm from this source when it expired. The other is still live and is the one that applies today: for a new vending machine, the owner has thirty days from installation or start of operation to register it and obtain the sticker. To that add the seven-day notice in Article 3 if you move a machine.

5. 5

   Step 5: The mandatory notice on gaming machines

   For the Adult Entertainment Machines of Act 11 of 1933 and for video and electronic game machines, Article 3 does not leave the wording to you: it mandates a visible notice reading exactly that any person using a machine for gambling purposes outside the casinos located in hotels is committing a felony and is exposed to a minimum term of five and a maximum of ten years’ imprisonment; that the establishment’s machines are adult entertainment or video and electronic game machines and are in no way authorised to pay any prize; and that paying or collecting prizes from these machines exposes one to fines of up to ten thousand dollars.

6. 6

   Step 6: What happens if you do not register

   Article 5 prohibits possessing or keeping vending machines that are not duly registered. The agency’s Executive Director may impose administrative fines on the owners of businesses where these machines operate, of no less than five hundred and no more than five thousand dollars per violation, and may even start proceedings before other agencies to suspend or revoke other licences or permits held by the machine’s owner or the business housing it. In setting the fine it may consider business volume and the nature of the violation. And in situations of a recurring pattern of violations, fines may rise to twenty thousand dollars.

7. 7

   Step 7: Registering is not having a permit: read it twice

   Article 6 is the most useful warning in the whole Act for a business owner. It says: “Entering the Registry established by this Act shall in no way be understood as a licence, certification or permit; it shall be understood only for the purpose of this Registry, so it shall be the responsibility of the owner or person in charge of that machine to pay and keep current the pertinent licences, patentes, certifications and permits.” And it adds that registering a machine shall not be interpreted as a validation or certification of legality if it does not comply with other laws. In the case of adult entertainment and video and electronic game machines, it reiterates that paying prizes to players, directly or indirectly, is prohibited, and carries penalties for both the owner or operator and whoever receives the prize.

The Registry is attached to the Permit Management Office, which issues the digital sticker, receives the change-of-location notification and imposes the fines through its Executive Director. The Act publishes no address, portal or form, and we do not guess government internet addresses.

• Believing it applies only to food machines: Article 4 includes ATMs, jukeboxes, pool tables and electronic game machines.
• Thinking registration is a licence: Article 6 expressly says it shall in no way be understood as a licence, certification or permit.
• Assuming registering validates the machine: the Act clarifies it is not a certification of legality if the machine breaches other laws.
• Letting the thirty days for a new machine pass: that period runs from installation or start of operation.
• Moving a machine without notice: there are seven days to notify the change of locality or location.
• Paying more than fifteen dollars per machine: the Act limits the charge to the five-to-fifteen range and makes it chargeable once.
• Registering machine by machine when you have several: the procedure may be done as a group if they belong to the same natural or juridical person.
• Forgetting the notice on gaming machines: the Act sets the exact text that must be displayed visibly.
• Believing the fine falls only on the machine’s owner: Article 5 empowers fining the owners of the businesses where they operate.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina de Gerencia de Permisos (OGPe)

  OGPe

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov