Police find four minors after midnight in one of 66 venues and casinos checked

The Ministry of Interior published the results of checks on 66 hospitality venues and casinos across the country, carried out in the night between October 17 and 18. The cities where the venues are located are not named in the statement. The most sensitive finding concerns minors: four minors were found after midnight in one venue, and alcohol was served to minors in two venues.

At other venues, the Ministry says one had unlicensed security work and in another public order was disturbed. Three fines were issued under the law on protection from smoking. Police identified 38 people, searched 61 people and one vehicle, and established identity for 31 people. One person was detained for refusing to identify, and three foreign nationals for irregular stay.

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Some of the activity took place outside the venues. Near Prilep a driver with 2.04 per mille of alcohol in the blood was detained on suspicion of reckless driving under Article 297-a of the Criminal Code. In Kičevo a location where illegal gambling was organized was searched, two people were found and items were seized; a criminal complaint is to follow.

Together with the police, the checks were carried out by the State Market Inspectorate, the Public Revenue Office, the State Labour Inspectorate, the Protection and Rescue Directorate and the Food and Veterinary Agency. They found unreported workers, operating without the required approvals, unissued fiscal receipts, unregistered activity, foreign-currency dealings, and hygiene and fire-safety deficiencies. Measures and sanctions were imposed, but the statement does not specify them.

How much is that? If we look only at the finding on minors, four minors in one of 66 venues is 1.5 percent of the venues checked, and alcohol was served to minors in two venues, about three percent. That does not mean the problem is rare, only that a single night's operation shows a small part of the situation: the check was limited to one night and to locations chosen by inspectors. Such numbers therefore cannot be read as a picture of the whole country.

There was a similar check earlier. After the fire at the “Pulse” club in Kočani, the State Market Inspectorate said on April 11, 2025 that since March 17 it had carried out 297 inspections in discos, restaurants, cafés and taverns, issued 360 misdemeanor payment orders worth about 3.4 million denars in total and imposed 28 temporary bans on operating. That check concerned safety conditions and permits, not minors, but it shows that hospitality inspections recur, usually after an event that draws public attention.

What is not known? The statement does not show how many of the findings ended in fines, or what the sanctions are for the venues where alcohol was served to minors. It is also unknown whether the venues are repeat offenders, so it cannot be established whether the problem is systemic or isolated. The Ministry announced that coordinated checks of hospitality venues and casinos will continue.

What does it mean? Minors in venues after midnight is a matter of penalties, but also of parental presence and regular inspection, not only of night-time operations. The real indicator will be whether, in the next checks, the figure stays the same, falls or rises.

MKNews Hub · Macedonia · October 20, 2026