An alcohol server card is the individual credential a bartender, server, or clerk needs to sell or serve alcoholic beverages. State law varies more here than in almost any other trade. Some states require every server to hold a card issued or approved by the alcoholic beverage control agency. Some leave it entirely to counties and cities. And in a large group of states the certification is technically voluntary — no individual is legally required to hold it — yet nearly every employer demands it, because the statute grants the licensed establishment a safe-harbor defense when its staff are trained. That distinction decides whether the law is pointed at you or at your employer, so each state page states it plainly.
Every page below answers, categorically, “does this state require an alcohol server card?” — with the validity period, cost, issuing agency, and approved training providers where a card exists, or exactly what applies instead where it doesn’t. This is the individual server or seller credential: not the establishment’s liquor license, and not a manager or permittee certification. Every answer is traced to an official source and dated.