That is an understatement!
Let’s start with the archaic cabaret laws.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20041003/localnews/1347068.html
A system which inhibits economic development, creates a so-called lottery which ends up giving licenses to a few people who end up selling them at “market prices” much higher than what they purchased them for. So, not only do the national chains find problems with this system, Joe Montana who wants to serve alcohol in his restaurant CAN’t afford a license (even if one was available). So much for free market, expansion of business opportunities, and taxable business that MT could benefit from. It is simple, MT should provide license to anyone who can afford the price and regulatory hurdle at a set price for the size/type of business. Limiting licenses limits tax revenue. Hello?

Then there is the other aspect of alcohol laws…
aptly presented in this article from the Missoulian on why wine tastings are not allowed in places that sell the wine.
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/03/11/opinion/opinion1.txt
Summarized here (quoting):
“Why?

That’s way more complicated. Even broaching the subject guarantees me a mean letter to the editor from the Montana Tavern Owners Association, a hospitality industry group that hates it when anyone talks about Montana’s goofy liquor laws. The reason wine retailers can’t host wine tastings is pretty much the same reason why new bars or restaurants find it virtually impossible to get a full liquor license – and ruinously expensive if they do. It’s the same reason it’s far more difficult and time-consuming in Montana than anywhere else for restaurants to get the most basic license to serve beer and wine.

Montana’s arcane liquor laws were written in the 1940s with a neo-Prohibitionist mentality but have evolved primarily to serve entrenched business interests, with the state using its vast police powers to protect quasi-monopolies at the expense of consumers and economic development.”
[quote ended]

The same laws make the sale of non-distilled malt products like Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA illegal because of a 20% ABV. The liquor store can’t sell it because it is beer, the authorized grocery store can’t sell it because it is too high in alcohol. Pulllease….

If you want to see proper alcohol sales at the retail level, don’t look to Montana. Drop into any grocery store in Portland, OR for beer+wine –they don’t seem to have any problems with providing beer like all the Dogfish Head products, regardless of ABV.(OR has liquor in state stores). Or visit a super liquor+beer+wine outlet in Denver, CO. Granted the population base provides the market for larger outlets with more variety, but the law allows the market to exist as it should.

I could talk about this issue all day, and if you ask anyone at the retail level (restaurants, grocers) what they like about this archaic laws, the inevitable answer is “nothing”.