What happens to a SC bar or restaurant if a bartender serves a minor alcohol?
Bars and restaurants in South Carolina face serious penalties if caught serving alcohol to a minor.
Alcohol fines can be expensive and unforgiving for small businesses. Each fine increases in price with every subsequent offense committed by the restaurant or bar in a three-year period, according to the South Carolina Department of Revenue.
Bars can be fined or have their licenses revoked for more than just selling alcohol to a minor. The SCDOR wrote that hindering or delaying an inspection, a licensee not having good moral character, a business allowing crime to occur, permitting nuisance behavior or lewd entertainment or making dishonorable payments to vendors are some justifications for a liquor license to be revoked.
The offenses do not have to be for the same violation to add up. For example, if a bar is first caught refilling liquor bottles in January and then selling beer to a minor in February, they will pay a higher fine for selling alcohol to a minor.
Klocker’s Tavern and Barfield’s Bar are the most infamous bars to lose their liquor licenses in the Myrtle Beach area, The Sun News reported. Barfield’s shut down in November 2023 and Klocker’s about a year later after a string of shootings and violent activities at the two establishments.
Fines may be lower if a restaurant can show they took steps to prevent serving someone underage, according to SCDOR. Examples include the bar having past underage drinking fines, the employee who committed the offense overriding the age verification system, or not asking for identification, and input from local law enforcement
The fines can also be raised if there is evidence the business did not try to prevent serving minors alcohol. Examples include the bar having past underage drinking fines, if the employee who committed the offense over overrode the age verification system or did not ask for identification and input from local law enforcement.
If the SCDOR revokes a liquor license, it is not permanent. Typically the license is revoked for either two or five years, unless specified that the revocation is permanent, according to the SCDOR. After the set time period, a business can reapply for a liquor license.
The SCDOR states liquor by the drink license for a hotel or restaurant costs $1,705 every two years along with a $200 non-refundable filing fee. A license allowing the sale of beer or wine for on-site consumption is $600 every two years and also has a $300 non-refundable filing fee, according to the SCDOR.
In Horry County there are 758 restaurants with a seven-day on premises beer and wine license and 660 restaurants with a liquor by the drink, according to the SCDOR.
Here are the fines for selling beer or wine to a minor:
- First offense: $1,000
- Second offense: $1,000 and a two-day suspension
- Third offense: $1,000 and a 30-day suspension
- Fourth offense: License revocation.
