South Carolina Liquor Insurance Requirements – Could Bars Be In Trouble?

The South Carolina liquor insurance requirements may put bars across the state at risk of shutting down. It's already forced a legendary bar in Greenville to shut down after 29 years in business.

On Tuesday night, The Blind Horse Saloon in Greenville, South Carolina, shared a post on their social media that because of the South Carolina liquor insurance requirements, they were going to have to close. And the decision was effective immediately.

The bar, located on Lowndes Hill Road in Greenville, had been in operation for 29 years. Their closure announcement is also on their website, that still features event information for Tyler Hubbard's Strong World Tour that was scheduled for Friday, September 20th.

The Blind Horse Saloon was known for the best live country in Greenville. They also hosted free dance lessons every Wednesday night.

According to WYFF, the South Carolina liquor liability law requires businesses serving alcohol to have a $1 million liability policy. This law was a result of an incident where an uninsured drunk driver left an uninsured bar, and crashed into a police officer and injuring him.

The bill that brought forth this law was passed in 2017 and was called the Dram Shop Bill. Lawmakers felt instating this law would ensure incidents like this would be covered. But for business owners, it raised costs overtime, and led some out of business. This law also made claims for insurance carriers more expensive.

Unfortunately, lawmakers ran out of time during the most recent legislative session to address this issue. Bills that were proposed during this recent session will have to start from scratch during the next session, which doesn't start again until January 2025.

There have been efforts to raise awareness about the issues that have stemmed from this law. SC Venue Crisis is a grassroots movement that has been on a mission to make people aware of the problems. There have also been other bills and a discussion to suspend the $1 million insurance mimimum. Unfortunately, the bills failed to make it to Governor Henry McMaster's desk.

South Carolina bars and music venues will now have to wait until January for the next legislative session, but before that, there's hope that the election in November will have a positive impact. Movements to raise awareness for the issues are encouraging people to pay attention and vote out the politicians who haven't done what they said they would.

Sheila Merck with SC Venue Crisis told WYFF she hopes there can be a tavern and bar association created. An association like this could help represent the bar and music venue owners across the state.