STATE HEARS RESORT LICENSE DISPUTE

JEFFERSON CITY -- A ruling on whether the state Division of Liquor Control must issue a liquor license to the owner of a Cape Girardeau nightclub is expected within four months.

In an ongoing battle with city and state officials, Doug Armour, owner of Chances Sports Bar, seeks to regain his state resort license, which expired July 1. Chances has been out of business since then.

State Administrative Hearing Commissioner Willard C. Reine heard testimony in the case Tuesday in a continuation of a hearing began Oct. 26 in Cape Girardeau. Attorneys representing Armour and the Division of Liquor Control presented evidence and will exchange briefs over the next couple months, after which Reine will rule.

In 1998, the Cape Girardeau City Council rejected Armour's request for a liquor license at Chances at 823 S. Kingshighway, citing a high number of fights at the establishment. Armour then sought and received a state resort license, which allows alcohol sales at a business that annually grosses $75,000 or more and generates at least $50,000 from nonalcoholic sales.

The Division of Liquor Control declined to renew Armour's resort license, alleging alcohol sales were underreported and non-alcoholic sales inflated. Armour is challenging those findings. If Reine rules in his favor, he plans to reopen Chances.

Mike Keschler, administrative services manager for Liquor Control, testified to numerous inconsistencies in Armour's sales records. He said register receipts were not kept of revenue raised from admission charges at the bar. Such charges constitute the bulk of non-alcoholic sales at Chances.

Under questioning from Armour's attorney, Malcom Montgomery of Cape Girardeau, Keschler said he did not know if most bars keep receipt records of admission charges.

Keschler also said Armour claimed only $25,050 in alcohol sales from March 1998 to April, but made more than $121,000 in alcohol purchases from distributors.

"It seems unreasonable that they would be purchasing five-times the amount of alcohol than they are reporting in sales," Keschler said.

Keschler said it appeared some of the sales attributed to admission charges were actually alcohol sales.

Montgomery pointed out that with more than $35,000 in sales of food -- a figure Keschler did not dispute -- Armour would only have needed an additional $15,000 in non-alcoholic sales to qualify for a resort license.

Keschler said inadequate reporting of past sales could also prevent a license from being renewed.