Make way, popcorn — beer, wine coming to Las Vegas movie theaters

Las Vegas may soon roll out the red carpet for booze-friendly movie theaters, but officials say they have to unspool a little red tape first.

An ordinance unanimously approved by City Council members Wednesday sets out the ground rules for standalone theaters that serve beer and wine, several of which have already set up shop in Henderson and unincorporated Clark County.

City Business Licensing Manager Karen Duddlesten said the city has been approached by several prospective alcohol-licensed movie theater operators in recent weeks, including one who runs the AMC Theatres location on North Rainbow Boulevard and another, unnamed operator looking to open a new theater downtown.

Similar theaters set to open in city limits would have to set up separate concessions lines for liquor products and hire ushers to patrol arcade areas and lobbies for underage drinkers.

They will have to limit alcohol sales to less than 25 percent of overall sales and draft a city-approved security plan for the theater.

They are also encouraged to run their advertisements and marketing materials by city staffers to ensure the theater isn’t being pitched as a bar.

Those regulations would not apply to adult movie theaters or peep shows, which will not be allowed to serve alcohol under city code.

City officials said the new booze-friendly theater licenses will not cost business owners more money to take out or renew.

A new set of rules adopted under the same ordinance looks to ensure that nightclubs hire security guards to patrol lines snaking outside their businesses and keep an eye on sometimes unruly patrons gathered on sidewalks or in the parking lot.

New noncasino nightclub owners will have to place their businesses 1,500 feet from churches, schools and day care centers, as well as at least 500 feet from residential neighborhoods.

Those separation requirements will not apply to nightclubs located downtown. Strip clubs are exempted from all provisions enacted under the move.

“The sponsor’s intent here was that these places that are DJ- and live entertainment-driven nightclubs need to come to the City Council for review and approval before popping up in residential areas,” Deputy City Attorney Jim Lewis told City Council recommending committee members last month, “so we don’t have a tavern turn into a full-blown Tao-style or Strip-style nightclub.”

It’s hard to say which neighborhood nightclub may have been at risk of turning into a renowned dance hot spot.

Councilwoman and ordinance sponsor Lois Tarkanian said Count’s Vamp’d, a single church-adjacent supper club on West Sahara Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard, provided the impetus for the move, which she said grew out of the city’s attempts to accommodate that business’s requests to host live, nightclub-style entertainment.

Tarkanian said efforts to make those accommodations without a citywide ordinance backfired after a whole host of hookah lounges and dinner spots tried to follow Count’s Vamp’d into the nightclub business.

“(Count’s Vamp’d) had a supper club, but they wanted to have live entertainment,” Tarkanian said. “We worked it out through licensing so that they could do what a nightclub could do, but they were still a supper club.

“Hookah Masters tried to use what we had done there as a loophole to get a tavern license. But it wasn’t just (them), it was several others.”

Tarkanian said she had nothing to do with movie theater license provisions later added to the ordinance but approved of Duddlesten’s approach to those rules.

Strip club proprietors and downtown casino owners had expressed concerns over broad ordinance exemptions that appeared to apply only to hotel-casinos with more than 200 rooms.

High-powered lobbyist Jay Brown, representing Mermaids Casino owner and longtime Fremont Street Experience tenant Steve Burnstine, said Wednesday his client was satisfied with a city amendment clarifying the ordinance’s intent.

Violations of the new ordinance amount to a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and as many as six months in jail.

Contact James DeHaven at jdehaven@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3839. Follow him on Twitter: @JamesDeHaven.