Unlicensed Indy Club Shut Down for Operating Illegally

INDIANAPOLIS — Police shut down an unlicensed club on the northeast side of Indianapolis after discovering evidence of illegal operation.

Detectives with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department’s Nuisance Abatement Unit and Indiana State Excise Police had been monitoring “The Playhouse” on Arlington Avenue for at least a few weeks. On Monday, police served a search warrant at the club after learning that it was operating without the required permits.

“They opened at three after the other bars had to stop serving because they have their permit, and that’s what the law requires,” said Nuisance Abatement Supervisor and IMPD Capt. Bill Carter.

IMPD said officers ended up destroying nearly 3,000 containers of alcohol from the establishment. The Marion County Health Department Food Division also issued a closure notice for the club.

“If you don’t follow the rules for that permit, you can be sanctioned, and if you don’t have a permit, then you have nothing to lose,” Capt. Carter said. “This location itself, the board of health showed up and found numerous violations that forced them to close.”

Last month, the Marion County Local Alcohol Board denied a permit for the club, and the Indiana Alcohol Commission upheld the decision. The owner had also not disclosed their exact involvement in the business.

Police were familiar with the owner. IMPD said he previously ran an unlicensed, after-hours bar across the street and was shot, along with three other people in an incident in 2022.

“We do find with after-hours clubs and illegal nightclubs, there is violence usually associated with those,” Capt. Carter added.

According to Capt. Carter, there are 1,700 locations with a liquor license operating in Marion County.