A license to gouge

A couple of my sisters were out and about in Marshall Sunday and wanted to watch the last quarter of the Vikings vs. Buffalo Bills football game. We ducked into the Varsity Pub.

There were a lot of TVs in there as is befitting a sports bar. My sister asked the server if the volume on a TV near us could be turned on.

The young woman replied that the bar isn’t licensed to have the volume on.

Isn’t that weird? What business is it of the state’s whether a sports bar’s TV can be heard or not? Why do you have to have a particular license to turn the volume on a TV?

I can see that a TV’s volume in other establishments would be annoying to some, but whether the volume is on or not should be up to the owner and be free of charge.