Massachusetts businesses that lost liquor licenses for violating COVID protocols received over a million dollars in relief payments Updated Mar 12, 2021; Nearly two dozen Massachusetts businesses that temporarily lost their liquor licenses for violating state rules meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus also received a total of almost $1.4 million in state COVID-19 relief grants. Of the 57 restaurants, bars, and other businesses whose liquor licenses the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission suspended over COVID-19 breaches, 23 received grants, The Boston Globe reported. They included a Springfield strip club where state inspectors found maskless strippers giving lap dances, a Gardner hotel that hosted more than 400 guests for a pair of weddings, and a Weymouth bar where the owner when confronted by licensing officials responded “no government is going to tell me how to run my business.”