The commission conducts random checks as well as targeted operations prompted by community complaints. So far in 2026, the agency has made 125 decoy visits, down from 845 over the same period in 2025. It says it is rebuilding its undercover program, and by 2027 plans to have the same number of minor decoy operations as it did in 2025.
In the more than 4,000 decoy operations the OLCC has conducted since May 2022, more than 1 in 5 (21.7%) resulted in license holders selling alcohol to a minor without checking ID, records show.
So far this year, the establishments sold liquor to the underage operatives 15% of the time. OLCC’s goal is to bring that rate down to 10%, Brady says.
No license holder has permanently lost its license for selling to a minor in at least five years. They may only lose their license if caught selling to minors four times in two years, according to Oregon administrative rules.
Five restaurants and breweries failed their test three times since 2022. One of them, Silver Moon Brewing in Bend, made sales to minors thrice between September and November 2023. On a fourth sting operation in February 2025, Silver Moon carded the undercover minor.
So far this year, Chely’s Sports Bar and Grill in Salem and Beaver’s University Market in Corvallis have failed two undercover inspections. Three weeks ago, Taylor’s Sausage Country Store in Cave Junction failed one.
Terry Taylor, the owner of Taylor’s Sausage, says an employee inspected the license of the decoy operative, who had just turned 20, but did her math incorrectly.
Taylor’s Sausage was given three options: pay a fine, face a short-term license suspension, or buy an automatic ID scanner, he said. Taylor bought the ID scanner.
This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit investigative newsroom for the state of Oregon.
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