Strip Club Review Blog

Whenever visitors come into Las Vegas, they often ask the cabbies, “So, where is the best strip club to visit?” They usually get a pretty quick reply of one or two clubs along with the assurance of “they have the best girls in town!” and voila, they’re quickly transported to the cabbie’s recommended spot.

Great advice! Right? Not necessarily. Most of the cabbies in Las Vegas are paid to bring you to certain clubs. In fact, most clubs pay the cabbies a minimum of $5 per head. This can go as high as $20! This is also what we refer to as the cabbie wars when the clubs start inflating the cabbie payout.

How does all this work? Why do the clubs pay the cabbies money? Well, the answer is obvious: competition. It’s kind of a catch 22 for many of the clubs. If they don’t pay, the cabbies will just direct much of their tourist business elsewhere. Does the club lose money? Sometimes, but more than likely, the cover charge or the first drink or two you buy will cover what the club will payout to the cabbies. In general, if a cabbie has brought you to a club, he’ll be paid whatever you’re going to pay the club as the cover charge.

So the next time a cabbie suggests a club, do you think the cabbie is watching out for you or for him/herself? Don’t get me wrong, some cabbies will give you genuine advice, but it will make you much more aware of what is going on if you knew the rates the clubs were paying the cabbies. Check out the Cabbie Update page for current rates. This way, the next time a cabbie recommends a place, and you know it’s bad, you can make your own decision on whether the cabbie is being helpful or just greedy.

Most of the clubs in Las Vegas or anywhere else for that matter have a minimum drink rule. Fine. As long as it’s understood before a customer pays his cover charge and walks in the door, I don’t see a problem with that. Afterall, the club is a business and they have to make their money. Some examples are the bottomless $10 drink at Deja Vu or Lil Darlings, the two drink tickets for $10 at Olympic Gardens, the $8 drink at Tally-Ho, the two ($12) drinks required at Palomino, et al. However, my current rant revolves around clubs that make you purchase additional drinks after you’ve already bought the supposed minimum.

What am I talking about in particular? Okay, I’ll be blunt. I’m talking about The Palomino. In the past, once a customer had already bought 2 drinks when watching the feature show downstairs, they had to purchase an additional drink to go upstairs to watch the regular strip show. That basically made it a 3 drink minimum. However, whenever you called the club, the policy was always a “2 drink minimum”. I made a note of this in a past review because quite a few readers had started referring to The Palomino as a clip joint. I personally wouldn’t go to that extreme, however, I did think they weren’t following their own policies. After adding that to the review, I received a letter from Palomino management. As you can see, they claim it isn’t club policy.

Let’s make sure. Please email LMR if you go to the Palomino and keep me updated on the drink situation. It’s little things like this that can ruin an otherwise perfectly wonderful club. On the other hand, I’d like to offer kudos to the many clubs which don’t force extra drinks on their customers: Crazy Horse Too, Cheetahs, Centerfold Lounge, and several others which I haven’t mentioned. Let’s hope club management at the different clubs realize that their customers have a choice in Las Vegas, and that if they don’t make changes, there’s always somewhere else to go.

UPDATE: During our last review visit in late June, The Palomino has not been forcing customers to buy additional drinks. After you buy your first two drinks, you will not be forced to buy anymore. Be sure to keep your receipt. Kudos to The Palomino for listening to their customers and making changes when necessary.

Just recently, several dancers from a couple of the Las Vegas clubs brought forth a class action suit against several strip clubs for back pay. They claimed that they were employees rather than contractors and that the stagefees that they paid over the years to these clubs were owed to them. For a minor settlement, these women are willing to change the whole industry for thousands of other women. For the good or bad? I think bad. Let me illustrate and discuss several points.

First off, the strip club industry isn’t exactly accepted by everybody and their mother. It’s seen as immoral to many people and a lot of people would love to shut it down or see regulations in place that would basically make watching exercise infomercials more exciting. By going through with a major class action suit, the only thing these women are doing is drawing attention and bad publicity to an industry with opponents just waiting for more ammunition.

Secondly, let’s talk taxes. Everybody knows that dancers make pretty good money. How much? No one really knows because why? It’s all in cash. By making these women employees, there will have to be tighter records of how much they’re making. Right now as contractors, the clubs have much less accountability. Who do you think is really interested in this area? That’s right, the IRS. Oh, they’ll be watching this case real carefully.

Next, will winning this case and a measly settlement really be worth it if they stand a chance of ruining a whole industry for most other women and their potential of earning hundreds of thousands more? But I guess the women suing don’t really care. Let’s break this down and see who will eventually suffer out of all this. The club? No way, they’ll just find some other way to get the money they lose. The customers? Maybe, but if they suffer, who else do you think will eventually suffer the most?

What this case mostly will break down to is the matter of control. Currently, most of the clubs in Las Vegas give their girls fairly flexible schedules and do in general treat their dancers like contractors. They few that don’t only need to make a few minor adjustments to the way they manage their clubs. Afterall, a contractor is still obligated to perform a specific job. As contractors, the dancers have much more freedom and control and retain their capacity to maximize their earnings potential. You can look at the Independant Contractor Analysis or what is most commonly referred to as the IRS’s 20 Factors to determine if a person is an employee or contractor. I just hope that instead of being shortsighted, these ladies look at the industry as a whole and make the right choice and keep their freedom as independant contractors.

Here is an article from the Las Vegas Sun, another article from the Las Vegas Review Journal, and a followup article.

It’s something that’s fairly common at the nude clubs here in Las Vegas. Not actually legal within the Las Vegas city limits, but everyone seems to do it. Why? People want NUDE entertainment and drink at the same time. You walk into clubs like Deja Vu, Lil Darlings, Exotica, et al, and you’re almost guaranteed to see people walking in with a brown bag under their arms. Unfortunately, I’ve seen, firsthand, several busts by undercover Metro policemen within the last few months. 90% of the time, they just ticket the club and harass the dancers and other employees about Sheriff’s cards, but once in awhile, they do write tickets to belligerent patrons who can’t keep their cool.

Opponents of alcohol and nude clubs will tell you that guys will get out of control, and that alcohol and female genitalia just don’t mix. The Palomino, an all nude club which serves alcohol in North Las Vegas, just outside the city limits, seems to do just fine. I don’t see any more outbreaks of violence or catastrophic events happening just because they serve alcohol with their dancers. Now tell me what the huge difference in patron reactions at topless clubs where dancers wear g-strings thinner than my dental floss and at nude clubs where they flash just a bit more.

Another issue opponent will bring up is, “customers under the age of 21 will bring in alcohol and drink there“, to which I respond, how did they get the alcohol in the first place? Maybe the city should be cracking down on the liquor stores that are selling the minors the alcohol in the first place instead of harassing the clubs. Progressive states in the strip club industry like Hawaii and Florida all have nude clubs WITH alcohol. Why can’t Las Vegas, or for that matter, Nevada?

I think the city needs to either allow nude clubs to carry alcohol permits, allow current topless/alcohol clubs to go nude, or leave the nude clubs alone with a BYOB policy. If they’re really that concerned with underage drinking, create a policy which will make the clubs card the patrons bringing in alcohol, but don’t take my right away to enjoy fully nude women and my favorite alcoholic beverage at the same time.