Strip Club News

The Comptroller of the state of Texas has sent out letters to strip clubs in the past few days demanding that they continue to pay a $5 per patron tax while the state appeals a ruling late last month that invalidated the tax.

On March 28th, state district Judge Scott Jenkins ruled that the “pole tax” is an illegal tax on constitutionally protected expression and issued an injunction barring collection. An appeal by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott automatically suspended the injunction, resulting in a demand for payment on April 21st.

Last week, a state district judge in Texas struck down the state’s $5 per patron strip club tax that took affect at the top of this year. The “pole tax”, as it was jokingly dubbed, required clubs to pay a $5 fee for every patron who entered any establishment that offers live adult entertainment.

Travis County Judge Scott Jenkins ruled the tax unconstitutional and prohibited the state from collecting or imposing the fee. In his ruling, Judge Jenkins wrote that the fee taxes “expression that, while politically unpopular, is nevertheless protected by the First Amendment.”

Texas state Attorney General Greg Abbott plans to appeal the ruling. The backers of the law also plan to rewrite it so they can find a way to circumvent the argument of constitutionality. Democrat State Representative Ellen Cohen of Houston (pictured at right), the original sponsor of the bill, said she will work to find a way to amend the law so it sticks the next time she tries to get it passed.

Strip clubs may be politically unpopular, but judging by the millions of customers who patronize them each year and the thousands of dancers who entertain at them, they appear to us to be very popular. The strip club tax was expected to raise $40 million per year. At $5 a head, that means that eight million visits were expected to strip clubs in Texas each year.

I recently ran across this shocking story of a 12-year-old girl who got a job at Diamonds Cabaret strip club in Dallas, TX, where she reportedly danced nude for over a week. According to the story, she was able to pass the audition without showing proper identification.

There is absolutely no excuse for this type of thing ever happening. Whoever allowed this preteen to dance nude should go to prison. Unfortunately, this one example casts a pall over the entire industry.

You can read the story here:

Underage Stripper Shocks Dallas

It looks like every state in the union is trying to infringe on the constitutionally protected rights of American citizens.

Kansas is the latest state to consider harsh new regulations on strip clubs with the intention of making it more difficult to conduct business.

Current proposals are working their way through legislative committee. In addition to a typical requirement that adult businesses be located at least 1,000 feet from schools, churches, and residences, are conditions that could prohibit nudity and ban the sale of alcohol. Not only could people not drink where nude entertainment is taking place, but strip clubs would be required to close at midnight and all dancers would have to remain six feet away from patrons. So no more lap dances in Kansas if this passes.

Many strip clubs don’t even start getting busy until midnight. A 12 AM closing time would surely hurt the income potential of club owners and dancers, which is the underlying goal of these types of restrictions.

Not long after opening for business, the owner of Casa Diablo strip club in Portland, OR, has put the establishment up for sale.

The asking price for the property is $995,000, according to this listing. And the Craigslist entry.

We get visitors every day who are looking to open a strip club. Right now probably isn’t the best time given the weakening economy. Strip clubs are closing all the time, so it isn’t a business that is immune to failure.

The reason for the owner of Casa Diablo selling is not known. However, we have seen an example such as this where an owner opens a strip club then sells it after a short time before.

The US Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal of a suit challenging the ordinances in Houston, TX, which could put most strip clubs out of business, effectively upholding the dangerously restrictive 1997 law.

Clubs have been battling the Houston ordinance for the past ten years. Houston law restricts strip clubs from operating within a completely arbitrary distance of 1,500 feet from residential neighborhoods, schools, parks, and day care centers, and prevents other strip clubs from operating within a certain distance of a similar business.

The goal of this ordinance is not to protect the populace from naked women writhing behind closed doors, unseen by passersby. The intent is to shut strip clubs down by making it impossible to find any land that satisfies the distance requirements, which is nearly impossible in most urban areas, and this is by design.

When the police in Houston begin enforcing the law, many clubs will be forced to close. The city, in typical fashion, argues that strip clubs create negative secondary effects on neighboring areas. But how does a woman removing her clothing cause crime, graffiti, and blight? Nobody knows.

More lawsuits are expected to be filed by club owners when enforcement action begins.

We here at Strip Club Central have never heard of anyone going on a crime rampage because they saw a woman without her clothes on. Have you?

“Look, there’s a booby! I better go shoot someone!” Sorry, but that king of thing does not happen.

County commissioners in Lawrence County, Missouri, are planning a ballot initiative to discourage strip clubs from opening in the area. Their planned weapon: excessive taxation.

Currently, there are no gentlemen’s clubs in Lawrence County. The freedom stealing politicians aim to keep it that way by levying a 10% tax on a strip club’s gross income should any come to the area. The proposal would only apply to strip clubs, thus it is nothing more than politicians using the power of government to rob consenting adults of their court-affirmed rights to enjoy nude entertainment.

Residents of the county will vote on the proposed tax on April 8th. If it passes, it will be temporary and need to be renewed again in another four years.

More and more, governments are using their power of taxation to injure the ability of strip clubs to do business, of dancers to make a living, and to punish the millions of law-abiding people who enjoy the live entertainment they find at strip clubs. At the top of the year Texas began a $5 per head tax on strip club patrons. New Mexico is considering a similar tax. Other states are looking at proposals along the same vein.

If the citizenry does not want strip clubs to exist, they won’t exist because the clubs won’t have any customers and will go out of business. The people will vote with their dollar. It’s as simple as that.

Hopefully, state and federal courts will put a stop to this tactic of using taxation as a weapon against free expression. Otherwise, the United States will be regressing back to an era where the human body was viewed as shameful instead of beautiful. If this assault on strip clubs continues, you can rest assured that similar tactics will be used against other forms of speech that politicians and their vocal constituents wish to suppress.

We are on a slippery slope toward oppression. The enemies are on both the left and the right. A revolution at the ballot box may not be enough this time around.

There was a news article the other day about a new vegan strip club in Portland, Oregon.

Casa Diablo claims to be the world’s first vegan strip club. Patrons will find no meat, eggs, or dairy on the menu.

The owner, Johnny Diablo, was quoted as saying that the club is “vixens, not veal, and sizzle, not steak. We put the meat on the pole, not on the plate.”

Casa Diablo is located on St. Helens Rd. We will research this place and add it to our strip club list shortly.

The city council of Volin, SD, is set to vote today on revoking the liquor license of a new strip club in town.

Paddy Murphy’s opened for business a couple of weeks ago in an old steakhouse. Some residents are unhappy because the new gentlemen’s club is located directly across the street from the only park in the town where children play.

A few days ago the Yankton County Sheriff’s Office received a complaint that Paddy Murphy’s was operating without a sales tax license. The club obtained one the following day. The case has been forwarded to the state attorney’s office for possible charges against the owner Paul Kachur.

As of this writing we have been unable to obtain any information about Paddy Murphy’s such as whether it is nude or topless and the phone number and address. We will add this club to our strip club list as soon as we can ascertain the relevant information. Strip Club Central wishes them the best of luck.

The city of Seattle is getting its first new strip club in almost two decades later this year. The Deja Vu chain of clubs is planning to open a gentlemen’s club in the basement of Fantasy Unlimited, an erotic boutique and theater.

Interestingly, this new strip club is opening just feet from the very courthouse where a federal judge struck down the city’s ban on strip clubs as unconstitutional two years ago.

The last new strip club to open in Seattle was in the late 1980s. Five new clubs opened in a short period of time, prompting the city council to pass a 180-day moratorium on new strip clubs. This ban was repeatedly extended for the next 17 years until it was struck down by the Court.

As a result of the court ruling in 2005, Seattle passed new regulations such as a ban on lap dancing to discourage new clubs from opening in the city. City residents voided the restrictions by a two-to-one ratio in a vote on the issue in November 2006.

The new club will be located at 2027 Westlake Ave., Seattle, WA. There is an existing Deja Vu in the city of Seattle.

The Houston, Texas, Vice Squad is out in full force cracking down on strip clubs after a recent federal court ruling gave the city the go-ahead to begin enforcing its decade-old sexually oriented business ordinance. Just this month, several arrests have been made and a few clubs have been cited for various ordinance violations.

Undercover Houston police posed as customers at Treasures on Westheimer Road for weeks gathering evidence on suspects who allegedly offered to sell sexual services, resulting in several arrests. Police also hit Solid Platinum and arrested a half dozen employees for various charges such as prostitution, drug possession, and outstanding warrants.

(Let’s be fair: often allegations of prostitution at strip clubs are nothing more than a dancer sitting on an undercover officer’s lap or inadvertently brushing her breast against his him while giving a dance. These arrests aren’t always made for offers of real sex acts such as oral sex, hand jobs, or intercourse, but often made for things nobody in their right mind would call prostitution.)

Houston law prohibits nudity or the display of the female areola in any establishment that is within 1,500 feet of any school, church, public park, or licensed daycare center or is within 1,000 feet of a similarly licensed establishment. The fact that these exposed breasts are behind closed doors and are unable to be seen by passersby is of no consequence. Just the fact that there are exposed nipples behind closed doors where only consenting adults can see them makes them illegal.

Some people think that Houston’s ordinance could result in the closing of most of the city’s strip clubs. Some gentlemen’s clubs that are currently topless may be forced to convert to bikini clubs because they are too close to schools or churches. This distance of 1,500 feet is completely arbitrary and is intended stamp out the strip clubs that are enjoyed by many thousands of free-thinking, consenting Houston adults every year. Why did Houston stop at 1,500 feet? Why not 15,000 feet?

Houston police promise more crackdowns and raids in the near future.

Houston, TX, Sexually Oriented Business Ordinances

New Mexico state Senator John Grubesic (DFL, pictured on the right) has proposed a $5 tax on strip club patrons similar to one currently on the books in Texas.

The Texas “Pole Tax” went into effect at the top of 2008. It is currently being challenged in the courts. Late last month, a Texas judge upheld the tax. There is a hearing scheduled for Jan. 22nd on club owners’ request that a judge bar collection of the fee by the state. The supposed rationale for this Texas strip club tax is that gentlemen’s clubs contribute to the commission of sex crimes (patently false), so the money raised will be partly used to help victims of sexual assault.

“It’s $5. That’s nothing. I think beer in these places runs around five bucks,” Grubesic was quoted as saying.

But what is to stop these freedom-robbing politicians from raising the tax even higher? If their ultimate goal is to shut down strip clubs and rob free-thinking, consenting adults from enjoying this type of entertainment, what is to stop them from raising the tax to $20 per patron? Or $50? There is absolutely nothing to stop them—if the courts do not. Just as your other taxes go up and up every year, you can expect this one to go up as well.

This is a clear and unmistakable infringement on the Constitutional rights of citizens. It is a tax on expression, nothing else. Millions of Americans go to strip clubs every year. The vast majority of strip club patrons are not perpetrators of sex crimes—or any other type of crime. They should not be singled out for special taxation just because they enjoy a particular form of expression targeted by grandstanding politicians.

If this attack on free speech is upheld by idiot judges, what will be allowed to be attacked next? Perhaps a tax on patrons of rap concerts? Or maybe a tax on romance novels? How about a tax on gay cross-dressing performances? Gays have the highest rate of HIV infection. How about the state tax their expression then use part of the money raised to treat HIV infections, with the rest going to the general fund to be squandered? We can apply this twisted logic to all sorts of different scenarios with the same end result: it is a tax on speech that is supposed to be protected by the United States Constitution.

NM Senator John Grubesic’s homepage

The Crazy Horse in Clayton, North Carolina, caught fire and burned early on January 6, 2008. Fire destroyed most of the building, leaving it a complete loss. Club owners say they will rebuild and reopen.

This Crazy Horse is one of six clubs in the Pure Gold chain. It was a topless membership club that served alcohol. It opened in 1998 and employed around 80 people.

The club was facing $5,000 in fines and a 10-day suspension after allegations of dancers engaging in lewd conduct such as exposing themselves to patrons and allowing customers to join upon entering instead of requiring a three-day waiting period back in 2007.

Video from the fire

Since roughly September of 2007, stripclublist.com has been pretty much nowhere to be found in Google’s search results for most key search phrases. Google is the dominant search engine on the internet today with about 60% of the internet search market share at last report—and growing.

Strip Club List no longer ranks for most search phrases for which it once dominated. In fact, as of this writing, stripclublist.com doesn’t even rank in the top 500 Google search results for its own name according to our findings!

What does this mean? Since Google steers the vast majority of search engine traffic, it means that Strip Club List with all likelihood is experiencing a huge drop in traffic, at least search engine traffic. If we can’t find them in Google, others probably can’t. This also means that any gentlemen’s clubs that are paying money to advertise on the site or for memberships in the “Strip Club Network” may not be getting their money’s worth.

Why Strip Club List Sucks

There are many reasons why Strip Club List sucks. Of course, this is just our opinion. Mainly, we feel that Strip Club List sucks because it is geared toward club owners and not club patrons like we are here at Strip Club Central. Comments to club message boards can be removed if money is paid. Clubs that join the “network” also have the ability to moderate their boards and possibly their reviews so any negative comments or reviews could be deleted.

So, what’s the point of making a review or comment if it can be deleted? There is no point! In fact, the whole exercise of using Strip Club List as a source of information is defeated by their very revenue model. You are only seeing what many clubs aren’t paying money to have removed. (A comment of mine was deleted once. I had a negative experience at a club and posted a comment about it and a short while later it vanished.)

Putting up a message board open to public comment and then charging clubs to remove comments reeks of extortion to us. Again, this is our opinion. Unfortunately, there are some clubs out there that have been foolish enough to pay money to join that silly “Strip Club Network”. Perhaps it is time they re-evaluate their decision and stop wasting their money.

All the above is the opinion of Strip Club Central and reflects our results using Google. Your results may vary. We welcome you to search Google for yourself to see if you can find stripclublist.com anywhere in the results. We haven’t been able to for nearly four months now. And we are not complaining.

Here’s something else interesting that we found. Someone claiming to be the webmaster of TUSCL (tuscl.com) writes that Strip Club List got its start by swiping his strip club data.

unHappeecamper posted on the Google Webmaster Help Group on 05/30/2007 (Link to comment):

“The trouble with using just a simple integer as an ID is it makes it easier for other sites to swipe my data, which has happened before. That is how stripclublist.com got its start.”

That’s not very nice.

Best wishes for the new year,

Strip Club Central

Lawyers representing a group of Texas strip clubs have gone to court to ask a judge to block a state mandated $5 cover charge tax at strip clubs scheduled to go into effect at the start of the new year.

State legislators have targeted strip clubs to help pay for more welfare benefits. The tax, or surcharge as they call it, is expected to raise $40 million each year. (Doing simple math indicates that eight million patrons are expected to visit strip clubs in Texas each year—quite a lot.) About half of the money expected to be raised is supposed to be directed toward helping victims of sexual assault while the other half is planned to be used on health assistance for poor Texas residents without health insurance.

Clubs are arguing that the tax violates free speech provisions by unconstitutionally targeting a protected form of expression. This $5 per patron tax isn’t required by law to be passed on to customers. However, this tax applies to no other business establishments or nightclubs other than those that feature nude or topless dancing.

One must wonder why the burden to pay for health insurance for low-income people and sexual assault services must fall on the backs of law-abiding strip club patrons.

Rick’s Cabaret International recently identified the strip club it previously declined to name when it announced it entered into a letter of intent to purchase a club in Florida for $25 million this past October.

Rick’s acquired Tootsies Cabaret in Miami Gardens, FL. Tootsies is an all-nude club that features full bar service. The club boasts that it has 250 dancers and is open seven days a week, offering “full friction” lap dances. Tootsies is large, with 47,000 square feet of space on multiple levels. The gentlemen’s club also has a full restaurant that serves dinner and breakfast (open until 6 AM on weekends) and a five acre parking lot.

Rick’s made the acquisition by paying $15 million in cash and giving the prior owners a $10 million promisory note payable in three years.

Tootsies is the 15th adult nightclub in Rick’s portfolio of clubs across the United States. The deal closed on November, 30th and Rick’s officially took over management on December 1st.

Flesh Club in San Bernardino, California, will be closed for at least the next eight months as a result of a decision by Superior Court Judge Donald Alvarez.

The strip club was closed for allegedly allowing sex acts to occur in its VIP rooms. The city has been fighting with the club for at least a decade, claiming that it is a house of prostitution. As of November 14th, the club is shut down. The city has won—albeit temporarily—as the club may re-open after its court-ordered closure is done.

During the lengthy trial, dancers and private investigators testified that prostitution was a regular occurrence inside the club.

Judge Alvaraz also fined the owner $25,000.

After failing to garner enough signatures to petition a statewide vote on new strip club restrictions, Ohio adult entertainment business owners have now taken their battle court.

The new law that was passed earlier this year and went into effect last month forces strip clubs to close at midnight and enacts harsh new penalties for innocuous contact between patrons and dancers.

A coalition of adult entertainment businesses has asked US District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. to throw out the new law on the basis that it unconstitutionally restricts free expression and is too vague.

Originally, the coalition of business owners tried to force a statewide vote by collecting enough petition signatures, but fell short by 60,000 despite spending a reported $1.5 million on the campaign.

Opponents of adult entertainment businesses argue that gentlemen’s clubs increase crime, lower property values, degrade women, cause child molestation, and generally contribute to the destruction of society. All that from a naked woman…simply amazing.

We wish Ohio strip club owners and the patrons who enjoy those fine gentlemen’s clubs the best of luck in their battle against this egregious infringement of civil rights.

This past Saturday an employee of Good Guys in Washington DC was set on fire by an angry patron who was kicked out of the gentlemen’s club and returned a short while later to exact revenge.

A customer described as a bald Middle Eastern or Hispanic male was made to leave the club for taking pictures of the dancers. He returned 15 minutes later and doused the employee with gasoline and set him on fire inside the club.

The victim, described as a bartender or assistant manager, has second and third degree burns over 80 percent of his body. His condition was upgraded from critical to critical but stable Sunday. Doctors are hopeful he will survive.

A restraining order was recently issued against Booby Rock (Boobie Rock?), a new gentlemen’s club scheduled to open in mid-November in San Antonio, TX, at the request of a nearby business that may delay the planned opening.

EOS Acquisitions filed a lawsuit against Booby Rock claiming that deed restrictions prohibit any business that offers “entertainment appealing to prurient interests” from operating at that location. A hearing is scheduled for October 30th to determine whether a temporary injunction should be issued.

Meanwhile, city Councilwoman Diane Cibrian is continuing her irrational fight against the club by protesting the club’s liquor license application with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. The Commission has received a petition with a whopping 560 signatures from area citizens and business owners opposed to the new club.

The owner of Booby Rock, Glenn Williams, also owns Sugars, another topless bar in San Antonio.

The drive to gather enough signatures to force a statewide vote to repeal new strip club restrictions in Ohio has failed, falling 60,000 signatures short despite a reported $1.5 million in expenditures by the coalition behind the effort.

The new law enacts severe penalties for touching of nude or semi-nude dancers, prohibits dancers from touching each other, and forces a halt to nude entertainment at midnight, which will severely harm the income generating ability of clubs and dancers.

Strip club owners and owners of other adult oriented establishments have banded together to file a federal lawsuit on constitutionality grounds and another lawsuit was filed challenging Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s handling of the referendum petition.

A federal judge denied a request on 10/18/2007 to grant a temporary restraining order to an association of club owners. US District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. scheduled a hearing on November 16th on the club owners’ request for a preliminary injunction.

As of now, the law has taken effect and clubs are complying. Lap dances will not be what they used to be in Ohio.

Rick’s Cabaret International, a publicly traded corporation specializing in owning and operating adult entertainment establishments throughout the United States (NASDAQ symbol: RICK), has announced that they have signed a letter of intent to purchase a strip club located somewhere in the Southeast.

The acquisition target’s name and location have not been revealed. Rick’s is keeping it confidential for now. Per the terms of the letter of intent, the unnamed club will be acquired for $25 million and is expected to generate annual revenues of $18 million and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $8 million per year. The deal is contingent on due diligence, financing, and the transfer of pertinent licenses.

In the 12-month period ending June 30th, 2007, Rick’s had revenues of $29 million and EBITDA of $4.4 million. This is a sizeable acquisition that will nearly double Rick’s annual revenue and EBITDA.

Also this week Rick’s announced that it will be buying a 51% ownership stake in The End Zone, Inc., which owns and operates Crazy Horse Too in Philadelphia, PA. After the deal closes the club will be renamed under the Rick’s Cabaret brand. Rick’s plans to add an upscale steakhouse to the club.

Official Press Release

There may be a new strip club opening soon at 3388 S. Robertson Blvd. in Los Angeles in the Regent Square area. According to one article, the name for the new club is Skin Cabaret.

What makes this story so interesting is the creative way the people behind the club managed to get around local adult entertainment restrictions to get a permit. Los Angeles city law requires that adult oriented businesses be at least 1,000 feet apart from each other and at least 500 feet away from a park, school, church, or residential area. The new club is 993 feet away from a business called Dominion, which has been described as a bondage club. Thus, Skin Cabaret is within 1,000 feet of another adult entertainment business and against city regulations. However, the people behind the club are chopping 7 feet off the building to bring the location within the distance requirement.

It’s a shame that someone who wants to open a strip club has to hire a construction company to demolish 7 feet of the building in order to get around arbitrary restrictions that really serve no public safety purpose. But, let’s give them credit for pulling this off. If there is a will, there is a way.

Despite spending $1.5 million dollars in an effort to collect enough signatures to force a statewide vote to repeal punitive new strip club restrictions, an Ohio coalition of adult entertainment businesses has failed.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said that the coalition known as the Vote No On Issue 1 Committee was not able to gather enough signatures from at least 44 of the 88 counties in Ohio necessary to get the initiative to repeal new strip club restrictions on the November ballot.

The new restrictions impose heavy penalties on the most innocuous touching and require adult entertainment businesses to close at midnight—which is when many of them start getting busy. These restrictions serve no public safety purpose; they are nothing more than a way to circumvent existing court rulings and punish adult entertainment by making it more difficult to do business.

The only thing that will stop this law from taking effect now is a judge issuing a temporary order while the coalition makes its appeals in the court system.

This is only the beginning. This victory for the bible thumpers will only embolden them to pressure spineless lawmakers into even tighter restrictions or an all-out ban on any nudity whatsoever, which is their true goal. Succeeding at forcing clubs to close at midnight isn’t going to satisfy these peoples’ cravings for power. They are hellbent on robbing citizens of their freedoms by imposing their morality on them via the legislative process and very few lawmakers on either the Democratic or Republican side are stepping up to preserve the freedoms of citizens.

It’s a shame that America is moving backwards because of a small, vocal group of messed up people.

Perhaps the people at Citizens for Community Values, the group that pushed for these new restrictions, should focus their attention on pedophile priests and child abusers in the church instead of on the recreational activities of consenting adults.

Officials in Daytona Beach, FL, are preparing to crack down on strip clubs just in time for annual Biketoberfest.

Thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts will be pouring into town and if they are pouring beer down their throats, they won’t be able to look at topless or scantily clad women.

City ordinance prohibits nude or scantily clad dancing in any establishment that serves alcohol or is within 500 feet of another establishment that serves alcohol. As part of the upcoming crackdown, police will be combing local strip clubs looking for any dancer who shows too much skin. Even pasties and G-strings are illegal per city ordinance as they are deemed too revealing by city law. The city even went so far as to distribute an image of the minimum amount of attire a dancer may wear, essentially establishing a dress code for dancers (now the government is telling people how they can dress—how’s that for free expression?).

If a dancer violates the ordinance by showing too much skin, she can be arrested. Club managers could be arrested as well.

Though club attorneys are eventually hoping to take this before the US Supreme Court, in the meantime city leaders will do their best to harm the economic viability of businesses that offer adult entertainment and infringe on the rights of consenting citizens for no other reason than their own personal dislike of this type of entertainment which is enjoyed by millions of people every year.

(I have been to several fully-nude strip clubs that serve alcohol over the years in a few different states and never once have I witnessed anybody misbehaving or causing trouble.)

In Europe you can find women topless at any beach or pool in full view of men and little children. In many countries, there are nude beaches or sections of public parks set aside for nude sunbathing and recreation (like Englischer Garten in Munich, Germany, for example). Yet in Daytona Beach, Florida, if a dancer shows too much of her buttock or covers her nipple with a pastie she can be handcuffed and hauled off to jail if alcohol is served within 500 feet. Unbelievable!

Citizens need to start voting with their wallets. Next year people who attend Biketoberfest should take their money and go to a city that is more respecting of peoples’ freedoms.