Topless bars and Taxi cars
February 9, 2007 | 1:47
pm
Say you are in Las Vegas and you decide to hop into a taxi on the Strip with some friends and go to a topless bar. You pay your cab fare, you (being good guys) tip the taxi driver. Then you and your friends all shell out the $20 cover each to get into the topless bar and the waitress tells you right off there is a two drink minimum. And, hey, you haven't even seen a dancer yet. So, who is the big winner here? The taxi driver, of course! That cover charge just begins to help the club pay for your cab with the profits on your two drink minimum likely covering the rest.
What, you seem to think you paid for the cab? Ha. Your money was nothing. In addition to getting paid and tipped by you,the topless bar is probably paying the driver up to $70 a head for each person delivered to their door. Three friends in a cab means $210 for the driver. Ever wonder why in Vegas your taxi driver always has an opinion about what topless club you should go to? How can this sort of kickback be legal? Well, in a brief shining moment of integrity back in 2005 the Assembly passed a bill to outlaw this rip off practice. Of course, it was a mistake. That vote I mean. The Governor vetoed the bill to stop the provision. Yesterday the Assembly upheld the Governor's veto 42-0. And, showing a profile of courage, that's right, even the original sponsor of the ban, Majority Leader John Oceguera has changed his mind. According to the Review-Journal:
"Oceguera said he introduced the amendment at the request of businesses who did not want to pay cabbies for bringing customers to their doors. Oceguera said the businesses felt the tips were a form of extortion or kickbacks."
The reason businesses felt this way, of course, is that the practice is a form of extortion and kickbacks. One strip club owner who refuses to pay a customer bounty tells me that when people try to take a cab to his club they are routinely told the strippers there are ugly or that the place is closed. This sort of steering is not allowed even without the ban, but probably does still happen frequently. Why else do you think topless bar owners, not the most generous crowd most days, pay such huge "tips"? Besides the customers have already paid for the cab, and tipped the driver.
Why would Oceguera now see things so different? Well, let's think about the demographics. The customers in taxis going to strip clubs are mostly going to be tourists voting elsewhere whereas the cab drivers mostly live here. The Review-Journal notes: "Assembly Majority Leader Oceguera...said legislatures did not intend to harm cab drivers." Of course, not. As for the tourists who are being ripped off this way....Clearly, no one elected here cares about you on this issue. But I have a suggestion for tourists that I have made before on the Buffet. Ask your taxi driver to take you to any spot right next to the topless bar of your choice, say, a 7-11 or a strip mall. It is usually a nice night in Vegas; we have great weather. Tell the driver you want to walk the final 20 feet with your friends to that topless bar and enjoy the moment.
Or maybe, if the taxi driver were kind enough to pay the ENTIRE fare for you and your friends then you might let the driver take you to do the front door. Seriously, don't let the cab drivers make you a sucker in Vegas. That cuts directly into your budget for fun. Why stand for being subtly fleeced in a town you come to in order to waste money so directly on strippers and gambling? As the great philosophers the Beastie Boys once pronounced: "You've got to fight for your right to party."
Great article. Many of the folks from out of town have no idea about these charges. If you happen to get a free pass to one of the clubs they will often state "not valid if arriving by limo or taxi". What a racket this is.
Posted by: SIV LLC | February 09, 2007 at 02:50 PM
Yea I remember this issue a few years ago. I thought they had upheld it right after the original vote mostly due to the huge strike that happened for a few days afterwards. Imagine hundreds of cabbies honking their horns driving around the city all night long. My suggestion to people when you want to go to a strip club and claim you arrived in your own transportation? Do some research before hand and get dropped off at some place near by.. for instance the DejaVu Love Boutique and take a short walk to the Spearmint Rhino. Works like a charm!
Posted by: Las Vegas Courtesan | February 10, 2007 at 03:18 PM
Why don't you do your own research as to clubs to go to, and not have to ask a taxi driver where to go. Also it is Las Vegas, everything is a overpriced and anytime you go there plan on spending tons of cash.
Posted by: andrew | February 11, 2007 at 02:09 PM
I know that tipping the cab drivers is hurting the smaller strip clubs financially. Scores and the Spearmint Rhino are paying the most to the cabbies. Employees of other clubs have gotten into cabs and asked to go to their own clubs and the cabbies tell them the club is no longer opened, or the girls are ugly at that club and encourage the customers to go to Scores or the Spearmint Rhino. Also the cabbies are picking up customers a block away from the clubs and drops off the customers, the cabbies get paid and leave and then the customers walk in the club and turn around and walk out and walk back to their cars. The cab drivers are making $2,000 - $4,000 a night in cash. I think the clubs should be forced to somehow 1099 the cabbies so they have to pay taxes on this free cash money.
Posted by: Jill Reed | February 12, 2007 at 08:01 AM
And don't forget the pimps who run the so-called "Call girl" racket. Well, I shouldn't say pimps as much as the people who hire the girls who are advertised on the Vegas websites and in papers handed out around town. Locals "in the know" understand they can work as phone dispatchers making hundreds of dollars in tips a night. They have deals with the cabbies too who drive girls and clients around.
-n.l.
www.noveltown.net/blog
Posted by: n.l. belardes | February 13, 2007 at 03:19 PM
Puhleeze! First off...It's only twenty a head to the cabbies, and do you really think that if it was outlawed the clubs would stop the twenty dollar cover? Haha. Such ignorance. Go ahead, blame the taxi drivers. If you get dropped off next door you still are going to pay the same amount of money you would have if you were dropped off at the entrance. Plus now you wasted five or ten minutes of your time and the driver will still get paid because I guarantee you he has let the doorman know what happened. Foolish people wasting time on a subject.
Posted by: AJM | February 14, 2007 at 09:35 AM
Yeah your right! the cabbies are terrible. How dare they try to make more money when the entire taxi industry in vegas is owned by the carnagies. How is it that vegas cabbies have a base pay of less than minimum wage, are forced to work a minimum of 60 hours per week with zero breaks while greedy cab owners suck up all the money. by the way you idiot, a lot of the cab companies own strip clubs. who decides that the average cabbies salary for a year should be 22,000 bucks for a 60 hour work week. why don't you go after the real culprits. You are an idiot! Why don't you break up the monopoly of cab ownership before everyone is a thief.Why don't you write an article about tipping your cab driver properly. I would bet you don't even tip well. why don't you come over here and take on a job driving a cab and find out the exact situations we are subjected to, you uncle tom. I wonder whose pay role you are on. i wonder why you don't try to point out how door men sell every stip club to limo drivers and make half a million bucks a year. why do they have to ask you where your going? ever consider that? Cab drivers on average take about 2 people per week to a strip club, it nets about an additional 40 bucks. wow! I hope next time you come here you get in a cab and they long haul you. That way the company gets more money from you. i hope you come here in 5 more years when the cab drivers are making 3 bucks an hour and they flat out beat you and rob you so they can survive. your a real jerk, an uninformed uncle tom.
Posted by: John Johnson | September 19, 2007 at 01:35 PM
We know all about ripoffs. We have been sticking to our customers and employees since the mid 80s. That's why we can't hire good machinists any more. They've all worked here at one tkime and nw won't come back becuz they know i'll can them again. LOL.
Posted by: alan soucy of Advanced Precision Engineering | April 05, 2008 at 05:26 PM