Friday, May 30, 2003 | 5:37 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION: June 1, 2003
Local adult nightclubs that feature topless or nude dancing likely will continue to flourish in Clark County despite FBI raids and efforts to restrict where such businesses can operate.
So say observers of Southern Nevada's sex industry. They say they see no end to the growth of adult-oriented businesses, which had their roots in the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and took off again in the 1990s.
The local adult nightclub scene found itself in the news again last month when the FBI raided two strip clubs in an investigation into whether owners Michael and Jack Galardi gave payments and gifts to current and former elected officials. Federal agents also raided the City Hall offices of three San Diego city councilmen and another strip club owned by Michael Galardi in that city. No wrongdoing has been announced but the federal probe continues.
In a meeting last month with the Las Vegas Sun Editorial Board, Clark County Sheriff Bill Young recalled only four adult nightclubs in the county when he ran Metro's vice squad from 1988 to 1995.
"Now there are dozens out there," he said. "We can't keep up with all of them."
Young's recollection -- though not precise -- was on target. The July 1988 telephone directory listed seven topless bars, three nude establishments and two other businesses that advertised adult entertainment in the county. There were also 22 pages of advertisements from female and male adult "entertainers" and escort services.
The July 1995 telephone book listed 17 nude or topless establishments and had 48 pages of ads for adult entertainers.
There are now 34 nude or topless nightclubs combined in unincorporated Clark County and in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson, with applications pending for two more topless bars, according to public records. The number of adult entertainer ads in the phone book also swelled to 100 pages.
UNLV sociology professor Barbara Brents, who has studied local sex-related businesses, said that the growth of the adult nightclub industry since the mid-1990s is not unique to Las Vegas.
"There has been huge growth in sex industry-related things nationwide the past few years," Brents said. "Sex sells and businesses have taken advantage of that. There is more sexualization in advertising. In the 1990s we saw a real explosion in adult videos, in adult superstores and in adult-oriented things generally.
"The old adage of Las Vegas becoming family-oriented didn't work. In most big convention center cities adult-oriented businesses have exploded."
In addition to the growing popularity of sex-driven businesses in general, at least three other factors have fueled the growth of the adult nightclub industry in Clark County. One is Southern Nevada's rapid population increase. There were an estimated 1.58 million residents in the county last year, a 113 percent increase over the 741,459 residents counted in the 1990 Census.
"Growth certainly plays a part and the industry is successful enough that people find it fruitful to get involved," Brad Fournier, the county's assistant business license director, said.
Another factor is the addition of new megaresorts along the Las Vegas Strip. As the Strip has grown to the south, so has the adult nightclub industry. Of the 13 topless clubs that have opened within the vicinity of the Strip since 1997, 11 are south of Desert Inn Road.
A third factor that goes hand and hand with the megaresort boom has been the continued popularity of Southern Nevada for convention business.
"All these clubs do a super business whenever there's a convention in town," Metro Vice Lt. Terry Davis said. "There's a lot of money in it."
After meeting with the Sun editorial board, Young said in a separate interview that he believed the sex industry has "taken advantage" of the growth in the convention business.
"This is a target-rich environment in terms of the customer base," Young said. "A lot of males visit here for conventions."
Las Vegas has never been shy about its Sin City image. That image has been reinforced this year by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's yearlong television advertising campaign, "Vegas Stories."
The ads rely in part on the theme, "what happens here, stays here." Shriners are featured in one ad, boasting of the wild times they enjoyed in town the previous evening. Another ad shows a sexy woman entering a limousine and flirting with the driver. After telling the driver how much she loves the smell of new cars and leather, she raises the privacy wall and then reappears as a sophisticated businesswoman.
"We don't deny that there's a provocative aspect to these ads but it's all in good fun," LVCVA spokeswoman Erika Brandvik said.
While Brandvik said the ads hint of Southern Nevada's naughty side, she denied that they help promote its adult entertainment industry.
"That would be a horribly cynical conclusion to take from these ads," she said. "There are no hints of gentlemen's clubs in the ads."
History of adult shows
Adult nightclubs are not the only places in town to see topless performers. Strip hotels have also had a long history of providing adult-oriented cabaret shows, though that trend comes and goes. Within the last two years, the trend has been on the upswing.
MGM MIRAGE spokesman Alan Feldman said that there is now more focus in Las Vegas on entertainment "targeted at folks over the age of 21" than in the recent past. In 2001, the MGM MIRAGE opened "Le Femme," a glitzy, choreographed topless revue.
"In the last few years some folks have been trying to capture the late night business by having these late night cabarets," Feldman said. "Part of it is the resurgence of Vegas chic. These shows have the ability to be part of that trend. Le Femme is popular with women, too, because it is artfully done."
Southern Nevada's Sin City image began early last century with brothels in Las Vegas and in the county. The last of those brothels closed in 1954 but street prostitution eventually took over and was a common site on the Strip in the 1970s. It wasn't until the early 1980s that police made arrests of street hookers a high priority.
Taking the hookers off the streets drove much of the prostitution business underground, and led to the emergence of outcall services. These services began advertising in the Yellow Pages and through leaflets distributed to tourists. The presumption from police has always been that these services are fronts for prostitution, something the operators of those businesses have denied.
There are now 98 outcall businesses -- all based in the unincorporated portion of the county -- compared with 139 just four years ago. But Davis, the vice lieutenant, said the decline in that number is deceiving because of a change in the county's licensing process. Instead of needing one business license per outcall service, as was true in 1999, outcall operators now need only a fictitious firm certificate and can operate "50 outcall services out of one storefront," Davis said.
"Even if there are fewer businesses, they have more employees," Davis said.
The adult nightclub scene in Las Vegas, much like elsewhere, started out mostly with small, seedy-looking dives. That gradually began to change in the 1990s and accelerated to the point where Southern Nevada now features some of the nation's largest and swankiest cabarets. So says Angelina Spencer, a Cleveland adult nightclub owner who is executive director of the 600-member Association of Club Executives, a trade association for adult nightclub owners.
Spencer said that only Dallas can match Las Vegas' upscale adult nightclub scene. She said the upgrade in the physical appearance of many of these clubs over their predecessors is not surprising.
"The average club owners are more astute than they were 20 years ago," Spencer said. "Twenty years ago you were lucky to find dancers with a full set of teeth.
"Years ago, strip clubs catered to perverted geeks. The gentlemen's clubs today cater to all clientele. Young men and women, many of whom were entertainers, now own their own clubs."
Part of the reason for the growing popularity of adult nightclubs has been an increasing number of female customers. Spencer said that on any given Saturday night at her own club, as many as half of the patrons are women.
"Our younger generation of women are more sexually free," she said. "Women are curious about what a dancer does, and the average woman wants to compare herself to an exotic dancer to see how she measures up."
The growth of the adult nightclub industry has occurred mostly in light manufacturing zones in the unincorporated county. Of the 34 topless or nude establishments in Southern Nevada, 21 are in unincorporated areas. Of the remaining 13, nine are in Las Vegas, three are in North Las Vegas and one is in Henderson.
Increase in calls
Young said the increase in the number of adult nightclubs also has increased Metro's workload in responding to calls, such as for solicitation of prostitution, which is illegal in the county. The fact that many of the nightclubs operate round-the-clock while serving liquor also adds to Metro's workload, he said.
Davis said that Metro has made 150 arrests for solicitation of prostitution within adult nightclubs since 2000. Some of those arrests occurred in areas such as "VIP rooms," where patrons can usually reserve private dances.
"There are many women who don't operate outside the law but there are also many who do," Davis said. "We certainly have been doing more enforcement in the clubs currently than in the past. There are some problem employees and we spot check more often.
"It is a growing problem. I would say that 90 percent of the time that we go into these businesses we do make an arrest for solicitation."
One problem with the growth in adult nightclubs, Davis said, is that it has often made it more difficult for vice officers to enforce other laws that also need attention.
"We have a finite number of officers," he said. "When our areas of responsibility grow, we get thin."
There have always been accusations from critics of adult nightclubs that the industry has ties to the underworld. Davis said he knew of no such ties in Las Vegas.
Spencer also scoffed at those accusations, saying that nearly all adult nightclub owners operate aboveboard.
"One myth is that we're the cause of increased crime, lower property values and sexual diseases," she said. "There are a lot of people in the industry who believe that if you're not running a legitimate club, you should have your doors closed. If you run a legitimate business, you have nothing to fear."
That's not to say that the local adult entertainment industry hasn't had setbacks.
When Lance Malone was on the Clark County Commission in 1999 he succeeded in getting the commission to adopt an ordinance to increase the minimum separation between adult-oriented businesses from 500 feet to 1,000 feet, which mirrored Las Vegas city law.
"I certainly understand that these are legal businesses but they are starting to pop up on every corner," Malone told the Las Vegas Sun two weeks before the ordinance was adopted. "What we have to do is continue the fight. The day we give in to these businesses I think our society will go down the drain."
But after Malone lost his reelection bid in 2000, he became a paid consultant to the Galardis. He was not the first former politician to link up with the local adult nightclub industry. Former Las Vegas City Councilman and Constable Bob Nolen served as manager of the Olympic Garden topless nightclub in the two years before his death in 2001.
Industry ties
Two current Las Vegas city councilmen, Michael McDonald and Michael Mack, also have ties to the industry. McDonald is a friend of Rizzolo and a consultant to Michael Galardi, a connection that led to McDonald being named in the FBI search warrant linked to the Galardi-owned nightclubs.
Mack is a consultant to Treasures, which is scheduled to open as a topless Las Vegas nightclub later this year. Mack also became linked to the Galardi probe when the FBI confiscated a videotape that showed the councilman getting a lap dance at Cheetahs, a topless cabaret owned by the Galardis.
With the growth of the sex industry there has also been increasing attention paid to campaign contributions made by strip club owners to candidates for public office. Young, who was elected last November, said that during his campaign "topless guys tried to throw oodles of money at me. It was unbelievable."
While sex industry contributions still come nowhere close to the amount of money poured into local campaigns by the gaming industry, strip club donations have drawn increased media scrutiny.
A notable example occurred last fall when David Roger, the eventual victor for county district attorney, agreed to return $45,000 in contributions to strip club owners after his Republican primary opponent, Abbi Silver, made it an issue. Included was a $10,000 contribution from Michael Galardi.
In a televised interview May 20 on "Face to Face with Jon Ralston" on Las Vegas ONE, strip club owner Peter Eliades said he contributes large amounts of money to local campaigns but expects no special favors.
Eliades, co-owner of the Olympic Garden and Sapphire topless clubs, also said he does not worry about being probed by the FBI.
"I don't give any money other than contributions and I expect nothing in return," he told Ralston. "I tell the people who I give money to, 'if I come to you and ask you to break the law, please report me. I don't want nothing from you except I need you to have your door open (so) if I need something to come and talk.'
"This is a legitimate business. We bring a lot of people to town. We shouldn't be trying to give a black eye to this industry until we see what took place here. When tourists hear all these things they don't want to come here."
At the same time, Eliades told Ralston he didn't believe the FBI has a vendetta against the adult nightclub industry. He said the FBI had a right to go after businesses that violate laws by making illegal cash contributions to politicians, though he said he was unaware of any such occurrence in Las Vegas.
"The feds have a job to do, just like everyone else," Eliades said. "It's healthy to keep us straight."
Eliades also said he saw no problem with Councilman Mack serving as a consultant to the businessmen who want to open Treasures as long as Mack does not continue that relationship once that business opens. But Eliades told Ralston that he thought fellow Councilman McDonald was "unethical" for serving as a paid consultant to Michael Galardi for existing businesses, an association McDonald has defended.
"It's wrong because you cannot be getting a paycheck from an industry you regulate," Eliades said.
Without naming names, Las Vegas attorney Allen Lichtenstein said he believes some members of the sex industry have "a lot more political clout" than others. Lichtenstein, who represents adult-oriented businesses and also works with the American Civil Liberties Union on First Amendment issues affecting the industry, also said that "certain regulations that come down the pike raise questions" about whether politicians are trying to address legitimate problems or whether they are "just protecting favorite businesses."
One example he gave was when the county commission in August 1999 imposed a moratorium on adult business applications, retroactive to the previous month. The action had the effect of preventing the owners of an Industrial Road fitness center, the Sporting House, from processing an application to convert their business into an adult cabaret.
The Sporting House owners successfully sued the county because they had applied for the change prior to the approval of the moratorium. That location, 3025 Industrial Road, is now home to the Sapphire topless club, owned in part by Eliades.
The September 1999 decision by the commission to increase the minimum separation of adult-oriented businesses from 500 feet to 1,000 feet caused some skeptics to charge that Malone -- who had enlisted McDonald's help in drafting the ordinance -- was looking to help the topless nightclub owned by McDonald's friend, Rizzolo. Malone denied that allegation.
Despite these controversies, Raymond Pistol, owner of the Talk of the Town adult nightclub and X-rated Showgirl Video, both in Las Vegas, said the extent of political clout enjoyed by sex industry businessmen locally is not much when compared to the gaming and development industries. He cited the fact that adult-oriented businessmen have had to go to court to fight local government ordinances aimed at restricting the industry.
"I don't see undue influence," Pistol said. "I know everyone in a small town likes to give campaign contributions to politicians. You want them to take your phone call when people are messing with you. I've noticed overall that races are getting more and more expensive because of inflation, so it would stand to reason that to get noticed in the ocean you have to be a bigger island."
More scrutiny
Local government officials continue to scrutinize the growth of sex-related businesses. Just last month the county commission created an adult overlay district in the area east of Interstate 15 around Industrial Road from north of Sunset Road to Sahara Avenue. The object is to contain the adult industry as much as possible within that narrow sliver of the Las Vegas Valley.
But Pistol said he viewed that decision as a switch from the commission's philosophy when it voted in 1999 to increase the distances between adult-oriented businesses in order to eliminate potential clutter, particularly along Industrial Road.
"That looks to me like a reversal from voting to separate the businesses because now they want to concentrate them," he said.
"The town is growing so the adult industry is growing with it to meet demand. Look at Atlanta and San Diego. They are both growing towns and their adult businesses are growing as well."
There are no reliable estimates on the amount of money generated by the county's adult-oriented businesses. Pistol told the Sun in 1999 that he estimated the industry earned about $175 million a year in Southern Nevada, a figure he guessed could easily be doubled today. Eliades tossed out much lower figures to Ralston -- $60 million to $80 million a year, but also said that was a guess.
Despite attempts by local governments to restrict sex-related businesses, they have shown their resiliency through victories in court.
Lichtenstein said he wouldn't be surprised to see future strip club applicants attempt to challenge ordinances that restrict their potential livelihood.
"The hotels don't have to be in industrial zones to have topless entertainment," Lichtenstein said. "The more games the county plays the more someone might think it's worthwhile to challenge the whole house of cards.
"It's quite astonishing that you have politicians who have railed against these businesses and then become paid consultants for them. I don't think that makes a good impression on the public."
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