County sets limits on strip club acts

Adrienne Packer

Thursday, Aug. 1, 2002 | 11:19 a.m.

The Clark County Commission voted to impose restrictions on lap dancing in the county's strip clubs.

Under the new guidelines:

Enforcement issues:

Commissioner Myrna Williams shielded her eyes. Chip Maxfield gazed upward. Yvonne Atkinson Gates shook her head disgustedly. Bruce Woodbury peered at the screen disapprovingly. Dario Herrera left the chambers.

The video played before commissioners was the culmination of an 18-month undercover investigation Atkinson Gates authorized to find out exactly what happens in Clark County's darkened topless clubs.

Rather than playing their traditional role of dictating how vacant desert land should be used, the board Wednesday was burdened with deciding to what extent the popular strip club act of lap dancing should be restricted.

"These dancers used to dance on a stage and pole. They went from dancing on stage, now they're on the couch," Atkinson Gates said. "What's the next step? We needed to either legalize prostitution or put laws on the books that are enforceable."

After viewing footage taken by undercover Metro Police officers and footage filmed by the county's business license investigators, the board voted 5-1 for a law supporters said was enforceable. Erin Kenny was absent; Herrera was the sole opposing vote.

Before Wednesday lap dancing was illegal in Clark County. The new law actually makes the indulgence legal, but implements restrictions.

In topless cabarets where alcohol is sold, dancers who are wearing clothing covering their genitals are permitted to make contact between that region and a patron's legs, but not feet.

In bars that prohibit alcohol, the law is similar except it allows a dancer's "unclothed" body parts to touch customers' legs.

Any other form of touching between the dancer and patron that involves the genital area is prohibited under the new guidelines.

It is not clear what penalties those who violate the new law might face. The ordinance is expected to go into effect Sept. 1.

The new law also bans the traditional type of tipping in which the patron stuffs dollar bills in the dancer's G-string; only hand-to-hand tipping is permitted. It also prohibits minors from stripping in clubs that sell alcohol.

Atkinson Gates said she initiated the probe because the laws regulating strip acts were too vague, leading adult club owners to believe county officials had an "anything goes" mentality.

When the county received 16 adult club applications during a three-year period beginning in 1998, the commissioner, Metro Police and Business License Director Ardel Jorgenson agreed to the joint investigation.

The tapes confirmed fears that lap dancing, an act in which the dancer gyrates on and above a customer's lap, sometimes evolves into prostitution, Jorgenson said.

During the 18-month investigation, 63 arrests were made for lewd acts, drug use or prostitution.

"We had to do something because it was bad," Jorgenson said.

Signs posted inside and outside of the commission chambers Wednesday warned audience members the videos would be graphic.

Board members winced as they watched men coat women's G-string-clad buttocks with whipped cream, then lick it off. Female dancers engaged in oral sex with customers and with each other. Women masturbated in front of their male patrons.

The public, herded into a separate conference room to view the same grainy footage, was far less offended. The gathering of dark-suited attorneys, scruffy cab drivers and thin strippers groaned and jeered. One unimpressed dancer shouted that the "Girls Gone Wild" video was better.

Brianna Wildman, dressed in a short-skirted business suit, said her dream is to be Adult Entertainer of the Year at Jaguars topless club. She admitted some dancers go overboard, apologized for those offenders and begged the board not to put restrictions on her profession.

Like her fellow strippers who sat through the four-hour debate, Wildman said she is able to feed her children with the money she makes. If lap dancing and stripping is bogged down with stringent laws, she would have to seek other ways to earn a living.

"Please don't force me to do something illegal," she said, her voice cracking.

Though no strip club owner spoke out adamantly in opposition to the law Wednesday, strippers argued that Las Vegas is a tourist destination partly because of their services. They acknowledged the government's work to make Las Vegas Strip more family-oriented, but asked that it not be turned into Disneyland.

The Las Vegas Strip and topless clubs might be viewed as adult playgrounds, but Atkinson Gates said her goal is to protect the integrity of the town and residents.

"I don't want to hurt this community," Atkinson Gates said, defending herself from a wave of harsh -- and sometimes personal -- criticism from the crowd. "I was born here and I live here."

Mary Holguyn applauded the undercover probe. She said her granddaughter was lured into stripping when she was 14 years old. By 16, she was engaging in prostitution.

"She had an adult body, but a child's mind," Holguyn said.

Beginning Sept. 1, police, business license investigators and members of the adult industry will have clearer laws to go by. But critics, including Herrera, questioned how the county planned to enforce the new law.

County officials said not only will Metro Police and business license agents enforce the law, but they expect club owners to regulate their businesses, which operate under privileged licenses.

Marlen Hoesly, a 36-year resident of Las Vegas, said Sin City's rules are ridiculously restrictive because they're impossible to police.

"It's going to be a monster to enforce," Hoesly said.