Commission to consider more intimate tipping for stripping

Adrienne Packer

Friday, Nov. 15, 2002 | 10:32 a.m.

The Las Vegas strip club scene might return to normal if Clark County commissioners decide tippers can again touch strippers.

The board is scheduled to reconsider a portion of the county's controversial lap dancing law that prohibits customers from tipping dancers by tucking bills into their G-strings.

When commissioners passed the ordinance in August, they agreed to revisit the tipping method chapter. The new law that went into effect Sept. 1 said tipping could only be executed hand-to-hand.

Opponents of the restraints argued that G-string tipping doesn't lead to prostitution, which is why the county drafted more stringent lap dancing rules. Lap dances, acts in which strippers grind against and hover above paying customers, are popular indulgences in Las Vegas strip clubs.

The ordinance prohibits dancers from using any part of their bodies to touch the genitals or breasts of patrons.

While the reconsideration of tipping methods might be good news to strip club customers, the attorney general's office delivered a ruling Thursday unfavorable to younger strippers.

Confirming what Clark County attorneys have proclaimed since the ordinance was adopted, the attorney general's office ruled that dancers under 21 years old cannot work in establishments that serve alcohol.

The age requirement, already state law, was written into the county ordinance. Before the county law passed, dancers under 21 wore wristbands.

"The intent of the Legislature was to protect the health and morals of persons under the age of 21 by prohibiting them from frequenting establishments where alcoholic beverages are sold and consumed," the attorney general's opinion said.

Commissioners expressed concerns about leveling an age requirement. Commissioner Erin Kenny said she feared prohibiting underage dancers from working in strip clubs that serve alcohol would push young strippers to more unseemly totally nude clubs that are not permitted to serve alcohol.