Columnist Jeff German: Kickbacks to cabbies and limousine drivers are getting out of hand

Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005 | 7:05 a.m.

Jeff German's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday in the Sun. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4067.

It's a battle that has been raging for a long time on the Strip -- cabbies and limousine drivers competing for lucrative topless club kickbacks.

The clubs have been handing out anywhere from $20 to $70 a head for tourists who are steered their way.

Both the city and the county have ordinances that prohibit the clubs from spreading money around to cabbies like this, but the ordinances are outdated and don't include the limousine drivers in the ban.

So lately, mostly because of political pressure from cabbies, neither of the ordinances is being enforced, as officials struggle to decide whether to strengthen or kill them.

The cabbies are complicating matters by stepping up complaints that hotel doormen are diverting their passengers to limousine drivers in return for a cut of the bounty from the topless clubs.

The ordinances, however, also don't prohibit the doormen from this kind of conduct.

It's a huge mess, and officials don't seem to know how to straighten it out.

Last weekend Nevada Taxicab Authority investigators learned just how ridiculous the battle between the cabbies and limousine drivers has become.

Investigators busted a Hard Rock Hotel doorman and a valet parking attendant for allegedly stealing a taxicab medallion from a Lucky cab waiting to take five passengers to the Spearmint Rhino topless club.

The theft, according to the four-page crime report, took place about 5:40 a.m. Saturday in the presence of a Hard Rock security officer as the cabbie protested the doorman's effort to divert the passengers to a limousine driver.

Without a medallion, which is essentially a state license, a cab can't legally operate on the street.

"Diversion by the doormen has been going on forever," Taxicab Authority spokesman Rob Stewart says. "But we've never been able to prove it. This is the first time we've ever had an opportunity to make a case."

The entire incident, which occurred outside the Hard Rock's main entrance, was captured on hotel surveillance cameras.

The 30-year-old doorman and the 23-year-old parking attendant were not taken into custody, but investigators, after interviewing the two suspects, asked the district attorney's office to issue arrest warrants for both men on theft and conspiracy charges. The DA is still reviewing the case.

What has investigators smiling is that the parking valet admitted during questioning that the medallion was taken in the effort to direct the taxicab passengers to the limousine driver.

The valet also told investigators that this kind of diversion was widespread and that doormen generally get half the tip money the limousine drivers receive from the strip clubs.

Cabbies, on the other hand, don't share their kickbacks with the doormen, Stewart says. They're in and out of hotel cab lines quickly and don't have as much down time as the limousine drivers to cultivate relationships with the doormen.

Stewart says the Taxicab Authority hopes to exploit the Hard Rock incident to publicize the need to get tougher on the doormen.

"We hope it shows that there's a problem out there," he says. "We've got to figure out a way to address it."

But it also may be time for authorities to figure out once and for all whether the topless clubs should even be in the business of giving kickbacks to cabbies and limousine drivers.