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An exotic dancer who goes by the name "Heaven" performs for a customer Tuesday at Cheetahs Adult Cabaret within Las Vegas city limits. Photo by Craig L. Moran. LAS VEGAS VALLEY STRIP CLUBS Following are some of the larger strip clubs located in unincorporated Clark County: Club Paradise, Deja Vu, Divas Las Vegas, Jaguars, Spearmint Rhino, Striptease. Following are some of the larger strip clubs located in the Las Vegas city limits: Cheetah's, Crazy Horse Too, Glitter Gulch, Little Darlings, Olympic Garden and Tally Ho. -- REVIEW-JOURNAL

Friday, August 02, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

City OK with its rules on dancing

LV has no plan to follow county lead

The city of Las Vegas has no plans to match Clark County's ordinance restricting erotic dancing, but instead wants to hit dancers in the pocketbook by requiring them to get business licenses, officials said Thursday.

A day after county commissioners enacted new age restrictions and limits on the kind of touching allowed between dancers and customers, Mayor Oscar Goodman said the law was solving a problem that doesn't exist.

"Our ordinance is perfect," Goodman said of existing city law, which makes prostitution illegal but contains no specific language on lap dancing. "We don't have a problem here."

The mayor said authorities would be better off enforcing existing laws against prostitution, and he criticized police for showing undercover police video of lewd acts during Wednesday's commission meeting. The footage was shown in an attempt to convince commissioners that some dance clubs have become havens for prostitution.

"Instead of taking pictures, they should make an arrest," Goodman said.

Dancers who work in the city or unincorporated parts of Clark County are required to undergo police background checks and obtain a work card, which can be denied if the applicant has had recent convictions for fraud or prostitution.

Under an ordinance being prepared by the city's business licensing division, dancers would be required to obtain a business license at a cost of $100 every six months.

Councilman Michael Mack said the ordinance, which could be introduced later this month, would allow dancers to work at any club in the city as an independent contractor.

"It's definitely a revenue generator," said Mack, estimating that it could bring in up to $3 million a year to the city's coffers.

Requiring a business license would allow police to conduct more thorough background checks of prospective dancers, Mack said.

Because erotic dancing is a constitutionally protected act of free expression, the city can deny licenses only to applicants who've been convicted of crimes related to fraud or "moral turpitude," Assistant City Attorney John Redlein said.

"If we tried to go further than that, we'd be trampling on the First Amendment," Redlein said.

Allen Lichtenstein, who represents several all-nude clubs in the city and unincorporated Clark County, said the difference between city and county law is likely to create confusion.

"The biggest concern that I have (with the county's ordinance) is the vagueness of enforcement and the fact that I had been urging them to step back, consult with the city and make sure that whatever is passed is consistent throughout the valley," Lichtenstein said. But Lichtenstein said requiring strippers to obtain business licenses is a good idea. "Since dancers go from club to club, it makes sense for them to get a license to ply their trade at various places."

Under the ordinance approved 5-1 by the County Commission on Wednesday, dancers will have to be at least 21 years old to work in clubs that serve alcohol and will be limited in the ways they can touch patrons during private lap dances. Dancers will be allowed to grind against a customer's leg, but more intimate contact will be against the law.

In the city, which hosts some of the valley's biggest clubs, dancers will face no such restrictions.

The ordinance that passed was watered down significantly from an earlier proposal that would have required dancers and customers to remain at least 6 feet apart.

Goodman was critical of the age restrictions, which some club owners have said will send dancers between the ages of 18 and 20 to all-nude clubs that don't serve alcohol.

"When you're 18, you're allowed to die for your country, so why can't some young lady or young man perform?" Goodman said. "Anybody who's going to conduct themselves in a legal manner ... is welcome in my city. Anything that's legal should go here."

In his weekly news conference Thursday, Goodman used the lap-dance controversy to once again call for the gradual consolidation of city and county functions under a single governmental entity.