A cabdriver returns to his taxi Friday evening after dropping off customers at the Sapphire Gentlemen's Club on Industrial Road. Photo by Jane Kalinowsky.

While strippers inside Las Vegas Valley clubs collect G-strings full of dollar bills from customers, club owners say they're being fleeced by the cabbies who deliver those patrons.

Club owners have lodged several complaints with Clark County, saying they are forced to pay cabdrivers outrageous amounts of cash to bring patrons to their doorsteps.

The payout? Seventy dollars per head, according to some club operators.

If owners don't pay up, taxi drivers stage a boycott of their business by diverting customers to the clubs that do tip, the owners say.

The operator of one of the valley's strip clubs said she paid cabbies $1.4 million in tips during the month of September alone. Two club owners interviewed for this story declined to be named, fearing retaliation from the cab industry.

"It's extortion," said the owner of one of the valley's larger topless establishments. "We're not tipping them for good service. We're tipping them for not taking customers to someone else."

Jacqueline Holloway, Clark County's business license director, said she is working with city of Las Vegas administrators and attorneys from both jurisdictions to find a solution to the growing problem.

"We have had a number of meetings with the city and county and with other interested parties to determine the best approach for us to take," Holloway said, adding that the county already has a law to address tipping. "It states a business establishment cannot provide tipping or gratuities to taxicab drivers to bring customers to their locations."

County and city officials are exploring whether to expand the ordinance to cover limousines and shuttles, whose drivers also have started to demand payouts. The problem is enforcing such laws, Holloway said. Not many customers are willing to file formal complaints, so her department would have to send investigators to the businesses.

"It will require a great deal of resources to enforce this," Holloway said.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has offered to help pay for additional resources needed to ensure that cabbies and strip club owners abide by the law, she said. But no specific amount of money has been mentioned.

Another club owner said a decade ago club operators tipped cabbies $2 each time they brought customers to their businesses. It soon grew to $20 per taxi passenger, then $30. In the past few months, clubs have been aggressive in one-upping each other to keep their businesses thriving.

"I got a complaint yesterday that it was up to $90," Holloway said Thursday.

Holloway acknowledged that the club owners are in a bind. If they pay the cabdrivers, they are in violation of county code and face fines. If they don't, the drivers will divert customers to other clubs.

The strip club owners said that when passengers ask to be taken to a particular establishment, the driver will sometimes tell them that place burned down or that it's filthy.

"These are not isolated incidents," said the club owner. "This goes on all the time, every day and every night."

Diverting passengers is against the Nevada Taxi Cab Authority's rules. But it's difficult to nail drivers, Stewart said. Sometimes they will suggest an alternative club; if the passenger agrees, that is not considered a diversion.

Rob Stewart, an investigator with the authority, a state agency, said his office has conducted stings on cabbies to determine whether they're diverting customers.

"Sometimes we catch them; sometimes we don't," he said.

The cabdrivers don't deny accepting payouts from the clubs, Stewart said, but they adamantly deny that they take customers to different clubs against their will. A message left with Yellow-Checker-Star taxi company was not returned Thursday.

Stewart said his agency will enforce whatever new laws the county and city create, but he said the rules should apply to all modes of commercial transportation.

"Our position is we're an enforcement and regulatory agency, and we'll enforce the laws," Stewart said.

Some club owners have hired extra security staff, an additional cost of about $10,000 a week, to patrol the parking lots. They said one trick some cabbies pull is picking up customers walking to the club from their car, offering them a free ride to the front door. The taxi cab collects the payout, and the passenger is happy with the free lift.

But customers pay in the end, according to both club operators. Cover charges and drink prices have been raised to make up for some of the lost cash.

Club operators realize many customers don't want their spouses to find out they visited a topless establishment and won't complain about being gouged.

"These people are being mistreated," one club owner said. "Business people, married people, they aren't going to raise hell for $5,000. They're not going to do it."

Holloway said the city and county will continue to meet to discuss an amended ordinance. She expects the Clark County Commission and Las Vegas City Council to consider the new law early next year.

This is not the first time a legislative body has tried to address the issue.

Assembly Bill 505, introduced in the summer, included language that would have prohibited cabdrivers from accepting tips from any person or business that had been issued a license from the county.

Gov. Kenny Guinn vetoed the bill, saying taxi drivers should have been given an opportunity to testify and describe the impact such a law would have on their livelihood.