Would no smoking rule hurt strip club business?

19 comments

• georgmicrodong

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  15 years ago

  I honestly don't think it affects strip clubs to the same degree that it affects other businesses. Here in Louisville, if the claims and statistics of the smoking ban proponents can be believed, restaurants and bars have had a slight uptake in business since the ban, though I don't know if strip clubs are included in those stats. In the Buffalo, NY area, a couple of strip clubs that I went to there claimed that the ban *did* increase their business, especially with regard to female patrons.
  
  Based on my own personal observations of before and after the ban (anecdotal at *best*), there's not much difference in attendance. I only get to a club once or twice a month, though, so maybe my observations aren't the best evidence. :)
  
  Apparently a couple of the clubs in the Louisville area, after allegedly suffering loss of business as a result of the ban, have begun allowing smoking on their premises despite the ban, supposedly charging for the ashtrays to offset the cost of the fine. These clubs claim that *their* business suffers, even if everybody else benefits, a fact which bothers the city council not at all, of course.
  
  Personally, smoke never stopped me from going to a club. Watching naked women dance and the potential for fondling lady parts tends to outweigh the discomfort and, to a certain extent, the risk. Any of the dancers who smoked, at least the ones *I* was interested in, were always considerate about it, not smoking at my table, and even popping a mint or something after they were done.
  
  Politically, which, IMO, is what the issue really is, despite claims of health and safety, I suspect that had there really been as much desire for a smoking ban as the proponents had claimed, we would have seen a lot more restaurants and bars banning smoking on their own. The fact that they did not do so tells me that they weren't exactly being flooded with complaints about the smoking they did allow, or they would have banned it on their own, as McDonald's and a number of other restaurants have done for quite some time.
  
  /gm
• steve229

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  15 years ago

  We are about to find out in Virginia...
  
  Bars Prep for the Start of Virginia Smoking Ban
  ARLINGTON, Va. - Tuesday, Virginia's no smoking ban in most bars and restaurants will take effect. The ban will snuff out a tobacco tradition more than 400 years old.
  
  http://www.news8.net/news/stories/1109/6…
  
• CTQWERTY

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  15 years ago

  Illinois has been no smoking for a year now. CA has had smokers go outside for awhile ... but they don't have the harsh winters Illinois does. Look for frozen stiffs outside your favorite Chicago strip club come springtime!
  
  I think the recession is a bigger factor in terms of loss of business. Well that, and many clubs' refusal to cut dance prices.
• Yoda

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  15 years ago

  It can effect dancer income due to the fact that they are spending time off the floor. I have a favorite dancer who quit smoking once she realized that she was spending about an hour of her seven hour shift out behind the dressing room smoking when she could have been on the floor selling dances.
• gatorfan

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  15 years ago

  New Jersey and New York are both no-smoking and business was just as busy following the state laws going into effect. The recession has hurt the strip clubs alot more than smoking bans.
• txtittyfan

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  15 years ago

  Treasures n Houston went non smoking a year or two ago and it does not appear to have affected its business. I prefer the smoke free environment.
• shadowcat

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  15 years ago

  I think not.Although I am a heavy smoker (55 years)the number of smokers continues to dwindle. Some for health reasons and others for cost. So far I am lucky. I think that all Atlanta area clubs allow smoking. SC too. The law in GA is that if an establishment derives more more income from alcohol than food sales, It can allow smoking. There are 50+ restaurants in my town. Only 4 qualify(sports bars).
  
  It has changed my habits.I no longer go to so many up scale restaurants. When I do go out, I want a cocktail and if I am getting a cocktail, I want a cigarette with it. I lose.
  
  I am a minority.I would like both but if I have I have to make a choice pussy wins over smoking.
• londonguy

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  15 years ago

  Over here smoking is banned indoors in ALL bulidings where public have access together with places of employment. You can't even smoke in company cars etc - how weird is that? Apart from what we call 'pubs' it hasn't made too much of an impact on companies or clubs, the top sc's are as busy as they have ever been. I think you'd get used to it if bans came into force over there and to anser the question I think it wouldn't hurt business in the long run.
• sandyman

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  15 years ago

  Even though there is a ban in Illinois, they are not enforcing it in the southern part of the state, especially the East St. Louis area. I'm a non-smoker and would certainly prefer not to have to put up with the smell. It always makes me wonder when the dancers complain about not making any money and I see them smoking, literally burning up their funds.
• Clubber

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  15 years ago

  I was at a club in Austin, TX recently. Most of the dancers and customers would go out back to smoke. There were a few old timers that didn't bother. No one bothered them either.
• stripclubspy

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  15 years ago

  Michigan law has not changed yet, and several of the dives I frequent are smokey as hell. I think you can try filtering out the smoke, but a really well ventilated place probably has to draw in a lot of outside air, which of course has to be heated in the winter and cooled in the summer (read bar owner shells out $$$, so no can do).
  
  Leggs Lounge, the fore-runner of John's Hot Spot, was the worst. In business for at about 40 years, it was not exactly "up to date." After a few hours inside, it would take more than 24 hrs before I could no longer smell smoke coming out of my lungs. Terrible. After the fire (helped by a lack of sprinklers) the ventilation is better.
  
  Clubs in Toledo are non-smoking, with smokers' patios. I prefer this 100%. Too bad the mileage is so bad. A dancer in Scarlett's told me the customers dropped off when the ban first went into effect, but before long business got back to normal.
  
  
• mmdv26

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  15 years ago

  The argument against enacting a smoking ban is that business will decline as a result of the ban. This might have been true earlier in the ban movement since these bans were enacted by cities, and if your fav bar in city A couldn't smoke anymore then you went up the road to a bar in City B were there was no ban yet.
  
  That is becoming less true now since many, maybe most, cities are enacting bans. What really levels the playing field is for the State to enact a ban...except in border towns where there might be some state line crossing to smoke indoors at an establishment.
  
  Even in areas without a smoking ban, I notice a decline in the number of patrons who smoke indoors. My fav club is located in a city that passed a smoking ban - except for casinos, because the city gets a cut of the gate. Chickenshit lawmakers! Anyway, the club has ashtrays available behind the bar, and allows patrons to smoke if they want to. But, very few do. A few dancers smoke in the dressing room, but not on the floor.
• shadowcat

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  15 years ago

  Pilots that smoke bid to work together. I have seen it and participated.You cannot get through a locked cockpit door. It would piss off the smoking passengers. I am sure that the FAA knows these violations are occurring but as long as they are not causing a problem, they put up with it.
• DandyDan

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  15 years ago

  I feel safe in saying nothing really changed in Iowa. But Iowa was a state wide ban.
  
  What I would like to see is anywhere with two stripclubs in close proximity with different smoking ban rules. Of course, you'd have to control for mileage and other things, but it would be interesting to know.
• samsung1

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  15 years ago

  Once they banned smoking the number of clubs listed in Ohio has been on a steady decline. They also started to make sc rules more uptight after pushing the smoking ban.
  It is sometimes easier for me to get a BJ in a far corner area of a smoker's patio than it is in the LD room. No bouncers or waitresses come out to bother you. Of course this won't work on a busy night because there are too many customers out there...but on a slow night or a slow day usually have the patio to yourself with the occasional smoker but they usually mind their own business (unlike the bouncers/waitresses)
• minnow

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  15 years ago

  Besides the 2 Tampa clubs mentioned by OP, CA & OH have non-smoking rules. CA has been NS for quite some time- can't really say that it has hurt clubs there. As for OH clubs, some have enclosed indoor smokers patio, some smokers go outside- haven't noticed much, if any, decline in business. I think some AZ clubs have gone non-smoking route, too.
• DoctorDarby

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  15 years ago

  I'm not sure the problem with the SC scene in much of Ohio is connected to the 2 (or is it 3?) year old smoking ban. Far more problematic were the idiotic restrictions imposed by the actual SC law passed within the past year or so and the dreadful state of the economy. There are two places up in NE Ohio that I have found that still allow/tolerate smoking: one is a juice bar that passes itself off as a private club; the other caters to truckers and other travellers and apparently just doesn't care (ironically, it also serves food). I'm not thrilled to smell like smoke when I leave, but I can't see that having smoking makes things better than the places that do not. As Samsung noted, the outdoor smoking areas do allow a bit of interaction with the dancers that may not be possible inside, but come January, I think those opportunities will be limited (particularly if you don't smoke!!!).
• mroo

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  15 years ago

  It's helped business where I live, as well as other SC's, bars, and restaurants in the region.
  
  Personally, I'm more likely to hang around in a place if I'm not going to come home smelling like a urine filled ashtray.
• jester214

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  15 years ago

  North Carolina is going smoke free just about everywhere... They tried to omit SC's, but I think in the end it got included... I seriously doubt people are gonna stop going to clubs just cause they can't smoke. They won't be able to smoke anywhere else.