Another interesting way that laws can be twisted to uses never forseen by their authors: oregonlive.com
Basically, LE claims that pulling money from the club ATM to pay for services exposes the club to federal anti-prostitution laws because ATM use constitutes interstate commerce.
As if we needed another reason not to use plastic in a strip club.
I'm all for prosecuting bankers as interstate whores, but this is going to far.
So, if I get this right, the ATM in the club is "illegal," but when I take a break from the club and go to my own bank's ATM nearby, to use the money received from it to spend in the strip club, that ATM isn't illegal?
So essentially this case can create a legal precedence making it illegal to have ATMs in any strip club with private dance areas, because one can argue that any private dance area of any strip club could potentially be an area for prostitution activities. I wonder if the Feds also supplied the undercover people with money to pay the prostitutes. How many PLs would sign up for that job???
Anyone that uses an ATM in a club should be charged with financial stupidity but it shouldn't open up any type of federal prostitution charges. The poor PLs already pay enough of a fine just for using the ATM.
Talk about judicial over reach! This case doesn't pass the smell test.
I still can't get how stupid people are. Proof is the idiots that use it. Those are usually my friends. I'm like "you've known we are coming here for 3 weeks because you're the one that planned it. You didn't think of bringing money with you?"
Sounds insane. The only reason I know of to use an ATM is for those who didn't count their money before getting dances and the dancer doesn't want him to leave without paying. Thus officials will be hurting the dancers or creating artificial buildings which have ATM's within walking distance of the strip club. Of course if it was a regular bank ATM, drive through or walk up, customers could win by not having to pay high fees.
@whodey In this case it doesn't look like they're going after the customers. The idea is that the owner of the club put the ATM in to facilitate prostitution and that it's a federal crime due to the interstate nature of banking.
I think these are jack shacks the feds are going after rather than traditional strip clubs. I can't think of any string of eleven regular clubs operated by a single owner (or family of owners) in Portland.
Fun fact: the PL the feds used to run the sting could only close the deal 18 out of 21 times.
Here's a point of reference for how the cops use bullshit like this to screw bars. Years ago, I sometimes hit a regular bar/restaurant for free food and cheap drinks during happy hour. This was a nice place that hosted weddings, corporate events, etc., and the usual crowd was over 40, well dressed and fairly well off. The bar had a cigarette machine (remember those?) tucked away in a corner. One day, local liquor/tobacco control agents paid a couple of kids who were under 18 to walk up to the bartenders and ask for change. Now, these kids didn't say what the change was for, plus it wasn't odd to have kids walk up to the bar and ask for sodas and other things since a lot of families had dinner at the adjoining tables and dining areas. The agents busted the bartenders for giving out the change because it could have been used in the cigarette machine. Pure bullshit that ended up costing two bartenders $250 each in fines.
If the ATM is from a local bank or credit union, I'd have to wonder how they could claim it to be "interstate." I wonder if they could try to make an interstate case if a PL used his credit card though.
The Feds are rapidly putting themselves in the past... with gun laws, with pot laws, with the debt... and now this.