Female customer hustling drinks in the club

So I take a new business associate to the club and on the way we talk about hustles that go on and he seemed pretty savvy. So I introduced him to a couple of dancers I know and leave him on is own while I visit with a cf. I walk through the place a couple times and see him sitting with a woman I had not seen before. She was in civvie clothes and they were talking. A little later on he is still with her and he stops me and says she wants a drink but doesn't have much money so she wants whatever is cheap. I ask a server over, and sure enough she is still short and he's not offering to buy, so I leave them alone and ask a dancer about the woman and she says- oh, you mean that guy's wife? So she was blocking competition by telling staff she was his wife, and since nobody is stopping to talk to him he's kind of stuck, so I asked the girl to go rescue him. WTF?